Our hotel in St. Louis was right across from the Rams stadium and next to a giant casino. I don’t know the entire history of riverboat casinos and all the laws surrounding them but to me they seemed pretty lax. The casino in the hotel next to us was in the middle of a free standing building about 200 yards from the river. I’m guessing they started by gambling on a moving boat, then on a boat tied to a dock, then maybe you had to be able to spit to the boat and so on until they eventually could build a free standing building in sight of a river.
Speaking of a river, on the way over to the Arch we walked along the Mississippi and I’ve never seen waves breaking on a riverbank before. I was so impressed, in fact, that I’m posting a picture on my blog. Here I go, ready?
BAM!!
St. Louis seemed like a pretty cool city with a lot of history. We found a big red stripe winding around the streets which Dad discovered to be similar to the freedom trail in Boston. We visited the arch and watched a movie about Lewis and Clark (side note – we bought tickets to the 11:30am movie but it turns out we showed up in time for the 10:30 show. We very nicely asked the usher if it would be possible to sneak in to the earlier show. He took our tickets and we thanked him profusely. Upon entering the theater we discovered only 2 other people in the whole place! Boy was that usher nice! (second side note – a minute or two before show time an entire field trip worth of kids (somewhere north of 100) filed in, filled up the theater and ruined what would have been a funnier story)).
Even though we were at the top of one of the nation’s most famous landmarks, this trip is about baseball after all so here is me with Busch Stadium.
Game Notes:
In looking over my notes for this game, I have to say Busch stadium was kind of a letdown. I was looking forward to seeing a Cardinals game and much like what happened at some other stadiums, it was a nice enough place for a fan to watch a game but there just wasn’t a lot to draw you in or make it memorable compared to the rest of the stadiums around the league.
Outside of Busch Stadium they have statues dedicated to all of the retired Cardinals. For example, Stan “the man” Musial and Jack Buck, the longtime Cardinals broadcaster.
I want to know what they’re going to do with Mark McGuire. He only played four and a half seasons for the red birds but they were a pretty hyped four and a half seasons. Does he get a statue or does everyone want to just forget that era and move on? The only reference to McGuire I found in the whole park was “Big Mac Land” out in left field.
Frankly, you could argue that’s a McDonald’s related promotion and nobody would fault you for it. I wanted to do some bit about a steroids version of McGuire and then take a picture of me as the “after steroids” version but I couldn’t find him anywhere! Oh well.
I did manage to find a Busch beer though. They sold 24oz cans for $8.75 which was a bit pricey, especially when you consider the Mobile gas station I stopped at earlier in the day had the same size cans on a 2 for $2 special. No, that’s not a typo. Also related to this was the lack of any Miller or Coors product in the entire stadium. I bring this up because at Coors Field in Denver you had to do a bit of looking but you could get a Bud or a Bud Light if you wanted one. I’ll have to let you know what happens at Miller Park in Milwaukee. The suspense is just KILLING me, how about you?
High Points:
-Even though it was an overall letdown, Busch Stadium still offered some cool things too. I liked the open concession areas and tabletop seating offered. It seemed like around every corner there was another bar or all you can eat or other special section that had high table and chair setups. They were all good vantages as well.
-I got to enjoy this and the next two games with Dad!
-The mascot is “Fredbird” which is a giant red cardinal. At least it looked right.
-Like Texas, St. Louis has an open grass area in dead center field where kids run out and retrieve the ball should a home run land there. I’m not sure why I like this idea so much but I do.
-FINALLY a park with a Bank of America ATM inside! I hate paying all these fees for using other banks ATMs and I try like hell to avoid it but I’m somewhere north of $20 in ATM fees and that’s just unacceptable. It was nice to watch other people squirm as BoA informed them of the $37.50 charge they were about to incur for the convenience provided.
-The entire lower bowl is comprised of the comfortable seats usually reserved for the best box areas. That was a nice gesture by the team.
-Tony LaRussa has been experimenting this year by having his pitchers bat in the 8th spot. I’m not going to pretend to know more than I do about the numbers behind a move like this but I’m still intrigued to see if it works out in any significant way. Tony always thinks outside the box.
