up next on a second look, play ball it's time for another baseball season and for a year of significant anniversaries. the ball club that turns 100 this year and the biggest crowd that ever gathered to witness a world series. hello and welcome to a second look, i'm ken wayne. in the rite of spring, major

league bay ball started their season. opening day has always been a big deal everyone in the days of the old pacific coast league. the oakland oaks took part in a spade through downtown oakland on their way to the season's first game. that was against the san francisco sea hawks. a dancer named dorel dina threw the first pitch. we couldn't find any results to tell us who won that game. this is a year of anniversaries for baseball. it was 50 years ago this month that dodger stadium opened in los angeles and perhaps the biggest anniversary of all this year is in boston where fenway park turns 100 years old. randy shandobil visited fenway park and compared it to candle stick park. >> reporter: there's more

american history in boston than just about any other city in the country. yet of all the shrines here, the one locals seem to love the most is a ballpark. this is the most available piece of real estate in the city of boston. nothing else matters. >> reporter: take a poll of baseball players, fans and baseball journalists, ask them to rate the 26 major league stadiums. almost all of them will rank boston's fenway park at the top, and candle stick park at the bottom. >> it's really a beautiful park from a fan point of view. i think if you talk to probably 1,000 people, 1,000 people would tell you this is one of the ballparks they just have to see before they die. >> reporter: a big part of the allure is red sox tradition. built in 1912 fenway has played host to them all. a fan in 1989 can play jose

conseco swing the bat where babe ruth swung his bat. it's a ballpark filled with legends. >> reporter: the green monster is still here, the 37-foot that drives baseball players crazy. when people talk about fenway park you hear the word intimacy used a lot. we're going to show you why in a comparison between this and candle stick park. right now i'm in third base and the camera in in the first row. this is the view from candle stick park. once again the camera is in the first row. when you see a game at candle stick you're further away from the action. the difference is even more dramatic from the cheap seats. right now our camera is in the

front row of the center row bleachers in fenway park and i'm standing in center field. just about where center fielder would stand. once again we're back at candle stick. cameras in the front row of the bleachers again, but now not only are you farther away but there's a chain link fence in between us. you tell me where would you rather watch a ball game? you could be on the sidelines as opposed to oakland where you're 50 miles away on the field. this is the last row in the park. >> you're at the highest seat. >> and it's the perfect view. >> reporter: giants officials say they want their new ballpark to be cozy like fenway and to have its own

idiocincrosies like the green monster. >> thousands and thousands of them will be driving their cars. >> reporter: we're looking at prolonged massive dead lock traffic jams if the stadium goes up at this site. >> reporter: officials insist there would not be traffic jams here. >> we don't have any on-site parking and yet it fills up for just about every game. people take public transit and the public transit is not right there on-site, it's four or five blocks away. >> reporter: when people walk those four or five blocks they pass thriving business, some that cater to the baseball crowd, some that don't. souvenir shops, bars, restaurants, even a bowling

alley right across the street. >> it's just a classic old ballpark that fits in with the urban landscape. >> reporter: this ballpark works so well, that when players are first signed, they walk up and down the street and can't find the place. even the red sox owner has complaints. the place is too small to make good profit holding only 34,000 people. sullivan explains he's toyed with the idea of tearing fenway down and building a new park, but -- >> well the first thing they would probably do is hang me. i don't think i could stand the outcry it would cause if that happened. >> if they would tear this thing down and build a new one,

what wuld you -- what would you do? >> i would strap myself to a pole. >> you would not let them do it? >> no. and remembering the giant's first west coast world series 50 years ago this season.

next friday the san francisco giants will open up their season at at&t park. for many years, fans had complained about it predecessor candle stick park. in year 2000, the year that at&t opened, dave wadson set out to answer the question, how did a ballpark ever come to be built at one point at candle stick point? >> reporter: when the giants came out west in 1958 and brought major league baseball with them. the city of san francisco

opened its arms and said welcome. however the giants did not come to california looking solely for love. >> at a meeting of our board today they voted for us to transfer the giants franchise to san francisco. >> reporter: they were seeking greener packtures than tures -- pastures than were offered in new york. san francisco already had a ballpark and by all accounts it was a beauty. seal stadium was a gem, set discreetly at the corner of 15th and bryant street. it would host the giants for their first two seasons. but it held only 23,500 people. not big enough for the giants who ironically would never average that until 1987, 28 seasons after they came west. but there was another reason why seal stadium was not good

enough. >> the big tale was, the reason why seal stadium wouldn't work is there wasn't enough parking there. he wanted to have 15,000 parking spaces. the only place they could find to do it was here and they convinced him that this was the right place to build a park. >> so it was then, major league baseball came to candle stick point. major george christopher had kept his promise. a local reporter described the place as a symphony of concrete and steal. but at candle stick when morning drifted into afternoon, the only symphony was a howl of wind and a -- from the beginning the stadium was impervious to the design of man. >> there was a radiant heating system that was supposed to make sitting in the back bench

very comfortable. but you could have poured burning lava through it and would not have changed the temperature. >> reporter: there was nothing candle stick could to in the face of nature's wind which seemed to save its most capricious outburst for the park's most prestigious moments. the first world series was swamped by rain and delayed for three days. rain or many no rain the dream of a world championship died when willie found the fortunate glove of bobby richardson. then in the 1989 world series the hands of nature fell heavier. >> tell you what, we're having a -- >> reporter: candle stick was a beleaguered stage but a place where the best could still rise between the shine. willie mays hit more home runs at candle stick than on the

road. willie mccubbie found the stadium confounding but challenging. >> there were nights we wondered why the fans were there. we had to be there, but there's days we thought, boy these people have to be crazy for showing up today. >> reporter: this is where baseball was played. curve balls would bite and break in the fog of air and home runs sometimes died in the wind. this was home to more victories and losses, this place where statistics blurred into memory. this place where players passed on to fans baseball's mystique. this candle stick is home to america's past time, this place that will not soon be forgotten, even though baseball is gone from here forever. >> reporter: when we come back on a second look it was the biggest crowd ever to witness a world series game from the

stands. we'll tell you where and when. plus the year the giants broke the dodgers hearts and ended up in the world series whoever said that "less is more"

