The third game of the World Series played to a captive audience in Red Cross shelters, where televisions were set up for baseball fans left homeless by the earthquake.
"This is definitely not the place I'd like to watch the game," said William Johnson, 53, as he sat on a cot in the crowded gymnasium of Oakland's Lowell Middle School."But due to the circumstances, it's not so bad," the A's fan said. "If it wasn't for this place, I wouldn't be watching at all."
Sounds of an ebullient Candlestick Park crowd blasted out from the TV, echoing to every corner of the cavernous gym, where 120 cots were lined up side by side.
Some officials questioned the wisdom of resuming the World Series while some people remain homeless in the San Francisco Bay area. But in the shelters, baseball fans were happy to watch the Oakland Athletics beat the San Francisco Giants 13-7, calling it a welcome break from what they called depressing footage of destruction.
"We love it; It takes your mind off the earthquake, and that's good for the nerves," said Winston Presley, 54, as he sat with a cluster of A's fans.
When the earthquake hit last week, Presley was just about to turn on the televised game in his room on the third floor of Oakland's low-rent Woodrow Hotel.
He'd have preferred to be there watching Friday's game. But his quake-damaged building was condemned; Presley was forced into the shelter; and his TV was stolen before he was allowed back to his room to pick up his belongings.
Not everyone in the shelter was glued to the television during Friday's game. Many people milled around their cots; others escaped the shelter's smelly, noisy confines to enjoy the crisp, clear evening outside.
Raymond Smith, 48, lay disconsolate on his cot, far from the blaring set.
"I can't watch the game because of my heart," he said. Smith complained that officials were giving him the runaround in finding a more permanent place to stay and in supplying him with the prescription drug he needs for his heart condition.
The World Series held no magic for him: "All I want is a place to stay."