-I thought it was pretty funny that the Cardinals make you sign a waiver before stepping in a batting cage to face 55-60MPH pitches. This was the first time I saw something like this. Here is some poor young soul signing his life away before entering the ring of death, I mean batting cage.
-Joe Mather made his major league debut during the game we saw. A few things to note here. Early on in the game he made a great diving catch to rob old friend Doug Mientkiewicz of extra bases…and I got it on film! Also, the fans in St. Louis gave him a standing ovation after his first major league hit, which is always a nice gesture. Finally, you may have seen this on Sportscenter recently and it happened at this game. I’m talking about the bit where a veteran player takes the “first hit” ball from the field, quickly switches it out, flips the new one into the stands and acts like he just threw away the “first hit” ball. That cracked me up the first time I saw it. Anyway, here’s the catch.
-The Cardinals have a really rich baseball history. This next picture shows some of it. On the right you can see a flag for each of their 10 world championships. Where are they going to put the next one? Then below the Budweiser scoreboard you can see 10 retired numbers, one retired logo for the guy who played before they had numbers and also a retired microphone for Jack Buck. I can’t remember another park with that many retired players. Also of note is the aforementioned centerfield grass area in the middle and one of the patios with the high tables below the retired numbers.
Low Points:
-A major complaint was how far away from the action we were almost at all times. Even doing a lap around the park we were far away from the field. Throw in the fact that you could say St. Louis has FIVE decks and by the time you’re up in the nose bleeds you don’t know if you’re at a baseball game or a bingo tournament.
-The vendors were selling Italian ice and calling it “frozen lemonade.” Come on, that’s bush league. At this level concession items deserve a fancy name, don’t just call it what it is. That’s like when New Englander’s call a water cooler a “bubblah” or a directional a “blinkah” (“What? It bubbles, it blinks…wannafightaboutit?”). Yes, the contents are just frozen lemonade but feel free to jazz it up a bit!
-25 minutes before game time there were all kinds of loud, unexpected fireworks that were really over the top. We then were greeted with the announcement that “it’s 25 minutes to game time!” Uhhh, thanks chief.
-Have a look at this picture. I zoomed in and we were still extremely far away from the field. Also, below the big Bud Light is one press box and then below that is another. I’m assuming they split up the local press and the national/out of town guys. That doesn’t seem fair to me.
-Remember the annoying whistles that the cheerleaders in Houston had? Well, the cheerleaders in St. Louis had them as well but they weren’t nearly as bad. I think it was an acoustics problem.
-After the third one I started a running tally. The number of "first" pitches thrown before the game reached seven. Actually, eight, if you include the first pitch thrown by Cardinals starter Todd Wellemeyer. That's just excessive.
-Our tickets cost $27 to sit about 4 miles from the field of play. Also, many seats at Busch Stadium were unable to see the scoreboard. There’s got be some stadium out there where all fans can see what’s going on during the condiment races and other such non-baseball related activities!!
Here’s the big guy!
Overall Grade: B
Game Stats:
Teams: Cardinals vs. Pirates
Final Score: 5-4 Cardinals
WP: Todd Wellemeyer
LP: Zach Duke
S: Ryan Franklin
Time: 2:38
Announced Attendance: 42,791
Ticket Price: $27.00
Parking Price: N/A
Trip Stats:
Home team record: 12-6
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 7399
States Visited: 17
Countries Visited: 2
Beds slept in: 22
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19 [$4.81 if you count Canada]
Next Stop: Kansas City Royals
Favorite Park: Petco Park (Padres)
Stadium Grades:
Marlins: D
Rays: B
Braves: B-
Rockies: B+
Mariners: B
Giants: A-
Athletics: C
Angels: B-
Dodgers: B+
Padres: A
Diamondbacks: B
Rangers: B-
Astros: B-
Blue Jays: C
Tigers: A-
Indians: B-
Reds: B+
Cardinals: B
1 comment:
ummm...you seem to have something on your face.
Or..should I say, "it's taken you 26 yrs to turn that peach fuzz into a beard so might as well start putting that razor to use!"
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