SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Hall of Famer Juan Marichal took the mound in a business suit, signaling the beginning of the end, and fellow Hall of Famer Willie Mays followed hours later for a last goodbye.

And finally, after the last baseball game at Candlestick Park was in the books and Giants greats past and present took the field for a salute, workers dug out home plate and took the old park's heart away, flying it by helicopter to be transplanted at the team's new stadium near downtown.
 

"I guess all you can say is, 'Tell it goodbye,'" longtime Giants broadcaster Lon Simmons said during postgame ceremonies that ended with the blowing out of a candle. "There's a lot of good memories, a lot of bad memories here," Mays said. "I'm happy. I don't understand why when you leave a good thing and you go to another thing that's going to be good for the fans that you've got to be sad." The last day for baseball was unlike any other at Candlestick in so many ways. The park's famous winds were quiet, the familiar shroud of cold and fog nowhere to be seen or felt. Defying 40 years of history, the park that was home to Mays, Marichal, and Willie McCovey, brought down the curtain on a brilliant day for baseball even though the Giants lost to the rival Los Angeles Dodgers 9-4. "It was very special," Dodgers manager Dave Johnson said. "Fans were really into it today, but they weren't too bad."

Hall of Famer Willie Mays throws the last pitch at Candlestick Park. Audio: Mays expresses his feelings to the fans (108 kb)

Managing general partner Peter Magowan thanked the crowd for braving the elements and supporting the team during the last 40 seasons.

"No fans were prepared to endure as much as you have," he said.

Magowan added, "This is not a sad day for the Giants. Yes, we are leaving our home, but we are going to new one and I promise you it will be the best ballpark in this country."

The day was special from the start. Marichal, 61, displayed his leg kick once again in throwing out the first pitch. Mays, 67, returned to throw out the last pitch and his godson, Giants star Barry Bonds, caught it. It will be the first ball thrown out next season at Pacific Bell Park, about a 25-minute walk from Union Square.

A crowd of 61,389, the most ever to see a regular season baseball game at Candlestick, was on hand. Many wore old jerseys and hats and some made their feelings known in signs dotting the stands.

"Adios Candlestick," one sign read. "We'll miss the thrills and chills," read another.

"Mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, watched some of the greatest players in the game on a day-to-day basis in this ballpark," Giants executive vice president Larry Baer said. "This is closure for them, but it's also a happy sendoff because we're going to a new ballpark."

Maligned for its bitter weather and isolation, it was also remembered for some of baseball's great moments and its strength in withstanding the October 1989 earthquake that ravaged the Bay area and interrupted the World Series.

The All-Star game was played at the 'Stick in 1961, when the winds blew pitcher Stu Miller off the mound.

Dedicated the year before by Vice President Richard Nixon as "the finest ballpark in America," Candlestick also was the scene of the 16-inning scoreless duel between Marichal and the Braves' Warren Spahn (Mays won it with a homer); McCovey's 500-foot upper-deck homer in a 1966 loss to the Mets and lefty Dave Dravecky's August 1989 miracle comeback fromcancer, in which he beat the Reds.

"Juan Marichal's no-hitter, the World Series games ...," Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda said. "And that 16-inning game that Juan pitched and Willie won, I'll never forget that. This was a tough playing field but I spent so many days here and there are so many great memories."

A 1964 game was delayed after a visiting Dodgers outfielder lost a fly ball in the fog, though the final game was played under a broiling sun. The temperature at game time was 82 degrees.

"It's unbelievable," said Richard Scimeca, 43, of San Jose, who took the day off from work to be at the final game. "Maybe it's because it's the last game and the baseball gods decided after all these years we're going to give you some good weather. It seems like every other time I was here, it was windy and freezing."

Mike Ivie was among some 60 former Giants players on hand to take a final bow.

"The wind and the cold made it miserable. Night games were terrible," Ivie recalled. "It took a little bit to put on the insulated underwear and go play nine innings, but just being here and seeing all the old coaches players and made it enjoyable for me."

And with the sun out and the stands and dugout warmed by nostalgia, even the bad, cold days didn't seem so windy or so cold.

"I never really minded it," said San Francisco manager Dusty Baker, a native of Sacramento who got his first hit here in 1968 as a rookie with the Atlanta Braves.

"Whenever I'm here, I've had all my friends and family here, so it was always like a homecoming for me. I had to have my best games here in front of my home boys."

 Go back