THE WORLD SERIES : OAKLAND ATHLETICS vs. SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS : NOTEBOOK : Fans in Section 53, the Memories Vivid, Return to Candlestick

SAN FRANCISCO —  The attitude of the fans in section 53 of Candlestick Park’s upper deck Friday night seemed best expressed by Stuart Graham of Foster City.

“This was almost like making a pilgrimage,” Graham said. “There was the feeling of having to come back.”

Section 53 is in right-center field at Candlestick. The game is nothing more than a blip on a radar screen.

On the night of Oct. 17, the night that Game 3 of the World Series was postponed by the earthquake that rocked the Bay Area, fans in Section 53 thought their section might disappear entirely.

Concrete fell from the overhang. Cracks opened in the stairs and along the expansion joints. Railings that run down the middle of the stairs loosened.

No other Candlestick area was more severely damaged.

“Everything did what it was designed to do, but they didn’t tell us that beforehand,” Joe Eichbaum of Concord said Friday night as he returned to his seat in Row 8 of Section 53. “I was scared to death. I expected to end up in my seat on the playing field.”

Was Eichbaum apprehensive about returning to Candlestick for the long-delayed Game 3?

“In the first five days after the quake I wouldn’t have come back,” he said. “Then I settled down and realized that if you fall off a horse, you’ve got to get back on. If I didn’t come back tonight, I never would have come back.”

The memories remain vivid, however.

“There were chunks of concrete falling up here,” he said. “It was a miracle no one was hit. I thought for sure there’d be a stampede like you see at those European soccer games. The way the crowd stayed calm was the biggest miracle of all.”

Tim Causey of San Francisco was back in Row 15 with his mother, Phyllis.

Both said they never thought twice about returning.

“I work for the city, so I have to say I feel safe about it,” Causey said, alluding to the structural inspections of Candlestick.

“But it was pretty scary watching the roof shift and that area along the joint get farther and farther apart,” he said. “The light towers looked as if they were in a hurricane.

“A lot of people did start to run, but then a couple slipped on the stairs and I think everyone realized we were too high to go at that pace.

“I worked 12 hours overtime, pushing electric trolleys off the streets that night, and felt fortunate doing it since I couldn’t have slept. I mean, I told everybody at work that I was lucky to be alive. Another five seconds of rolling and I don’t think that overhang would have stayed up.”

Ray Keller of Belmont displayed snapshots he had taken of the damage that night and compared them to the repairs.

“I kept watching those panels (along the expansion joint in the overhang) separate and wondering what they knew about earthquake construction in 1960,” he said.

“Here, look at this. I took this picture of a guy singing ‘We Will Rock You’ when the shaking finally stopped.”

Said Graham: “It’s pretty spooky being back. I was sitting here with a hot dog and Coke when pieces of concrete started falling in them, so I ran into the tunnel. Lost the Coke but saved the hot dog.”

Ken Israel, a high school track coach from Stockton, returned with his son, Greg. The spirit of the World Series brought them back, Israel said.

“Face it, there are no guarantees,” he said. “If the epicenter is here the next time, this sucker is coming down. It’s something you can’t worry about.

“I mean, it’s great to be part of the excitement.”

As if there had not been any on the night of Oct. 17?

“Greg and I had been to Disneyland about a month earlier and gone on that new ride (Splash Mountain),” Israel said. “We walked out of here after the earthquake and I said to Greg, ‘Talk about rides, some amusement park should buy the one we were just on.’ ”

They were buckling in in Section 53 again Friday night. Survivors. Happy to be back. Happy the Series was resuming.

“Absolutely,” Joe Eichbaum said. “Life goes on. The World Series is an integral part of society. This is what makes America great.”

Yes, the side effects of long-term cortisone usage are sad indeed. Listen to Don Robinson, tonight’s scheduled starting pitcher for the San Francisco Giants:

“I’ve probably had between 150 and 200 cortisone shots throughout my career. All over. My toe, my ankle, my groin, my hamstring, a majority of them in my shoulder, my elbow, my back, my neck, my lower stomach. You name it, I’ve had it there.

“I’m not really worried (about the effects). In this game, if you don’t go out there, you don’t get paid. If you don’t perform, you’re not going to get a contract. (The team) doesn’t care if you’re healthy or not--they just want you to go out there and win.”

And this type of thinking doesn’t bother Robinson?

“No,” he said. “I’ve already been told that I’m going to have arthritis in my knees and my shoulders. Maybe when I’m old, I’ll be watching all this (confined to) a chair.

“But if I make enough money, I’m not going to have to worry about it.”

Sports medicine has yet to devise a drug that satisfactorily treats a sprained perspective.

Friday’s pregame activities included a Candlestick Park sing-a-long to the lyrics of “San Francisco,” a moment of silence at 5:04 p.m.--the exact time the Oct. 17 earthquake hit the Bay Area--and a first-pitch ceremony that featured local policemen, firemen and others who participated in the post-quake recovery effort.

“Poignant” was how Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent described the pregame agenda. “A real contrast to the game. What follows is what we all know--baseball. That’s the great thing about baseball. It’s predictable.”

And, according to Vincent, baseball is “probably as resilient an institution as there is in America. Baseball, of all American things, should carry on. It’s always carried on--and this is a good example of it. Baseball has to make a determined effort to finish what it set out to do.”

Vincent also said he was gladdened by a newspaper poll that showed a majority of Californians in favor of the resumption of the World Series in San Francisco.

“For the town itself, for economic reasons alone, it was important that the World Series go on,” Vincent said. “San Francisco depends heavily on tourism, and it’s important to show the whole country that San Francisco is not on its knees.

“The city tonight will make a very important statement. And that is, ‘It’s all right.’ ”

Times staff writer Mike Penner contributed to this story.