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this is a year for significant baseball anniversary. it was 50 years ago that dodger stadium opened in los angeles. in the first four seasons after moving from brooklyn to l.a. the dodgers played their home fames -- home games at the dodgers coliseum. one of those games would set the record for the largest crowd ever to watch a world series game in person. 96,263. three years later dodger stadium would be the setting for a dramatic finish to the regular season. the san francisco giants would take on the dodgers in a play off to see which team would go

to the world series. in 1989, randy shandobil recalled the giant's first trip to the world series. >> reporter: mays, mccubbie harvey keen, jimmy davenport, gaylord perry and more. some people say the best thing about baseball is that it creates a bond between fathers and son. gives them something nonthreatening to talk about at the dinner table. well 1952 must have been the

epitome of a painting. it was the rivalry of the giants and dodgers. >> time of day you hit a man, they beat us 1-0. >> reporter: with only three games left that team of finesse was three games ahead of the giants. even though everyone including the dodgers thought the giants were a better team. ron fairly played first base for the dodgers now he is a radio announcer for the giants. >> on paper they probably had the best ball club. but on the field somehow or other we managed to win some ball games that we don't think we should have won. >> they had a tremendous ball club. they had good hitters, good

pitching. >> reporter: those last three day, the days the giants won three against houston and the days the dodgers somehow lost three to st. louis, everywhere you looked in this city, everyone it seemed was glued to a radio. >> evans knows the importance of this pitch. we have a play off. >> reporter: long simmons was the announcer, he says baseball fever was so overwhelming then, that even dodgers fans were thettered to their radios. after the full 154 game season the giants and dodgers were in a dead tie.

a three game play off woulded the everything. >> the rivals split the first two games and so it all came down to one last became at dodger stadium. once again the dodgers have the giants on the ropes ahead 4-2 in the 9th inning. but at the very end the dodgers self-destructed. they walked four giants and committed two errors. if there is such a thing as miracles, this was indeed one. giants 6-dodgers four. >> here's one, there's the pitch. a line drive to center, this could be it. mays waiting. he's got it. the giants have won it and mays has done it in the ninth. >> reporter: the champane soaked giants had to fly home that night and prepare for the world series the very next morning, but there was a

problem. delirious fans had overrun the san francisco airport. >> gentleman, people on the ground have informed me that there are only 75,000 of your enthusiastic supporters down there. they've broken through police lines, they are out on the runway. and we may be forced to land at an alternate airport but we'll keep you informed. >> reporter: after circling the airport, the giant's fan finally landed in a remote corner of the runway. but their bus was overreturn. >> we got home 3:00 in the morning with hang over. >> hang over or not, the giants had to turn around and face the new york yankees. >> when we come back on a second look, the players who carried the giants into the 1962 world series talk about the team and the series against the yankees.

this baseball season marks 60 years since the san francisco giants played in their first world series. it came after a dramatic come from behind win over the los angeles dodgers in a play off for the national league pennant. in 1989, randy shandobil remembered that world series against the new york yankees. it was willie mays and willie mccubbie, the giants versus the yankees. it all came down to the seventh and deciding game. yankees 1-giants nothing. mays drilled a double to right only a perfect play by roger merris kept a run from scoring. just a single could win it all.

and willie mccubbi delivered the shot. it was a line up filled with hall of famers on potential hall of famers, however the giants only made it to the play offs once. some blamed the team's manager. others said the team needed a better catcher or pitchers. but many agreed with willie mays. >> you look at the names. >> those hitters. you can score 15 runs, if you go 18, you're going to lose the

game. you need pitching. >> reporter: willie mays is considered one of the two or three best players to ever put a uniform. yet fans didn't seem to appreciate him much early on in san francisco. >> most of the guys that i played with, either they are gone or died or something. >> you know people don't recognize how great somebody is after they retire. >> after they're dead. i don't you said that. that bothers me. give me what you're going to give me now while i'm alive so i can enjoy it. >> reporter: willie mays is hardly suffering from a lack of recognition or financial reward now, the house he showed us in atherton is a testimony to that. it's gorgeous and it's filled with awards.

>> these are very important here. i have 12 to 14 of these. >> reporter: do you ever miss your playing days. >> the first two years i did. a couple of times i caught myself going to the ballpark. but i have learned to live with it. i look at all these trophies and think, i don't come here and look at them because i don't want to look back. i played my 24 years in baseball. i'm satisfied. i was named one of the best baseball players in the world, that's really enough for me. >> reporter: are you happy these days? >> i think so. why shouldn't i be. i am making more money now than i did when i played ball. >> reporter: mays does work for casinos in atlanta city. he makes appearances at baseball card conventions and still does work for the giants. >> how valuable can a player be to a team? willie mays not only adds such

a class to the giants he's also one of the organizations best teachers. for example, last year kevin mitchell was good. but after a spring after the wing of willie, he is beyond belief. >> reporter: willie mays is 58 now, the only regret in life he really talks about is his lack of education. >> i wish i could have gone to college but my father and mother didn't have the money to send me. but i would do very, very well in other areas to cover up for that. so a lot of things that willie would love to have done when he was young but never had the opportunity. so baseball was the next thing to get out of the south. go play ball and enjoy life. >> that's it for this week's second look. i'm ken wayne, thanks for watching. they say that with great power comes great responsibility.

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