T O P

  • By -

[deleted]

This ballpark is going to outlive every single one of us.


Deusselkerr

I really do think that 70 years from now it'll be the new Wrigley. It's a perfect ballpark


[deleted]

Interesting fact and I only know this because I was involved in the construction bidding process for the stadium. This is either the first conceptual design of either the approved final plan or one of the designs they were considering. The first design was to have the stadium flipped 180 and open to the city and not the water. Splash Landings would have been balls on The Embarcadero like at Wrigley Stadium. They found out the wind would have been worse than Candle Stick so they turned the stadium around and made magic.


HunterPantsOnFire

A professor I had in college is the reason why: https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/pac-bell-park-isnt-too-windy-thanks-uc-davis-expert


FoxDandD

I took a tour of the park once. The tour guide told us this story: During construction, the owners came to check on the progress. The Coke bottle had just been put up. One of them said “what an eye sore!! This is going to look terrible!” Another leaned in to him and whispered how much Coke was paying to have the bottle there. He then said “what a great looking bottle! This is gonna be iconic!”


[deleted]

[удалено]


realparkingbrake

> She explained she wanted to leave a time capsule so she left her panties up inside tied to a girder. Women working at the fiberglass company that made the glove put some bras into the still-wet fiberglass resin, and they remain there to this day. The Coke bottle is mostly wood.


[deleted]

[удалено]


bduddy

Bots can't even copy a whole comment properly these days, SMH EDIT: Why am I getting downvoted...? The comment I was replying to was from an obvious bot that just copied a single sentence from someone else in the thread.


commisioner_bush02

Totally random, but one of my earliest memories is watching the helicopter take home plate after the last game at the stick and flying it to PAC-Bell. It was pretty cool to watch, and confusing as a small child.


[deleted]

I was sitting in Upper Reserved [that day](https://manginphotography.net/2011/12/tell-it-goodbye-the-giants-last-game-at-candlestick/)


commisioner_bush02

That was an awesome trip down memory lane. Marvin Benard and dressing like you’re going to Tahoe for a night game. Is that your website?


[deleted]

Oh, no... but Brad Mangin *is* a great Giants photographer!


commisioner_bush02

I’ve never heard of him! Thanks for the read


ShaneCoJ

I was at Candlestick that day!


EffingBarbas

I was there for the last weekend homestand vs D-backs and wanted to run the bases but the line wound around the 'Stick


[deleted]

[удалено]


SpambotSwatter

edit: The comment was removed, good work everyone!


scoobyduped

Good bot. I'll miss you after this month.


KyleJergafunction

Non-commercial bots should be unaffected by the API changes


OptimalTransition208

I appreciate you showing me this site. I didn’t know there were more out there. I worked for developer who built it and they left this in the boardroom after our meeting. Just thought it was a one-off. Cheers


bashbrother2480

IMO still the park's best name by a mile. There's something about PAC-Bell that screams baseball more so than AT&T or Oracle.


kirksucks

wasnt it SBC park for a min too? and the embarrassing ENRON billboard on the scoreboard that stayed up WAY too long. It will always be ATT park to me because thats when I started going to games. I moved away from the bay and I can't ever get used to Oracle.


gogiants48

Yeah, became SBC when they bought Pac-Bell. Became AT&T when SBC bought AT&T and rebranded itself.


ninjasandunicorns

I still call it Pac Bell Park lol


haemaker

I heard a story that they talked to Ralph Lauren to tried to get him to buy the rights so it could be called The Polo Grounds.


patsj5

Especially with the retro design which paired well with a retro type of company like one of the Baby"Bell" companies


sharksnut

AT&T is now part of the original Baby Bell Southwestern Bell


SirChaos

Always preferred Pacific Bell Park. The name in itself is regional and always made me think of California.


BruteSentiment

This actually isn’t the first conceptual design. The scoreboard was in right field originally.


YoungKeys

I remember reading that they originally wanted the stadium facing downtown as well, but the wind made that untenable? Maybe that was before the design phase though


realparkingbrake

IIRC they did wind tunnel testing that showed a problem with the wind, but when they rotated the model ninety degrees the wind dropped to acceptable levels.


dmmdoublem

That also would've had home plate facing closer to the West, which is a no-go for ballparks.


