On October 17, 1989, the "Battle of the Bay" between the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco San Francisco Giants was supposed to be the center of the sporting universe. Instead, at 5:04 PM, nature took center stage.

In this gripping episode of BenchMarks, Callan McClurg recounts the harrowing moments when the Loma Prieta earthquake struck just minutes before Game 3. This episode features the original, chilling audio from the ABC Sports broadcast, capturing the exact second the signal flickered and Al Michaels famously told a national audience, "I'll tell you what, we're having an earth—" before the transmission cut to static.

McClurg explores the surreal atmosphere inside a packed Candlestick Park, where fans initially cheered the tremors before realizing the magnitude of the disaster unfolding outside the stadium walls. We detail the devastation across the Bay Area—from the collapse of the Cypress Street Viaduct to the fires in the Marina District—and the unprecedented decision to postpone the Fall Classic for a period of time.

When The Ground Stopped the Game is a tribute to the resilience of a community and a look back at the time the World Series took a back seat to survival, forever linking the history of the Giants and A's to the strength of the people they represent.

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