We drove from Terre Haute, Indiana to St. Louis, Missouri on Wednesday, August 18 and watched the Milwaukee Brewers defeat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2 at the new Busch Stadium.
Crossing over from Indiana into Illinois, the drive on I-70 was pretty much the same as the day before – lots of cornfields. I-70 runs directly into St. Louis. We did pass the town of Effingham. (What is Effingham? Its what you eat on f’n Easter. Sorry.)
At a gas station just after crossing into Illinois, some guy chatted up Steve while he was filling the tank. When Steve remarked where we were coming from (Terre Haute), this dude started trash talking Terre Haute (or Terrible Haute as he called it), going on about its terrible odor resulting from a waste water treatment facility and a paper plant and some other plant. Kind of weird to get that unsolicited from someone.
Parking. On this trip, we had the additional challenge of not only finding a decent lot for parking, but finding one that accepts RVs. Rich quickly found a surface lot by the railroad tracks on Cerre St (right in front of the bar named after long time Cardinal’s relief pitcher Al Hrabosky). I believe the cost was $20.
This was a good spot, within an easy walking distance of the stadium. We really couldn’t have asked for any better weather – mid 80s with no clouds and manageable humidity. Before the trip, I was worried that this might be a scorcher of a game – middle of August game in St. Louis starting at 1:15 Central Time. But, while it was warm, it was also comfortable.
We arrived in plenty of time. We had a beer in the RV before departing for the stadium. Here is a Flickr slideshow of shots taken of St. Louis and Busch Stadium from our parking spot. (Friendly reminder that you can get a full screen image of this slideshow by clicking on the Play button and then clicking on the control in the lower right hand corner with the four arrows.)
Outside the Park. The new Busch Stadium was opened in 2006 (the year the Cardinals last won the World Series). It was designed by HOK Sports (sorry Populous) and features many of the same architectural attributes of the other HOK stadiums such as the use of dark (in this case red) bricks and gorgeous open outfield views of the city skyline.
I-64 runs right by the stadium after crossing the Mississippi River. The land south of the interstate has kind of an industrial like feel – definitely atypical when compared to say Federal St in Pittsburgh outside of PNC. Notice that in the above map, where I highlighted our parking location, there is open land north of Clark Street. This was actually part of the footprint of the older Busch Stadium. Originally, there was a plan to build out this area, called the Baseball Village, with mixed business and residential development. But, apparently, the economy put a dent in that and the team has now built a softball field and parking lot in that space. This space feels out of place next to the ballpark. I imagine a row of restaurants and bars would look great here, right across from the stadium.
Here is a Flickr slideshow of shots taken outside of Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri on August 18. 2010:
Inside the Park. It is interesting how certain towns are associated with a particular sport. For example, Pittsburgh is undeniably a football town. St. Louis is a baseball town. The Cardinals have a great tradition and you can tell from the ballpark that they are proud of it. They trumpet their 10 World Series championships (more than any team in baseball except the Yankees) and 17 NL pennants. 10 players in the Hall of Fame (and 7 more with the Cardinals designated as their primary team). Highlights outside of the stadium included the statue of Stan Musial and the statues of the other Cardinal Hall-of-Famers outside the Team Store.
We made our way inside of the stadium. I bought the first round of Bud Lights – imagine that, an Anheuser-Busch product in St. Louis! (As an aside, after returning from the trip, I found out that the Cardinals actually do allow a small local microbrewery to sell their brews inside the park as well.)
The Cardinals also permit food and drink to be brought into the stadium – another sign that the Cardinals are a franchise that gets it.
I tried out a Jumbo Dog and a bag of peanuts. The dog was good-sized and tasty but overpowered the normal size bun in which it was housed. I think I paid $8.00 for the Jumbo Dog. Rich had this massive plate of spicy nachos (which I think only cost him $8.50) Clearly he had the better deal from a value perspective – however, he ran into, how should I put this, some gastronomical issues later that evening with the nachos.
