Triumph & Tragedy In 1989 San Francisco Sports: The 49ers & Giants
Sports in San Francisco for the year 1989 was a time of great triumph overshadowed by greater tragedy.
Nothing can make up for the loss of life that resulted from an October earthquake that happened right before Game 3 of the World Series. But just as the city of New Orleans found joy in the 2009 Saints as they recovered from Hurricane Katrina, so too could the San Francisco of 1989 find joy in not only a Super Bowl run by the 49ers. And the city could at least look back with fondness on the run of the San Francisco Giants in baseball.
GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS
Start reading today.
The Giants won the National League West for the second time in three years, and when they vanquished the Chicago Cubs in the National League Championship Series, it marked the Giants’ first pennant since 1962. With the American League champ being the Oakland A’s, right across the bay, everything was set for the entire Bay Area to celebrate.
Then the earthquake hit, on national television, shortly before Game 3 of the World Series. A pall was cast over the Series, and play was delayed ten days. Oakland ended up winning the title, but the tragedy hung over everyone.
The sports fans in the city turned to football for their distractions. The 49ers were already the defending champions, with a total of three Super Bowl victories in the 1980s.
Even with a new head coach in George Seifert, the Niners did it again. Their 14-2 regular season followed by a dominating postseason run marked them as a dynasty in the big picture and their single-season performance as one of the best in the Super Bowl era.
It ended a tumultuous year for their city. The people of San Fran had suffered, and had a lot of rebuilding ahead. The Giants on the baseball diamond and the 49ers on the football field gave them some fun amidst the turmoil and tragedy.
Read more about the 1989 San Francisco 49ers
Read more about the 1989 San Francisco Giants
SportsNotebook Featured Products
View Our Complete Catalog
TheSportsNotebook.com is home to an extensive archive of sports history articles along with blog posts on contemporary sports.
Shop Our Digital Catalog
History of the Final Four
NCAA Basketball
Super Bowl Past
NFL
History of the Final Four
NCAA Basketball
Super Bowl Past
NFL
History of the Final Four
NCAA Basketball
Super Bowl Past
NFL
SportsNoteBook Articles
- Uncategorized
- Stanley Cup History
- Sports History Articles
- NFL History Articles
- NBA History Articles
- MLB History
- College Football History Articles
- College Basketball History Articles
- Blog
1971 Providence Basketball: A Foundation Season Under Dave Gavitt
To a modern audience, Dave Gavitt is a college basketball legend, the man who spearheaded formation of the Big East and transformed the sport in the 1980s. But before that, Gavitt was a simply a solid basketball coach. After spending two seasons at Dartmouth, he took the job at Providence in 1970, and his 1971 […]
The Road To The 1987 Final Four
The opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament is defined by chaos and possibility. By the Sweet 16, that uncertainty begins to narrow, and the tournament gets its focus. Our Road to the Final Four series begins here, focusing on the fifteen games that lead us to a national champion. The Road to the Final Four […]
1981 DePaul Basketball: A Great Season They Couldn’t Finish
DePaul followed up their Final Four run of 1979 with a magnificent regular season in 1980 that earned them a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. But it ended with a heartbreaking loss in the Round of 32. The 1981 DePaul basketball team was loaded and came out hungry for redemption. From late November to […]
The Road To The 2004 Final Four
In 1999, UConn and Duke staged a great national championship battle, that UConn won. In 2004, these two programs again spent the regular season on a collision course with each other and met in the Final Four. The Huskies again won and then secured a national title. Let’s look back on the road that UConn […]
1979 St. Louis Cardinals: The Year The Arrow Turned Up
The great baseball town of St. Louis was on a dry spell coming into the 1979 season. Since their run of 1967-68, when the Cardinals won consecutive National League pennants and a World Series, the franchise had struggled—only four winning seasons over the ensuing decade. The 1979 edition of the St. Louis Cardinals had a […]
1981 Notre Dame Basketball: The Last Stand Of A Golden Era
By 1981, Notre Dame basketball was a signature national brand. Over the previous seven seasons, Digger Phelps had taken them to seven NCAA Tournaments, six Sweet 16s and the Final Four in 1978. They had a senior-laden squad in the fold and were primed for more. The Irish did indeed have another strong year in […]
1977 Texas Rangers: Forgotten Excellence
The Texas Rangers came into existence in 1972, after a decade of mostly bad baseball as the Washington Senators. The relocation to the Dallas area didn’t bring a lot in the way of success. There was a brief burst of winning baseball in 1974 under Billy Martin, but Billy quickly ran into trouble with the […]
1981 Marquette Basketball: Still Fighting, Clearly Fading
Marquette basketball came into the 1981 season on a run of ten straight NCAA Tournament appearances, and in an era when March Madness was considerably more restrictive than it is today. But 1980 had shown some warning signs, as they slipped to the bubble and were blown out in the first round. In 1981, the […]