THE OPENING LINE

Monday, Oct. 23, 2006 | 7:37 a.m.

A SOUVENIR THAT CAN REALLY MOVE YOU

It was Oct. 27, 1989, and I was hunkered down in the lounge at the Airport Holiday Inn in Fresno, Calif., because when it's Friday night and you're in a bar in Fresno, you had better hunker down. I was sitting at a table with then-UNLV sports information director Joyce Aschenbrenner, then-UNLV women's athletic administrator Tina Kunzer (before she added the hyphen and the Murphy to her surname and the Las Vegas Bowl to her responsibilities) and the late Mitch Halpern (a few years before he became the third man in the ring for the first Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield fight), waiting for Game 3 of the World Series to finally begin.

That was the earthquake World Series. A's over the Giants in four. Mother Nature over the Bay Bridge in 15 seconds.

Having spent past Friday nights in the Garden Spot of the San Joaquin Valley, or whatever Fresno calls itself, we asked if there was a geologist in the house, just to confirm there was no threat of an aftershock.

Ten days earlier and about 200 miles north of the Airport Holiday Inn lounge in Fresno, Mark Whittington, the guy who edited this story, was sitting in the newsroom of the Marin Independent, talking on the phone with sports columnist Dave Albee, at 5:04 p.m. on the day the Earth didn't stand still.

Albee was sitting in the auxiliary press box high up in Candlestick Park when Whittington made his best call as a sports editor. "Don't hang up the phone," he told Albee.

For the next couple of hours, Albee stayed on the phone, describing the swaying stadium, the confused fans, the players and their families flowing onto the field.

The crowd slowly left but Albee stayed in the darkened stands, writing. He finally burned his program to get enough light to finish his story.

Then he hung up the phone.

Chris Morris, the Sun's graphic artist, was even closer than Whittington when The Earthquake hit. He had wrapped up work at the San Francisco Examiner and was hustling toward the gate at Candlestick Park - so he wouldn't miss the first pitch - when he noticed a shockwave moving through the parking lot, like a giant worm in one of those "Tremors" movies. Cars were being lifted off the ground and started bouncing like low-riders on hydraulics.

Morris said he noticed loose soil and small rocks sliding down a hillside. Some dust had been stirred in the parking lot. Then, for a moment, it was quiet.

Across the bay, Morris could see columns of smoke rising in Oakland. The guy on the radio was saying the library on the Cal campus in Berkeley was on fire. Inside the stadium, there was mass confusion on the concourse. It looked like Herb Washington, the A's former designated runner, trying to go from first to third on a single.

Those are Chris' unused tickets in the photograph. Nothing against a program or a utility infielder's autograph, but when it comes to World Series souvenirs, those pretty much top the cake.

THIS WEEK'S BEST BET

Professional Bull Riders 2006 World Finals, 6 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday, Mandalay Bay Events Center

Get ready for the running of the bulls - and the kicking, spinning and snorting of the bulls, too.

TICKETS: $42-$168 ON THE WEB: www.ticketmaster.com

ALSO WORTH A LOOK

NHRA ACDELCO Las Vegas Nationals, Thursday-Sunday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

The best way to describe the nationals is kind of a drag. But that's a good thing.

TICKETS: $55-$65 ON THE WEB: www.ticketmaster.com