THE BAY AREA QUAKE : 5:04 P.M. : A TIME WHEN LIVES CHANGED : Tales of the Quake: Death, Heroes and Luck : 3rd Series Game Will Be His Last

Nick Adams likes baseball.

He is 7, a second-grader at San Francisco Bay School. He plays third base on a Little League team. He hangs baseball pennants on his wall, collects baseball cards and owns a baseball signed by Kevin Mitchell, left fielder for the San Francisco Giants.

His parents took him to the third game of the World Series.

At 5:04 p.m., Nick Adams said, he was sitting next to his mother on a top row at Candlestick Park. His father had a seat on a lower deck.

“It started shaking,” he said. “It shook a little bit, and then it got bigger and bigger and bigger. At first, I thought people were stomping. And then I saw the (overhang) swing back and forth. It was scary.

“I could see the playing field. They were having batting practice. They stopped. I saw a bat fly. The people in front of me were really scared. Everybody started getting really scared. I grabbed the handles on my seat, and then I grabbed my mom’s hand. I just sort of sat there. I was really nervous. I was shaking so much I kept falling off my seat.

“My dad came up, and I laughed. I had felt sort of nervous because I didn’t see him. When I saw Dad, I felt all right because . . . he was there. Then we walked to the parking lot. I was happy. I held my dad’s hand and my mom’s hand.

“I told my mom and dad, ‘I don’t want to go to any more World Series. Ever.’ ”