1989 San Francisco Earthquake - World Series footage
November 25th, 2009 by baseball
feed to break up. We hear Al Michaels yell “I’ll tell you what, we’re having an earth-” becuase the feed was cut off. The audio was switched to a telephone link, as we hear the crowd cheering, not aware of the destruction the quake caused and Michaels joking “…that’s the greatest open in the history of television, bar none!”. This footage was captured by a member of pp.meldrum.co.uk. … san francisco earthquake 1989 world series abc tim mccarver al michaels oakland giants baseball loma prieta …
This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am and is filed under Baseball Parks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
jesus imagine watchig abc then!!
and hearing the guy say quake and seeing it all go fuzzy.. that must be frightening
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
thanks for sharing. I love “where were you when” accounts. I was 7 years old, living in Santa Maria California (about 200 miles south) , and we felt it there bigtime as well. It felt like we were standing on a table that suddenly tipped over and threatened to knock us off our feet. Then the whole house started shaking. I was terrified for days. Crazy times in California.
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
I remember this like yesterday too. I was in Fort Worth watching this as it happend and just thought it was a Technical Problem. I was pissed that they went to an episode of Roseanne. My dad was fixing to eat chili dogs for supper and we were going to watch the game. By the time we had finished, ABC News had come back to report that an Earthquake had occured and I was glued to the news the rest of the night.
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
That was the pregame video of a previous game. It was live audio and not live video.
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
that was the earthquakee?..i didnt even see it shaking.
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
That’s telephone audio that came back. Phone lines are used for the IFBs (the earpieces the on-air people wear so they can talk to the producers and directors in the control room). If everything else falls apart, master control in New York can put that phone line on the air.
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
To be honest, I am surprised that the audio came back. I was three when this happened. I can remember it on TV.
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
i remember this happend i at a day care school and we watch the game
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
I remember the night of that quake really well, didn’t want to be indoors. Now the timing of it amazes me, just cause a little more attention was focused on the bay because of the series..and the Lord hits us with a quake.. yet to understand
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
Thanks for uploading this piece of history.
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
hey if it was a blue jays/cubs world series, none of this would happen and the world series would’ve went on without delays.
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
I heard of Alaska having 8.9 Quakes at one time
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
1811-12. Do the research!
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
that was a pretty kick ass video
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
True, but the largest earthquakes ever recorded in the lower 48 states happened outside of CA (in the Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee area.)
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
Nothing even close to the magnitude of the CA quakes though.
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
Still, there would’ve been uncertainity going back to Oakland (remember, they were affected by the quake as much as SF). So I don’t think that it would’ve made much of a difference had the Cubs won the ‘89 NLCS instead of the Giants.
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
had the chicago cubs beatt the giants in the 1989 nlcs prior to the world series, this video wouldn’t have happened and the game wouldn’t have been delayed.
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
look at SFBayAreaResident page to see a sample of Al Michaels report from KGO Loma Prieta 7:30.
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
I forgot about Billy Martin dying in a car crash on Christmas Day as another low light in 1989.
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
You wonder how many more we might have lost if it wasn’t for the World Series.
Thank God for baseball!
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
Sorry I don’t know of any video of Scott Clark’s report @ Candlestick Park right after the ‘89 Quake. Other items of note that night watching mostly ABC’s coverage of the Earthquake (as well as a little bit from NBC) was that Al Michaels gave valuable reports for ABC News [wonder if that could be found on YouTube]. ABC also used the Goodyear Blimp for aireal views of the S.F. area and aired live reports from KGO whenever possible.
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
I also remember it very well, and I remember hearing Michaels words and knew right away what happened.
My parents were like, “huh, what’s wrong with the broadcast”… but I heard Michaels say “earthquake” before it went out.
Classic….. too bad the tv networks didn’t have the technology then that they do now with the satellite stuff, so we could have seen it all happen live with pictures in there.
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
We witnessed this at a house party in Buffalo, NY that nite in 1989
November 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
Thanks about that about what happened on the east coast during the Loma Prieta quake. Wow I did not know that WABC 7 had local reporters Covered local Coverage of the loma Prieta quake. I live in SF and we got KGO-TV with Pete Wilson, Anna Chavez , Cheryl Jennings and Don Sanchez to Cover the Quake. By the way Cheryl Jennings, Don Sanchez and Leslie Brinkley are still at KGO after 20 years. Do you have the Clip of Scott Clark reporting the Quake. and were any KGO reporter there in the WABC clip