Loma Prieta earthquake

The Loma Prieta earthquake occurred on October 17, 1989 in the greater San Francisco Bay Area in California at 5:04 pm local time and measured 7.1 on the Richter magnitude scale (6.9 on the Moment magnitude scale). The earthquake lasted for fifteen seconds. Its epicenter was at 37.04° N latitude, 121.88° W longitude near Loma Prieta Peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains, about ten miles (16 km) northeast of the town of Santa Cruz, California, in the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park.

1989 World Series

The earthquake had been predicted in the morning edition of The San Jose Mercury News in Kevin Cowherd's column. He was discussing the fact that the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants were playing each other in the 1989 World Series at Candlestick Park that day. The quote from his column read: "... these are two teams from California and God only knows if they'll even get all the games in. An earthquake could rip through the Bay Area before they sing the national anthem for Game 3,"—which was precisely when the quake occurred.

Related Topics:
The San Jose Mercury News - Oakland Athletics - San Francisco Giants - 1989 World Series - Candlestick Park

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Fortunately, less than half of the 65,000+ fans had reached their seats, lessening the load on the structure of the stadium. There had also been a seismic strengthening project previously completed on the upper deck concrete windscreen. Fans reported that the stadium moved in an articulated manner as the earthquake wave passed through it, that the light standards swayed by many feet, and that the concrete upper deck windscreen moved in a wave-like manner over a distance of several feet. When the shaking stopped, the assembled crowd roared, "Play Ball, Play Ball!" Regardless, the game was called and the Series was postponed for 10 days.

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ABC sportscaster Al Michaels won an Emmy award for his news broadcasts about the earthquake.

Related Topics:
Al Michaels - News broadcasts

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