Candlestick Park's days dwindling as destruction nears completion

Jon Swartz | USA TODAY

CANDLESTICK POINT, Calif. — A generation's memories, in ruins.

There, under a twisted mountain of concrete, steel and assorted wreckage, lay the rubble of Candlestick Park.

"The end of Candlestick Park is definitely the death of an era, and a piece of San Francisco gone forever," says Sammy Totah, 33, who lives in the neighborhood. "(It) will be missed."

For more than 50 years, the venerable stadium was home to major sports teams (San Francisco Giants, 49ers), concerts (The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Metallica), a visit from the Pope in 1987 and some fierce weather. It was often the epicenter for howling winds, frigid conditions and its monolithic form. And, at 5:04 p.m. PT on Oct. 17,1989, it was some 60 miles from the epicenter of a 7.1-magnitude earthquake.

But with the Giants and 49ers in shiny new sports palaces, the Stick is being razed to make room for a mall and housing. Bulldozers and cranes have almost completed the task: A remnant of the upper deck remains.

The dismantling has taken months. That shouldn't come as a surprise — the concrete monstrosity, derided for its cookie-cutter architecture, withstood the 1989 earthquake during the World Series.

The imminent removal of the stadium has stirred plenty of memories for Bay Area residents who grew to love and hate the stadium, which sat squat by the bay several miles south of downtown San Francisco.

Native San Franciscan Myron Lee, 38, says he "grew up" at Candlestick.

And, on the shores of Candlestick Point, Lee saw his slice of history: He attended the last baseball (1999) and football (2013) games here while grabbing a few foul balls and collecting Croix de Candlestick pins for staying through extra inning games in the biting cold.

"The pick-six (interception) by NaVorro Bowman to ice the (last 49ers) game got me so excited that I almost slipped down the stairs from the last row of the stadium because I was jumping up and down from sheer joy," Lee says. "I was pretty much weeping uncontrollably after the game ended, since I had so many great memories and awesome times at the Stick."

Lee — who now lives in Guangzhou, China, where he is working on a clean tech project — plans a final pilgrimage to Candlestick to take pictures before it vanishes.

Phil Gelhaus was 10 years old on June 15, 1963 when he saw the green grass of Candlestick for the first time. He also saw history that day: Juan Marichal threw the first no-hitter in San Francisco Giants' history, against the Houston Colt .45s.

Gelhaus, 62, who witnessed "The Catch" that catapulted the 49ers to the first of their five Super Bowl wins in 1982, thought so much of his Niners' season ticket seats – Section 44, Row 9, Seats 15-19 – he bought four of them. They rest on the deck of his El Dorado Hills, Calif., home.

The stadium's dying days are a poignant postscript to what has been a golden age of sports success in the San Francisco Bay Area recently.

The Giants, who were tenants of the Stick until 1999, have won three of the last five World Series after setting up residence at AT&T Park in 2000. The 49ers, who reached the Super Bowl after the 2012 season, play down the road in Santa Clara, Calif., at Levi's Stadium.

The NBA's Golden State Warriors, who are angling for a return to San Francisco from their Oakland-based arena, just won the championship.

The lesson here is that professional sports franchises move to plusher, richer grounds. The antiquated cathedrals they play in — the old Yankee Stadium, Tiger Stadium and Crosley Field, among many — get the wrecking ball or are abandoned.

Still, the much-maligned Candlestick, which few would ever confuse with the Stadium in the Bronx, had its charms, some locals insist.

"On a clear blue day, I would argue that the stadium was quite elegant," says Heather David, a cultural historian in the Bay Area. "It had a sleek, modern design."

A design that is soon to vanish from this blustery cove. The memories, however, linger.

Swartz is USA TODAY's San Francisco Bureau Chief. He attended several hundred games at Candlestick Park.