The San Francisco stadium that fog killed | Hacker News Reader

The San Francisco stadium that fog killed

sfgate.com

69 pointsPaulHoule39 comments

I was in the San Francisco Bay Area on July 4th, 1976. To celebrate the 200th Independence Day, the City of San Francisco set up an elaborate fireworks display on Alcatraz Island in the middle of San Francisco Bay, which made it visible from all over the area. That afternoon a group of friends and I went up to the Berkeley Hills, where we had unimpeded view of the Bay, Alcatraz, San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, everything. We had a picnic with the usual stuff graduate students eat and then waited for darkness and the fireworks. Just as the sun was setting behind the Golden Gate bridge, the fog started rolling in from the ocean, blanketing first the Golden Gate, then all of San Francisco, then Alcatraz and finally reaching the Berkeley shore. At the appointed time, they set off the fireworks anyway. All you could see was flashes of light inside the fog.

One would have thought they learned a lesson that day ....

A local radio station (rather ironically, KFOG) used to have an event (KFOG KaBoom!) every May, capped in the evening with a massive fireworks display over the bay. It was a fantastic event, people from all over the Bay Area could see it. My family had friends with a boat, so we would go see it on the bay. I don't remember there ever being a problem with fog. Fog is most common in the summer than in the fall, winter, or spring.

The last KFOG KaBoom was in 2010 (in the parking lot at Candlestick). KFOG, the station, went off the air in 2019.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KFOG_KaBoom

Yep - KFOG wisely noticed late May offered better atmospheric conditions for an over-th-bay fireworks show, and thus outdid July 4th's visibility most years.

The Bay-to-Breakers fun run takes advantage of the same span of especially sunny SF Bay weather – so for many years the one-two punch of Bay-to-Breakers one Sunday, then KFOG Kaboom the next Staurday made for a very special SF week in the 2nd half of May.

The view looking west from the east bay, particularly the Berkeley marina, is one of my favorites. The photos of the golden gate before the bridge was built still kind of makes me shiver

The University of San Francisco’s baseball field is a block away from where this stadium was. I guess they benefit from playing most games in the early afternoon and the college season being complete before the summer gloom fully sets in.

“The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco” - Mark Twain

Except Mark Twain never said that

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/and-never-the-twain-shall-...

He spent some time in Elmira, NY, back when the world was -1.5 °C colder, so he experienced worse winters.

I grew up there partially. Its a terrible place now.

According to Albert Einstein, or maybe Benjamin Franklin.

Philly area :)

Definitely Churchill.

This is a situation up with which I shall put

narrated by Morgan Freeman, probably.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, then

It's typical now for half the quotes online. So it's easier to make it "As Mark Twain famously never said, ...".

I suspect that Mark Twain would even greatly appreciate the humor in referring to it that way.

He once said he would, in fact!

;)

Is Mark Twain still alive? I heard they exaggerated his death...

See also, Winston Churchill.

https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotes/

It's especially instructive to call up the list of fakes from that page (it isn't directly linkable due to JS stupidity).

> Except Mark Twain never said that

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

That wasn't from Twain. He quoted someone else making the same joke about some unspecified place.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/and-never-the-twain-shall-...

My very first visit to SF (and the Bay Area generally) was from Edinburgh Scotland, and I wrongly assumed that SF would be warmer when I packed.

(This was kinda before the Internet existed, so not trivial to check...)

It's mostly not true of the Bay Area (at least South Bay) as a whole but definitely the case for SF itself. I've been there on some rather damp/chilly late spring and summer days even if it can also be quite nice.

I heard tell from a local that there's less fog now.

Less fog, and far more thunderstorms.

Sunny days are perfect. The sun warms you up and the breeze makes sure you don't get too warm. But shade, clouds, fog, or night time in general can make it a bit chilly.

But it's nothing a light jacket can't take care of.

On the flip side you can have some utterly glorious but short days in January.

Friend moved to SF for a job and got an apartment in the Richmond because it looks safe. After a year she moved to an apartment at 16th and Mission. Because the fog was making her depressed. And because she could ride her bike to work instead of taking the bus. The conundrum of San Francisco the sketchiest areas have the better weather.

> The conundrum of San Francisco the sketchiest areas have the better weather

This seems to be the conundrum of the planet Earth in general.

- Woody Boyd

- Abraham Lincoln

Also the same weather these idiots felt it was wise to go surfing in: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1992/08/24/playing-docs-g...

Wow, great article.

It's now a book (Barbarian Days)!

And to think they went on to build Candlestick park. :-)

I thought that was what this was about.

As did I so I read the article, and no, Candlestick was not the first stadium that died due to it being massively uncomfortable to go there at times.

I once saw an account from one of the early European expeditions to the area (possibly Portolla's, but I wouldn't swear to it) who made the mistake of camping atop (what was later named) Mt Davis, only to be kept awake all night by the "relentless, biting wind" (or words to that effect). Only a madman would say "I know! Let's build a ballpark here."

Afternoon games at the 'Stick were lovely, though.

PS. In 1999 I took a first date to the last night game at Candlestick. I'd been to many, many night games there - earned eight or ten "Croix de Candlesticks", if that rings any bells for any of you. My date had never been to an MLB game, far less the frigid confines of nocturnal Candlestick, and I was determined to be prepared. I warned this girl to wear more layers than she thought necessary, schlepped in extra jackets, a massive blanket, and multiple flasks of hot chocolate. I was ready for whatever the wind-gods would throw at us, and we looked more like we were mounting a polar expedition than a couple on the way to a baseball game.

But then, irony of ironies, the night was balmy. I'd never experienced anything like it. The breezes were benign, and I doubt the temperature dropped below 60°. My date didn't quite believe that this wasn't what it was always like, and my careful preparations made me look like a wimp at best, and at worst a madman. One last f-u from the fickle fates of Candlestick, which had broken so many Giants fans' hearts for so many years.

Nice article, with a bad title. Doesn't seem that fog was the major factor.

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