Will Clark recalls 1989 earthquake
What was it like leading up to the Battle of the Bay World Series?
Coming into the World Series, we were on a pretty good roll with the Giants because, we had just got through playing the Cubs, we had a real emotional series. We started off the first two games in Chicago, and the last three games were in San Francisco. And, coming into the World Series, we had Game 1 and Game 2 in Oakland -- very hard-fought games. We lost both of them to the A's, and we were looking forward to coming back to Game 3 at Candlestick and having our home fans in front of us.
Where were you when the earthquake hit?
When the earthquake hit, I had just got through running a sprint out to center field. It was before introductions, and most of the guys were getting loose. I had run a sprint out to center field and I had turned around, and I was on my way back toward the right-field foul line, and I heard a loud noise. It sounded like when F-15s do the flyovers. I looked up, and at the time I looked up, the light towers were just going back and forth and back and forth, and uh, that's when I knew, oh Lord, we're in for a bad deal here. The first thing was the loud noise, like I said, I looked up and then the second thing was, you could physically see like a big wave come rolling through the stands. You could physically see it, and when that wave sort of got to me, it almost knocked me off my feet. And things sort of subsided after that, and the first thing that I wanted to do, was I had family in the stands. I wanted to make my way toward the dugout and make sure that they were OK.
How do you remember Candlestick holding up to the earthquake that day?
Believe it or not, after everything sort of subsided, after the tremor subsided, some of the people in San Francisco who didn't know the magnitude of everything, sort of gave a little cheer, like OK, the stadium's rocking, now let's get to playing baseball. By the time I made it back to the dugout, the police were telling us that the Bay Bridge had collapsed in a certain section, the Marina district was on fire, the Nimitz Freeway had collapsed, and they said there's no way this ballgame's going to be played, Will, and so the first thing, first and foremost on my mind was making sure that I got my family out of the stands and that they were safe.
What exactly do you remember specifically, specific examples, about your teammates and how they reacted?
I think everybody in the dugout sort of knew the gravity of the situation because, like I said, we had a policeman right there and they were giving us, pretty much, updates. So everybody knew that this was a very, very serious event, and I think everybody pretty much had the same idea -- OK, let's get our families out of the stands, let's get on the field, and we need to exit the stadium as soon as possible.
What was it like leaving the stadium? Where did you go? What was your journey home like?
Believe it or not, when we left the stadium, I took my family out to the parking lot. I was parked in the players' lot and they were parked in the general lot, and so I explained to my mother and father how to get back to the place that I was staying, taking some of the back roads. It took me what would normally be a 20-minute drive, it took me an hour. They left considerably later, cause they sort of hung out in the parking lot, and they got in a little traffic jam. They didn't get back to the place I was staying until four hours later.
You said you found out about all the disaster areas from the police once you got into the dugout. What were your feelings about those disasters?
As far as the situation on the field, it puts everything in perspective. When you come into the dugout and the police are saying that the freeways have collapsed and that the Bay Bridge had collapsed, ya know, a little section of it, that the Marina district is on fire, it puts baseball in perspective. Baseball is just a game. It's not life. This was definitely a life-threatening situation, and so it put baseball exactly where it's supposed to be, which is a game, which is having fun, and it definitely put it in the backseat.
What were the 10 days like between the earthquake and the eventual Game 3? Was your mind on baseball?
Our minds were with the people in San Francisco. We stayed in the Bay Area for 10 days. I know Oakland wound up going to Phoenix and practicing down there, so they could get away, but we had a lot of casualties in the San Francisco Bay Area, and our thoughts were with the people of the Bay Area community. So we stayed in San Francisco. We practiced at Candlestick Park while they were doing renovations to the stadium because out in center field, they had a big, huge crack in the stadium. So they were doing structural renovations and stuff out there, and we stayed and practiced, and played intrasquad games, and just sort of kept our fingers crossed that the World Series would resume sooner or later.
What kinds of things did the Giants do? You said the A's went to Phoenix to get their minds on baseball, what kinds of things did you guys do out in the community during those 10 days?
One thing we wanted to do, was we wanted to get the team together to make sure everybody was OK and their families were OK, so believe it or not I threw a big huge barbecue at my place, and Chris Berman from ESPN actually came on out there and spent some time with us while we were at the barbecue. So that's one thing we did. Another thing we did was just make a few appearances. I know the more high-profile guys made appearances there in the Bay Area, and just wanted to make sure everything was OK.
