Did Newspaper Columnist "Predict" the 1989 Earthquake in San Francisco?

Everybody remembers the devastating 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake that rocked the San Francisco Bay Area and forced the postponement of Game Three of the 1989 World Series.  Scenes of fallen buildings, pancaked freeway overpasses and collapsed bridge sections stick with one's memory of that tragic event that killed 63 and injured over 3,700.  Far more people may have been killed had the World Series not been scheduled for that evening, for hundreds more would have been on the freeways during the rush-hour evening commute instead of home in front of the TV. One interesting sidebar story to this whole tragedy is a column written by Kevin Cowherd, columnist for the Baltimore Sun.  In a column that appeared in the San Jose Mercury News on the morning of October 17, 1989 (the day of the earthquake), Cowherd made the following tongue-in-cheek comments:   "Actually, I have no idea who is going to win the Series, because these are two teams from California and God only knows if they'll even get all the games in.  An earthquake could rip through the Bay Area before they sing the national anthem for Game 3.  There has been an earthquake watch in California for about 2,000 years now, and people are so edgy that if you slam your car hood too hard, everybody runs into the streets screaming: "THIS IS IT!  WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!" [see for yourself in the photo below, last two paragraphs in the second column.  Also, note that the date at the top of the page is indeed the day of the earthquake]

Sadly, the joking and humor turned into something all too horrible and real later that day.  Cowherd made comments afterward expressing his shock about the whole thing, since he was only writing a column and just trying to be humorous.  It's not so farfetched that someone might think about earthquake possibilities whenever a couple of teams from California are playing in a high-profile game or series.  Obviously, he wouldn't be making light of the situation after the fact or if he somehow had knowledge of the event beforehand.  Nevertheless, the "prediction" remains one of those bizarre oddities that occurs from time to time, albeit by pure coincidence.