St. Louis

Day 6

Busch Stadium, 2007

Question: Do you not like the weather in St. Louis?  
Answer: Wait ten minutes.
Date: Wednesday, July 4, 2007, 6:15 PM
Arizona Diamondbacks vs. St. Louis Cardinals
Busch Stadium
St. Louis, MO
Major League Baseball, National League
Promotion: Cardinals backpack, fireworks display


Stadium & Fans:
Busch Stadium is a delight, and well-designed for its purpose. Similar to PNC Park in Pittsburgh, the stadium and field are accentuated through the skyline view through the outfield walls.

St. Louis is known for their fans, and coming off last year's World Series win, they sold out the park on July 4th. Given the reception of boos that the pre-recorded messages from commissioner Bud Selig and President Bush received last year at July 4th games, it was hardly surprising that the experiment was not repeated this year, though there were tasteful honorings of servicemen and women throughout the game. People even got the chance to take their picture with the World Series trophy.

Once again, the Midwest propensity for lining up astounded me. As we were waiting for the stadium to open, people were forming orderly lines by all of the gates to the stadium that extended back a long way. A few minutes before the gates were to open, someone inside informed the line to our left that that gate would not be opening. I immediately started to look for an escape route from the ensuing riot, but by the time I had turned around, all the people in the line had already soundlessly re-attached themselves to the other gate lines.

I cannot understand this mindset at all. If this had happened at Yankee Stadium, I can already see the Post headline the next day, "BASE-BRAWL: dozens injured in stadium melee."

Another anomaly was the "Kiss Cam." This is common at a lot of parks, where they turn the Jumbotron camera on couples, and they have to kiss or face the opprobrium of the crowd. People will do it here on the coast, sometimes begrudgingly, but I have never seen the enthusiasm for this activity as I saw in the Midwest parks. The way people's faces lit up, it is as though this is the greatest moment of their lives. And sometimes they go at it with an inappropriate gusto. "Oh, Jesus, grandpa's heading to second."


The Game:
The Cardinals fell behind early, but never let the game get away from them. After pulling within one run in the bottom of the seventh, they scored two in the eigth and jumped ahead and held on for the win, despite a lead-off double by the D-Backs in the top of the ninth. Cardinals win, 5-4.


Scorecard:

Diamondbacks vs, Cardinals, 07/04/04. Cardinals win, 5-4.

$1 for a fold-out scorecard customized for the series. I've got to say it was a disappointment, especially for the Cardinals. There was a tiny amount of space for recording game data crammed within a ton of advertisements. It was completely inadequate for a NL game, and for the love of all that is holy, they didn't even have an area for the pitching lines.


Miscellanea:
The Diamondbacks managed to hit three ground rule doubles.


The Stadium Race:
Surprisingly (or, refreshingly), there was no race at St. Louis.


Travel & Other Non-Game Activities:
We had to drive all the way from Louisville before the game, so we didn't have all that much time to savor St. Louis. As a matter of fact, literally the very second that we got out of our car in the parking deck down the street from the stadium, the sky opened up as though the day of judgment was upon our pathetic mortal souls.

However, a little over an hour before gametime, the rain abruptly stopped, and it proceeded to get insanely hot and humid. The giveaway backpack was very useful for holding my rain slicker and other waterproofing gear. And in return for signing up for some contest, we also received a Cardinals towel that was very handy for drying off our seats.

Once again, under the cover of fireworks, we slipped out of a city. However, the citizens of St. Louis did not show themselves to their best light. There were apparently two fireworks displays going on in the city, and some of its more intellectual of citizens thought to take advantage of the view afforded by the active interstate by stopping in the passing lane and parking to watch the displays.


The Hotel:

Motel 6, Springfield, OH

We had a lot to get done the next day in Chicago, so we tried to drive as far as we were able towards the city, eventually bunking up for the night at a very nice Motel 6.

Click here to see all the pictures from this trip.

2007 The Midwest