Do you feel like baseball made the right call in delaying the series?
I definitely think baseball made the right call. Like I said before, Candlestick Park had some structural problems that they had to address and had to fix, plus on top of that, with the devastation that was in the Bay Area, you needed a chance to mourn. A lot of people lost their lives, and like I said before, it put baseball in perspective. Baseball is a game. It's not life and death. Life and death comes first and foremost.
Do you ever think about what would have happened if the earthquake had never hit?
That's probably the big question that everybody asks me. … Well I know one thing, we would've had Game 3 in San Francisco in front of 60,000 screaming Giants fans. So, who knows where that momentum would have led us, but at the same time, that's just not the way it played out.
How did that earthquake affect you personally?
I want to say that the earthquake affected me personally, very radically. I had my family out there. They had never been through an earthquake before. This was something that sort of scared them and also at the same time, when you make it to your first, and in my case, only World Series, you didn't want to see it end like this or be interrupted like this. It's something that's never happened in baseball before, and hopefully it will never happen again.
Do you remember Commander Isiah Nelson?
I sure do. He and I were real good friends.
Can you tell me a little bit of what you remember of him that day, and the story about him?
Well the one thing about Officer Nelson was, he was always around the ballpark so the guys on the team had a chance to see him quite a bit. He was always around the dugout. And the one thing that I remember about him is that he was always helping somebody out. Every time you looked around, he was either helping out an elderly lady or elderly gentleman, or giving directions to people. So in the terms of a police officer, he was a true professional. He tragically had an accident on his motorcycle and lost his life, and the San Francisco Police Department lost a fine officer, and I lost a friend.
How do you think Fay Vincent's actions were during that time and how he handled everything?
You know what, what was thrown into his lap with this earthquake was pretty devastating, and I thought he handled it as professionally as possible. Nobody knows what to expect. Like I said before, Candlestick Park needed to have some renovations done to it because the big ol' crack out in center field. So they needed to put the World Series off for at least a period of time, and once everything sort of settled down, then we resumed the World Series.
How often do you see the video from that day, and when you do see it, what kind of feelings go through your head?
I've seen it quite a few times. My son is a huge baseball fan, and so he'll pull it up on the computer every now and then and show me. There are some videotapes floating around about the earthquake, and almost immediately, as soon as it comes on, I can't watch it anymore. After having been through it, and knowing some people that perished, I don't need to watch it anymore. I already went through it once. I don't need to go through it again.
What were some lasting images that you remember from that earthquake?
One of the lasting images, probably for me was having not only myself, but also my teammates sort of escort all their family members off the field and go down the right-field line to exit the stadium. Another thing was, I know that Terry Steinbach's wife, with the A's … I know she was, she was pretty tore up, and she was crying in the A's dugout. And just the fact that you have a baseball game and then all of a sudden, in the middle of a baseball game, you have police cars on the field telling everybody to leave the stadium. Those are my lasting images in the baseball realm.
Speaking of Terry Steinbach, he was from Minnesota and you're from Louisiana. You guys aren't really used to earthquakes. How did you guys react compared to maybe some of the guys from California? I know there are a bunch of people from the Bay Area and L.A. from those teams.
Well I can tell you one thing. After being from Louisiana my whole life … we deal with hurricanes, but you're given a little bit of time to get out. When the hurricane season is headed your way, you got the option to stay or leave. I can tell you one thing, when the ground gets to shaking under your feet, you got nowhere to go, and that's a very, very helpless feeling.
Can you contrast the experiences of going through Hurricane Katrina and the '89 quake?
In 2005, we went through Hurricane Katrina, and because of the size of Katrina, we left town and went north to Mississippi to my ranch. When I got back to New Orleans, and was able to see the devastation … pretty much, the earthquake was sort of, I guess you want to say localized to the Marina, and the Bay Bridge, the Nimitz Freeway, that sort of thing. Katrina was everywhere. I mean it was absolutely the worst devastation I've ever seen. Houses that I can remember way back when, when I was a kid, they were no longer. It was just a slab. The Mississippi Gulf Coast, all the monuments and stuff that I remember as a kid are no longer there. Parts of New Orleans to this day have not come back, and that just shows you the difference between Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake in '89.
Simon Baumgart, an ESPN production assistant, produced the 1989 earthquake remembrance package for "Outside the Lines."
