Kevin Cowherd Ed Hale, Including a Secret Life with the CIA". Cowherd has also written for "Men's Health", "Parenting" and "Baseball Digest" magazines and is the author of a collection of Baltimore Sun columns, "Last Call at the 7-Eleven", published in 1995 by Bancroft Press. Cowherd, then a Baltimore Sun sports columnist, was also given tongue-in-cheek credit for correctly "predicting" the Loma Prieta earthquake. On Tuesday October 17, 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake occurred in the greater San Francisco Bay Area in California, interrupting preparations for Game 3 of the 1989 World Series between the Bay Area's two Major League Baseball teams,
The Baseball Network sold out all its advertising slots. This was considered an impressive financial accomplishment, given that one 30-second spot cost US$300,000. ABC, meanwhile, was able to have its primary broadcast team from 1989 return intact. Al Michaels served as the play-by-play announcer once again. Tim McCarver, who had just spent four years at CBS, returned as an analyst along with Jim Palmer. On the subject of Michaels returning to baseball for the first time since the infamous Loma Prieta earthquake interrupted the 1989 World Series, Jim Palmer said, "Here Al is, having done five games since 1989, and steps right in.