I think Steve had a Regular Hot Dog with a box of Cracker Jacks. He remarked that the Cracker Jacks contained a total of 2 peanuts. I guess the lawyers gave the OK on that since it technically met the truth-in-advertisement requirements of its “Candy coated popcorn, peanuts and a prize” slogan.
Our seats were in the third level, just up the first base line a bit, on the Cardinal’s dugout side. We were in the shade the entire game. The seats were excellent.
Following is a Flickr slideshow of shots taken from inside Busch Stadium in St. Louis on August 18, 2010. Some pretty panoramic views of the St. Louis Skyline and the Gateway Arch.
The Game. The game was a pitcher’s duel featuring (at the time) 17 game winner Adam Wainwright for the Cards (unbeaten at Busch this season) against veteran Randy Wolf of the Brewers. Wolf stole the show in this one, taking a shutout and two hitter into the 9th before some shoddy Brewer defense made things interesting.
Wolf’s mastery and the anemic Cardinal bats sapped the energy out of the crowd. In the 9th, the Brewers tried to defensively self-destruct. Wolf was pulled after Albert Pujols jerked a changeup over Ryan Braun in leftfield, who took three steps forward off the sound of the bat. Rookie closer John Axford came in and Braun again misplayed Matt Holliday’s line drive making it 3-1. Then with two outs, Prince Fielder badly misplayed a ground ball (ala Bill Buckner) and we had a 1 run game. After a walk loading the bases, Axford was lifted.
Other Impressions from St. Louis:
- When the Cards were rallying in the 9th, the public address started blaring Redbird tweets as part of the rally chants. I’ll have to admit that was kind of different – you don’t often hear chirping sounds like that. Not really an intimidating sound like say, the roar of a Lion or a Panther. But it was kind of cool.
- Might have been the fact that it was a day game, but the crowd definitely had an older feel to it. Many senior citizens in attendance. One old cantankerous lady before the game was bitching because her seats were on the other end of the aisle. So she just decided to upgrade her seats a couple of rows in front. I was hoping that the actual owner of those seats would show up, just for the resulting fireworks that probably would have occurred when she got kicked out.
If they had a statue of Al Hrabosky, would it show him with his back to the catcher, pounding his glove to get himself emotionally ready? Also, do you think the Mad Hungarian would be an acceptable nickname in today’s PC world. (Sorry, but this was just an excuse to include a picture of my hero going yard against Al in the mid-70s.)
- Attendance was announced as 41,400 – that had to have been paid attendance as you can see from some of the shots.
- Pujols was Player of the Month in the NL in August, but was pretty quiet on this day. What an awesome talent though to witness in person in the prime of his career. Worth the price of admission to watch him hack.
- After a Cardinal batter was (unintentionally) hit by a pitch, Tony LaRussa (as only he can) deliberately walked out to the field, grabbed the ball, and then chucked it into the Cardinal dugout with emotion. Was kind of a weird scene to witness. Not sure if Tony was upset or if there is a back story there.
- LaRussa bats his pitcher 8th in the batting order. Hardball Times has an excellent discussion and statistical analysis of this strategy.
- When Fielder singled to center in the 2nd inning, he rounded first base by at most 3 feet. One of the brothers remarked that Charlie Hustle would have been real proud of that.
- My friend Bob (great with quotes) reminded me of this all-time classic line from Cardinal shortstop Garry Templeton when he was asked about being selected by the NL Manager for an All-Star Game – “If I ain’t startin, I ain’t departin.”
Throughout the game, I couldn’t help but think of a former colleague from work, Larry Meoli. Larry was a prince of a man, just a very kind soul and a gentle person – and a huge Cardinal’s fan. He was nicknamed “The Chief” and was born in the 1930s in Collinsville, Illinois (about 15 miles from St. Louis). He would tell us a ton of stories about growing up listening to Harry Caray and had the passion for the Cardinals that is so characteristic of this region of the country. Larry passed away from cancer in 2008. It is a shame that the Redbirds couldn’t pull this one out for The Chief.
