big league player, passed away on Wednesday at the age of 47, according to his agent.
Don McLean lists February 3, 1959, as “the day the music died” in his song “American Pie,” referring to the simultaneous deaths of four early rock & roll greats in an aircraft accident. After October 22, 1989, I could no longer watch football in my own humble journalism career without feeling a deep sense of disgust. That was the day I went to Stanford Stadium, just outside of Palo Alto, California, to watch a San Francisco 49ers game against the New England Patriots.
The backstory is about what I was doing there and why Candlestick Park in San Francisco was not hosting the game on the regular schedule. I was covering 49ers quarterback Joe Montana for a New York Times Magazine cover story. Additionally, five days prior to the game’s relocation, Candlestick was forced to close for repairs due to the Loma Prieta earthquake, and the game was moved 30 miles south of its original planned location.
