The Big Chill : Giants Are Still Trying to Flee Candlestick; They May Go Far, Far Away

The San Francisco Giants, who have been moving uptown in the National League West, still hope to move downtown.

At present, however, the Giants’ hopes for a downtown stadium seem to be expiring--along with the possibility that they may move elsewhere in the Bay Area.

All that is certain is that they are committed to one more summer--one last summer, perhaps--in cold, gray Candlestick Park, which is definitely a surprise.

It will be recalled that at various times last year the Giants seemed headed for Oakland, San Jose, Denver, Vancouver, Washington or Phoenix.

Owner Bob Lurie, reportedly losing between $5 million and $10 million a year and convinced that fans would no longer risk hypothermia at Candlestick, vowed not to return in 1986.

Then, on Jan. 29, with spring training less than a month away, Lurie digested his pride and said that, having no options, his team would be forced to play at least one more season at Candlestick.

It was a last resort of sorts, but there was also a measure of optimism to it.

Lurie said that he was returning to Candlestick only out of conviction that he was finally close to an agreement with San Francisco officials regarding a new stadium--either downtown or elsewhere in the Bay Area.

“Last October, I believed that nothing could convince me to stay at Candlestick Park another year,” he said at the time of his January announcement. “But now I firmly believe that an agreement is within reach.”

The announcement was complemented by a full-page ad in Bay Area newspapers, an open letter to fans whose patience may have been strained by a year of uncertainty.

Signed by Lurie, the letter read:

“We’re finally talking seriously about building this town a real ballpark--I feel good about that. Perhaps this sounds optimistic, but San Francisco is a city built by optimists, by people with dreams. For some of us, those dreams will always include the Giants.”

And now, almost three months later?

Now there is still no agreement, no stadium site, no financing plan, no apparent idea where the Giants will be next year.

In fact, the possibility of the Giants leaving the Bay Area seems even stronger, a subject that may have been touched on again when Lurie and Mayor Dianne Feinstein met Tuesday to review the overall picture.

Sources said that Feinstein promised to continue her search for a downtown stadium site, but that nothing of substance occurred. Lurie and the mayor have met infrequently since the January announcement, strengthening the view that the situation may prove irresolvable.

Said Commissioner Peter Ueberroth:

“I haven’t seen any positive developments, nor have I heard of any. If something positive doesn’t develop (soon), it doesn’t auger well for the franchise in that market.”

The march of time and absence of action anger the Giants.

Vice President Corey Busch, choosing his words carefully, said: “As far as we’re concerned, the deadline was yesterday but we haven’t imposed a deadline, a drop-dead date.

“Moving the club is still the last thing Bob Lurie is thinking about. He wants to squeeze every breath of life out of the attempt to find a stadium site here.

“He’s a patient man, but this is a frustrating situation.

“I mean, there comes a point when the city has to say, ‘Let’s go ahead, let’s get it done.’

“This isn’t brain surgery. It shouldn’t be that difficult. It’s been done elsewhere, and we still believe it can be done here.

“We still believe the public and political support is here. But for reasons no one seems to understand, we still don’t have an agreement.”

The agreement Lurie thought he had in January reportedly would have defined the stadium and financing options while providing the Giants with a reduced rental package until a new stadium was completed.

The agreement, it is believed, would also have allowed the Giants to break their Candlestick lease--which extends through 1994--if no progress was made toward definitive selection of a stadium site this year.

Deputy Mayor Jim Lazarus said that the city is reluctant to sign an agreement without a definitive site and a financing plan.

The feeling is that Feinstein, concerned about public and political reaction if the Giants ultimately leave after having been given an escape clause, changed her position after Lurie’s January statement.

Lurie said: “I was confident we had a deal with the city. We’ve consistently negotiated in good faith, but she’s eliminated one option after another. It’s her choice, she has her reasons. I think I know some of them, but I don’t want to get into it. I’ve gone through all the stages of frustration. I’m just concentrating on the team and the season right now.”

It now seems to be a tossup as to whether the club will run out of patience before the city comes up with a possible site.

A spokesman for Feinstein said that she recognizes the urgency and is re-exploring a downtown area known as South of Market, a location previously explored and eliminated.

There had been some hope that a stadium could be built in the Rincon Hill area near the Bay Bridge, but Feinstein announced recently that the site was too small and too expensive.

At the same time, San Mateo County supervisors, responding to a letter from Feinstein requesting a decision on the concept of a stadium near the Bay Meadows race track, voted unanimously against it, citing financial and environmental problems.

San Mateo would have been fine with the Giants.

In fact, Busch said that the club was attracted to San Mateo more than a year ago and met with county and city officials, only to have Feinstein discourage those officials from continuing the talks.

“The attitude that the supervisors have now stems from the discouragement they got from her before,” Busch said.

“It’s similar to what happened in San Jose. Both cities would still welcome the Giants, but they’re not going to go out and pursue it.”

San Jose dropped its pursuit of the Giants last summer when Feinstein threatened litigation against the city because of the club’s Candlestick lease.

The drive from San Francisco to San Jose takes about an hour. San Mateo is closer.

At that time, Feinstein obviously believed that she had to protect her city’s pride.

Now, confronted by innumerable problems in building a downtown stadium and recognizing that losing the Giants to San Mateo would not be the same as losing them to Denver or Washington D.C., she has found her bridges burned.

The options?

Well, there’s the area South of Market; there’s an ambitious business group that brought the NBA Kings to Sacramento and has plans for a privately financed arena and stadium complex, and there are all those cities from Vancouver to the New Jersey Meadowlands eager to go big league.

“Bob Lurie has incredible patience but he can’t be asked to carry on these debts year after year,” Ueberroth said.

