BAY AREA QUAKE : Rumbling Through Candlestick Strikes Fear in Series Fans

ABC broadcaster Tim McCarver will be among the many who will never forget what happened minutes before Game 3 of the World Series was scheduled to start.

McCarver was talking to a national television audience when he experienced his first earthquake.

“And I hope it’s the last,” he said, still visibly shaken 30 minutes after the earthquake rumbled through Candlestick Park.

The television audience was watching highlights of Game 2 when McCarver told viewers to “flash forward to the bottom of the fourth (inning).”

Then it hit.

ABC lost power and went off the air.

“I thought the fans above us were stomping their feet,” McCarver said. “I felt something similar at Wrigley Field in 1984.

“I went down on my knees. I’m not sure. Other people in the booth were also going down on their knees.

“I think Al (ABC broadcaster Al Michaels) grabbed my left knee. I kept talking. I tried to keep my composure. I presumed we were still on the air.

“Al and Curt (producer Curt Gowdy Jr.) both said, ‘Earthquake,’ about the same time.

“Al said, ‘Talk about a great opening. We opened with a bang.’

“And then I said, ‘Parker hit that one longer than I thought,’ ” he said, referring to the video of Oakland’s Dave Parker in Game 2.

“Of course, none of this went out on the air, but we didn’t know that at the time.”

Meanwhile, ABC technicians were scrambling. The network’s generator kicked in and the network went back on the air on its San Francisco affiliate. But only briefly.

Michaels signed off again, saying he hoped he’d be back.

Mark Smith, a senior technical manager for ABC, said that ESPN later offered to help get ABC back on the air, but it soon became apparent there would be no game.

A lot of fans left voluntarily before there was any announcement about the postponement of the game. Soon, stadium workers used bullhorns to ask people to leave the stadium.

There was no power at Candlestick, so the public address system was not effective. The system was up long enough for the following announcement:

“In case of an emergency, fans on the lower levels should go onto the field. People on the upper levels should file out the exits.”

The exodus did not start until about 30 minutes after the quake and people left in an orderly manner.

As darkness started to set in, Candlestick Park became a black den except for a few television lights run by generators.

Sportswriters were working on battery-operated portable computers in a pitch-black trailer, after quickly becoming news reporters dealing with a natural disaster.

Alyssa Dubin, 11, of Piedmont, Calif., came to the rescue of one reporter, holding a flashlight so the reporter could see what he was writing.

The darkness was both a frustrating and frightening scene.

Reporters looked into the parking lot at the mass of cars going nowhere. The place had come to a standstill.

John Morgan, 22, of Pinole, Calif., was finishing a summer of baseball Tuesday night. He had visited 26 ballparks in 52 days, with the World Series as the highlight until the earthquake hit.

“It was just a big rolling sensation,” Morgan said. “I sort of felt like I was surfing.

“I didn’t think it was that bad, but looking back, the scoreboard was off, the sound was off . . . but at the time I didn’t think anything of it. I was so excited it was a World Series I didn’t realize it was such a big deal.

“The feeling right after it happened . . . everybody was excited. They were saying, ‘Yeah, this will scare those A’s fans.’ ”

Michael Attell, 19, of San Bruno, said he saw pieces of Candlestick Park that had fallen off the stadium being sold in the parking lot.

“People were saying: ‘Giant Candlestick Park cement for sale!’ ” Attell said.

“When it first happened, the stadium was just shaking. People said the blimp had hit the stadium, everyone was looking up.”

Attell, who was walking on lower deck at the time, said some fans started to panic.

“People started running toward the exits,” he said. “Kids were crying. People didn’t know what to do. When people saw that the Bay Bridge had collapsed they really started to worry.”