Health crisis for Mary Lou Retton

Don't remember if he had moved to LA or was still living on the Peninsula at the time, but, again, his years with the Giants gave him the working knowledge of the Bay Area Ted Koppel would not have in the studio. Plus they had the blimp at their disposal.

The local ABC station was scrambling just to stay on the air. Me? Section 14, lower boxes on the third base side.

 

Me? Helping coordinate coverage from KUIC in Vacaville where we rocked and rolled but had little damage. Our program director was at Candlestick and didn't get home until the wee hours, having to go through San Jose and back north because the bridges were closed.

I don't remember if CalTrans shut down the Benicia and Antioch bridges as well.

 

No.

 

Approves. Read about it in Time Magazine.

 

Regarding Mary Lou - you think about the two memorable US Olympic gymnastic wins, both coming off of vault - with Retton and Strug. It wouldn't have been the same if they finished up on the beam or floor - maybe the bars. But vault is such a "do or die" event - the run up, the twists and turns, but you have to stick the landing. Great event to cap a big win.

 

The U.S. clinched gold before Strug's vault.

 

Farcical.

 

Yes. But neither Strug nor her teammates knew it at the time.

 

Me? I was across the bay at the Oakland Hyattt (basically across the street from the Coliseum). Could not figure out why the pool water was splashing with nobody in the pool.

 

Nobody anywhere ever misses the fuckin' Russians. For any fuckin' thing, any fuckin' time.

And, sorry, but "We're bombing those dirty Ukranian children and their families" has no cachet at all, either.

p.s. "Cachet," Boris. Aren't you a word editor somewhere?

 

I was flying into San Francisco the day after the earthquake hit ... or so I thought.

Finally got there two days later so I could catch those local games of the World Series, but my flight home was booked for the next week, and so I had to fly home at that time. ... The World Series resumed the day after I left, of course.

Thanks again, Baseball Jesus!