“I want the team to stay in that market, but I can’t force it to over a long period. I’m not the owner nor a local official. I believe the area can support two teams, but over a long season you have to have the type stadium that will help bring people back. That obviously doesn’t exist now.”

The Giants, while losing 100 games last year, drew 818,697 fans. Lurie has said he needs twice that many to break even. The club has drawn 1.7 million only twice in 26 seasons at Candlestick.

Ueberroth cited the recent work of Pittsburgh Mayor Richard S. Caliguiri in helping restructure the ownership of the Pirates to keep the team from moving and said that similar courage and creativity are needed in San Francisco. He said that a new stadium calls for the marriage of corporate and government leadership.

“I’m hoping it comes forward,” he said. “Only the lawyers benefit when there’s a fight over a lease.”

Some wonder if the leadership is there.

Ed Moose, owner of the Washington Square Bar and Grill and chairman of the Grassroots Committee to Support a Downtown Stadium, said: “The vacuum of leadership is our greatest enemy.”

Moose said that there is tremendous latent interest in retaining the Giants. “But no one is out there selling it, reminding people what a major league team means to the city.

“I went to the World Series in St. Louis last year and read that the Series alone meant $90 million to the city. We need that kind of money, but no one is making a case to illustrate it. There’s no selling of any kind.

“In fact, we have a negative atmosphere that’s almost the exact opposite of boosterism,” he said. “We have an owner saying he can’t play in the worst park in America. We have city officials who won’t look at anything except the problems at each site. Why not pick a site and work at alleviating the problems?

“I mean, I’m hoping we can find something to stimulate Dianne Feinstein and Bob Lurie, but maybe it will have to come down to August again before we get something done. My view is that San Francisco is the type city that needs a crisis to get something moving.”

The problem, in the view of Oakland Tribune columnist Dave Newhouse, host of a nightly talk show on KNBR, the station that broadcasts Giant games, goes beyond Candlestick and City Hall.

“Sure, Candlestick is a liability in the sense that free agents won’t come here and many of the players already here want to leave,” he said.

“But the greater problem is a lack of believability on the part of management. There have been so many leadership changes that people are tired of promises. They want to be shown.

“I mean, San Francisco is a baseball town. Look at the history. Look at the players who have come out of this area. With Dodger-type leadership, the Giants could be drawing 1.7 to 2 million (a year), even in Candlestick. The point is that it doesn’t matter if it’s San Mateo or a downtown stadium, what’s attendance going to be if it’s the same old baseball?

“If the Giants don’t give the area a sense of hope by the way they play this year, I’m scared to death that they’re going to be gone.”

Hope would seem to be a 10-5 record and second place in the National League West after Wednesday’s series finale with the Dodgers, the best start for the Giants since 1973. Crowds of only 3,590 and 4,611 braved cold and occasional rain to watch two afternoon games last week at Candlestick but attendance for the eight other home dates has averaged 28,412.

The average was bolstered by a crowd of 46,638 for the home opener and 39,548--including a 23,000 day-of-game sale--for last Sunday’s series finale with San Diego, impressive numbers considering that the Giants didn’t begin to print tickets until late January and didn’t begin over-the-counter sales until late March.

That sale began on the day after the Giants had announced that first baseman Will Clark, the touted rookie and star of the U.S. Olympic team, had made the club. Sheer coincidence, of course.

Said Newhouse, alluding to the early success and its impact on both attendance and calls to his talk show:

“When the club was still in spring training I’d have to crank up conversation about the Giants just like Jack Benny used to crank up his Maxwell. Now its turned around. Everyone is talking about the Giants.

“This is the point I was making. As bad as Candlestick is, San Francisco is such a great baseball city that people will go to the games if the Giants just show respectability.”

Can it last? That is the question.

The Giants’ current rotation totaled 36 major league wins last year. There are rookies, Clark and Rob Thompson, at first and second base, and sophomores, Jose Uribe and Chris Brown, at shortstop and third base. The Giants have finished better than .500 only once in the last seven years.

Much of the new optimism--and success--seems to stem from improved discipline and attitude under new Manager Roger Craig, the guru of the split-fingered fastball.

Craig’s most important pitch, however, will be his ability to convince the Giants that they can use Candlestick to their advantage. This is the same stadium of which former Giant Jim Wohlford once said: “The only difference between Candlestick and San Quentin is that they let you go home at night.”

The Siberia of ballparks even prompted the Giants to hand out souvenir buttons in 1983 that were called the Croix de Candlestick and carried the Latin motto: “Veni, Vidi, Vixi.”

Translation: “I came, I saw, I survived.”

Said Craig: “Candlestick has been a crutch for the Giants. I told the team in spring training that I didn’t want to hear anyone complaining about it, that it’s our home park for at least a year and that we know what the elements are and how we have to deal with them.

“I was on teams that came into Candlestick and couldn’t wait to get out. That should be an advantage for us. I know it’s not easy sometimes, but it’s up to the coaches and myself to create an attitude and atmosphere in which the players are willing to bust their butts for three hours a day.

“I mean, it’s a major league franchise and a major league ballpark. That should be the end of it.”

Is it?

“I think we’ve resigned ourselves to the fact that we have to play another 81 games there,” catcher-infielder Bob Brenly said. “By giving the appearance we enjoy it, maybe we can demoralize the other team.”

Then Brenly added: “We knew that even if there was an agreement on a new stadium we’d have to play two or three more years in Candlestick. The disappointment is in the fact that the city doesn’t seem to care about the Giants and considers all the things Bob Lurie has been saying as idle threats.

“Most of us live in the Bay Area and think it would be a shame to have to move, but if I’m Bob Lurie, I’m not going to take the beating he’s been taking much longer.”