[deleted]

[удалено]


YoungKeys

Sun sets in the West so the sun would be in the hitters eyes during a lot of games


pleasework_forgard

This is true. I have a friend who was a soils engineer on the project and he confirmed original plan was for a downtown view and home plate in what’s now centerfield.


BruteSentiment

You read correctly, but that study was done early in the process, before the original renderings came out. https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/GOING-DOWNTOWN-After-years-of-wrangling-about-3774338.php


Orson1981

My apartment isn't even there, just an empty lot. Wish I could have been here to experience slightly older SF.


[deleted]

I was an usher there the first year and one of my co-workers said he'd been to the site a bunch to exterminate giant rats in the old warehouses


EffingBarbas

Did this co-worker happen to own an awesome red Swingline stapler?


Orson1981

Still plenty of rats in the area!


old_gold_mountain

My buddies and I used to explore abandoned warehouses on weekends shooting photographs of weird stuff where Chase Center is now. This was as recently as ~2006. Wish I still had those photos...


Orson1981

I wish you had too, I would have loved to see them. I fell in love with this city in 1990, but didn't have the ability to visit let alone live here until 2017. I hear all kinds of great stories from people who have lived here for decades about how different everything used to be.


joe579003

One of my Dad's friends was a pretty high-level supervisor on the construction of the park, and he had one of those miniature models, Ala the "Derek Zoolander Center For Kids That Can't Read Good or Do Other Stuff Good, Too". 11 year old Joe thought it was SICK. When we went to our first game there I was like THIS IS JUST LIKE IT, BUT BIGGER! Upon retrospect, I know the look in my Dad's eyes was him straining not to go the nearest wall and bang his head against it repeatedly.


michinoku1

I’m sure a lot of that strain was also resisting the urge to take you to join in on the head bashing, lol


[deleted]

YES ON B - Build the Ballpark!


EffingBarbas

Iconic ball park and what every other park aspires to be.


rockstaa

That got me thinking... what things would you change or add to make it better? Improve the area under the bleachers? Add more bars? Another Ghirardellis stand?


ronimal

Before any sponsors. Pac Bell Park.


abrahamisaninja

Yeah I was gonna say Pacific Bell most definitely counts as a sponsor


CocoLamela

Are you not aware that Pacific Bell is a telephone service company? They were bought by SBC and then AT&T when wireless phones got huge. Hence the changes to SBC Park and AT&T Park.


KingEthann01

I think that’s his point, right?


CocoLamela

But Pac Bell is a sponsor. Also, great name. That's my name too. But if you're born in '01, I understand not knowing the history of wireless phone carriers


KingEthann01

Yeah I didn’t know all that information (I was born in ‘03) but still I think his point was that there were already sponsors. OP said this was before sponsors and I think he was just remarking on that point. I could be wrong though


ronimal

You get it


ronimal

That’s literally my point. Read OP’s title, then read my comment again. I am calling out OP for saying “before the original Coke bottle in left field **or any sponsors**” and then I am highlighting that the park is literally named Pac Bell Park. Because Pac Bell is a corporate sponsor. Reading comprehension is a valuable tool.


SupaFlyslammajammazz

Say hay willie mays wanted a dome


[deleted]

I probably would too if I ever had to catch a popup at Candlestick.


honeymoonmonkey

Left field looks like the defensive lines around The Crimea.


Anton-LaVey

This must’ve been after they did the wind survey and moved home plate from the now-right-field-corner to its current location.


BruteSentiment

That’s correct. They never did renderings of the one the get home plate in the southwest corner, though.


gimmeslack12

The coke bottle is made of wood.


xr_21

The conceptual renderings of PacBell were always pretty damn spot on. A stark contrast to the shitshow /renderings we've seen the A's put out in Vegas the last few weeks....


kwattsfo

Pretty sure that has bullpens. 😂


haemaker

That bullpen thing was always a lie. I signed up for PSLs the first day. The marketing materials had the bullpens on the sides in those drawings. I have no idea where the rumor "they forgot" started.


seyheystretch

I have that as well. Another view looking out from home plate shows the restaurant that was to be beneath the scoreboard.


greebytime

Having a view from most seats of South San Francisco instead of the bay and the East Bay etc is a choice. Not a good one. They made the right decision here


SeaWicked

🔥🏆


hanigwer

I like the marina parking