Why do they call it candlestick park

When it first opened, Candlestick Park had around 45, seats. The 49ers had played at Kezar Stadium since After only several years of existence, Candlestick Park began to deteriorate. Candlestick Park was enclosed, increasing the seating capacity to 61, Retractable seats were added in right field to allow the conversion to a football field, and the grass field was replaced by Astroturf.

The 49ers played their first game at Candlestick Park on October 10, Atlas said the city considered building something new, but finally decided on converting Candlestick to dual-purpose.

A project to enlarge the stadium closed the open end of the horseshoe and added more seats, but not the hoped-for wind protection. During those years, Candlestick became a place of pilgrimage for more than football fans. Tugwell said security was paramount. Two years later, the Loma Prieta earthquake rocked the park, which was full of World Series fans at the time.

Crews had to repair broken concrete and cracks. But Candlestick, which was built on rock, stood strong. After the quake, there would only be 10 more years of baseball. The Giants played their last game at Candlestick in September of All rights reserved. Unfortunately, it never worked. For Candlestick's first 11 seasons, the wind blew in from left-center and out toward right-center. When the park was expanded to accommodate the 49ers in , it was thought fully enclosing the park would cut down on the wind.

Instead, the wind swirled from all directions, and was as cold as before. During the first All Star Game of one of two played in the park—the other was in , Giants pitcher Stu Miller was blown off balance by a gust of wind and was charged with a balk. The stadium also had the reputation as the coldest park in the major leagues. It was initially built with a radiant heating system of hot water pipes under the Lower Box seats in a space between the concrete and the ground.

As the pipes were not embedded in the concrete it did not produce enough heat to offset the cold air. Both the city and the Giants balked at the cost of upgrading the system so it would work properly e. As a result, the Giants played more day games than any Major League Baseball team except the Chicago Cubs, whose ballpark, Wrigley Field , did not have lights installed until Many locals, including Giants' broadcaster Lon Simmons , were surprised at the decision to build the park right on the bay, in one of the coldest areas of the city.

The Giants eventually played on the reputation to bolster fan support with promotions such as awarding the Croix de Candlestick pin to fans who stayed for the duration of extra-inning night games. Among many less-than-flattering fan nicknames for the park were "North Pole," "Candlestink," "Cave of the Winds," and "Windlestick.

Ironically, the Giants played their last game at Candlestick under blue skies with no fog and a game time temperature of a very non-Candlestick-like 82 degrees. Giants owner Horace Stoneham visited the site as early as He was involved in the design of the stadium from the outset and was aware of the weather conditions. The architect designed the roof baffle to extend into left field to diminish the prevailing wind but the size of the structure was reduced for cost savings.

In , he commissioned a study the wind conditions. The study revealed that conditions would have been significantly improved had the park been built a hundred yards farther to the north. The stadium's location on the bedrock of Bayview Hill provided more stability.

The winds are intense in the immediate area of the park. Studies showed they were no more frequent than other parts of San Francisco but are subject to higher gusts. This is because of a hill immediately adjacent to the park. This hill, in turn, is the first topographical obstacle met by the prevailing winds arriving from the Pacific Ocean seven miles to the west. Arriving at Candlestick from the Pacific, these winds travel through what is known as the Alemany Gap before reaching the hill.

The combination of ocean winds free-flowing to Candlestick, then swirling over the adjacent hill created the cold and windy conditions that were the bane of the Giants' year stay on Candlestick Point.

These same winds, of course, attract wind-surfers in droves to the wind-whipped San Francisco Bay coves south of Candlestick. It is indeed the wind and not the ambient air temperature that provides Candlestick's famed chill.

While the wind is a summer condition hot inland, cool oceanside , winter weather is right in line with the rest of sea level Northern California mild with occasional rain.

Belli won in court, claiming that the "radiant heating system" advertised was a failure. Some think that Candlestick Point was named for the indigenous "candlestick bird" Long-billed Curlew , once common to the point.