It was a manageable 3 1/2 hour drive across the Show Me State of Missourah (at least that's how it's pronounced....I don't see it). I arrived at the new Busch Stadium around 11:30 this morning for the 1:15 pm start between the Cardinals and the Phillies.
I was excited to see the new stadium and experience St. Louis baseball - despite Kevin's claim that they are all "motherless, godless, criminals."
St. Louis has a reputation for being a great baseball town. The fans show up for the games in their red Cardinals gear and love "El Hombre", Albert Pujols. I thought, with this kind of a reputation, I should experience it on a baseball tour. After all, the PA Announcer welcomed the fans to "Baseball Heaven."
The new stadium is a major improvement over the old Busch Stadium - a concrete doughnut, multi-purpose stadium. The new park, opened in 2006, still includes a view of the Gateway Arch and also displays some of the history of the 128 year old team.
There's a row of bats atop the scoreboard that shows the years of their World Series Championships (10 total, a distant second to the Yankees 27).
There's also an impressive list of retired numbers - both on the left field wall
and below the scoreboard in centerfield.
There are even sculptures of former Cardinals greats (they all seem kind of small though, maybe they should have used some of McGwire's steroids on them) like Stan Musial,
Bob Gibson,
Lou Brock,
and Ozzie Smith.
There's even a sculpture of Auggie Busch - one time team president and maker of some pretty lousy beer.
One of the things salvaged from the old stadium - the out-of-town scoreboard from the final game.....and the Cubs lost.
I wandered around looking for lunch options, but didn't see anything that really jumped out at me. They offered all the typical stuff and things like Philly Cheesesteaks (why would I get one in St. Louis?) and hot dogs wrapped in bacon. I ended up with Chicken "Tenders" and a Goose Island Honkers Ale from Chicago (guess there's no good beer brewed in St. Louis).
As for the fans, I was not that impressed with them. They were all there sporting their Cardinals red, however they didn't seem too knowledgable on the game. One guy sitting behind me was wondering if Cole Hamels still had his perfect game going in the second inning - Hamels had struck out the first five batters he'd faced. This guy was busy talking the whole game about the Yankees for some reason and how awful they are (they have the best record in baseball, by the way) and that they're in such an easy division (4 of the 5 teams in the AL East have a .500 record or better, while the NL Central - the Cards division - has 4 of the 6 teams with losing records...hmmm). Another fan was ready for the 7th Inning Stretch at the end of the 6th inning - 1/2 inning early. And I didn't hear much cheering for the Cardinals until the 10th inning, when Pujols came up to try and win the game. Even the scorecard was lame. At the end of each line where you'd total up the stats for the day, it only listed AB, R, and H - no RBI. But I guess that wasn't necessary on this day.
Maybe I'm being a little critical. Maybe it was just really hot and everybody was suffering from dehydration - and me a little cranky. But I just wasn't as impressed as I thought I'd be.
As for the game, the Phillies won in 11 innings 2-0. The Cards managed only 1 hit all day against Cole Hamels and the rest of the Phillies bullpen.
After the game, I took a short walk over to the Gateway Arch and took the tram up to the top (beats climbing 1076 steps).
The Arch was built in the early 60's and designed by the same architect who designed the TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport, Eero Saarinen. It's 630 ft tall and 630 ft wide. Up at the top there are 16 windows on each side that are only 7 inches tall. Not sure why they had to be this small.
The observation room gets pretty crowded and it's tough to get a view out of the windows. But it was something to do!
I'm spending the night in a Days Inn south of the city and planning the next leg of the trip - Memphis, Dallas, Austin, and Houston. Think I'll be able to find some good BBQ along the way!
Oh, and by the way, I actually had a SALAD from Panera Bread tonight!
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