Redbird Roost

One of the highlights of summer is a trip back to St. Louis to see the Cardinals at Busch Stadium each year. Plans are set early in the year when MLB schedules are released and even though tickets are difficult to come by lately, it's always a good time hangin' out at the ballpark with my brother, Bill who lives in St Peters. Even in the unfortunate and occational blowout (like our July '06 series games with the Braves) we always make the best of it.

June 20, 2007

We had plans to take the official ballpark tour this year, so we purchased tickets for the last tour of the day at 2 p.m. then hung out at a few of the local watering holes until the gates opened for the game against Kansas City. The tour took us up to the broadcast booth where Mike Shannon and John Rooney call the play-by-play. Huge photos of Buck and Carey, and Shannon in his playing days, filled the room that had two levels of seats and an exercise ball that Mike sits on during the game! We went down to field level behind homeplate and into the Cardinals dugout just as FSN reporter Jim Hayes was prepping for a report. I gave him a smile and said, "Go get 'em Cat!" I'm sure he was pleased to see at least one person on the tour recognized who he was!

The tour included a look at some of the party suites but didn't include the press box, or even a walk around the field like the tour at Great America in Cinncinnati. Unfortunately, our tour guide was too young and uninformed to make it very interesting. Outside the gates again, we visited Shannon's new outdoor patio, north of the ballpark, then went down to Paddy O's south of the stadium for a final pre-game beverage. When the gates opened we made our way up to the B of A Club and snagged two stools close to the windows inside to enjoy the buffet dinner as we watched the pre-game activities. "That One Guy" made a pitch to see the World Series trophy beyond centerfield, so Bill and I left our seats in good hands with our new ballpark friends and ventured out to the Ford Plaza. Before I knew it, I had a microphone in my face and was being interviewed for the local show ChalkTalk on whether Bary Bonds should be included on the All-Star Team. No way!! Unfortunately, he was voted in by the fans.

I had on my Slama-a-lama DING DONG shirt in honor of Joe Buck and we watched the first half-inning inside the club as the Royals scored three runs on some sloppy defense. Outside, we found seats in the second row behind two Royals fans and had fun all night as the Cards came back with runs in the first, fifth, seventh, and ninth innings to tie the game. We finally won it in the 14th inning with a walk-off HR from Ryan Ludwick. By that time we were sitting in field level right behind home plate as the winning run scored! What a night!!

June 22, 2007

We had an early dinner with Bill and Carla and Deb at O'Connell's bar and grill @ Kingshighway & I-44, known for the best burgers in town. They were excellent! It was Deb's first visit to the new ballpark and since she scored us four awesome seats in the first row behind the Cardinal Club, we were more than pleased to pick up the tab and give her the tour. We started at the west entrance near Stan The Man's statue then walked the perimeter past Jack Buck's tribute, where a memorial of the legend is located on Clark Street. It gave me chills to hear the radio broadcast highlights of the great calls in Jack's career. It's a continuous cycling of classic Cardinal moments from St. Louis' greatest announcer - Joe Buck's dad!

At Clark and Broadway, Deb took a photo of me pointing to my Cardinal brick paver before we met Gene near our seats in Section 145. Gene Diers has been an usher at Cards' spring training games during the past four years and is a park host during the month of April at Montauk State Park. His youngest son Dave joined us before the game too, and we spent time catching up on each others' lives. It was a scoreless game until the third inning when the Phillies got five runs off Anthony Reyes. It was typical of the Cards' 2007 season. We left 10 men in scoring position and got shut out 7-0. Wow.

June 25, 2007

Roadtrip to Memphis!

With the Cards in a funk this year, we headed south thru Arkansas and into Tennessee to see how the future Cardinals were doing down on the farm. Our first stop was the Visitors Info Center in downtown Memphis where we discovered the Redbirds were in town and playing this week at Autozone Ballpark. Determined to find a cheap hotel within walking distance, we found the King's Court Motel just outside the right field gate on Union Ave. and secured a second-floor room overlooking the parking lot and its small, neglected pool. We spotted a late-model Mustang with St. Louis Cardinal license plates and debated whether or not it belonged to a current Redbird player. In fact, it was Jeremy, the organist for the ballclub who had arrived from SE Missouri State with credentials from Ernie Hayes himself, the Cardinal keyboardist. When I told him I've always loved Earnie's signature song, we both hummed it before he took out his iPod and played a recorded version. "It's called 'Game Time' and Earnie wrote it himself," he said.

With more than five hours to go before game time, we went to Graceland! What a concept! Fans pay $39 to see Elvis' grave site, home, and personal airplanes as they looked in 1977, the year thd King died. I wasn't too eager to wait an hour and fifteen minutes for a tour, and the $62 VIP ticket seemed a bit steep to join the next tram, so Bill and I explored the property where Sirius radio broadcasts Elvis's tunes 24 hours per day. Inside one of the gift shops Bill found a coffee-table book and went thru each page, explaining all the details he could recall from his visit three years ago. It was the cheap-ass tour of Graceland!

We had a swim and a shower back at the King's Court, listened to a few MTB and Johnny Cash songs on the car stereo, and then walked across Union Ave. to buy a $5 general admission seat to see Rick Ankiel, Tag Bozied, Jolbert Cabrera and the Memphis Redbirds. The team was still taking batting practice so Bill and I started chumming with the ushers behind home plate. Before I knew it, we were sitting in the first row behind the Redbirds' dugout with a Memphis scorecard signed by Redbirds' manager Chris Mahoney and four of the players. Not bad for a $5 ticket!

The Redbirds played Sandy Alomar, Jr.'s team, the New Orleans Zephyrs. Ankiel went 2-4 and Cabrera had a pinch-hit single in the 8th but it wasn't enough. The game was a 4-1 loss, but with the autographs, a ball tossed our way, and a broken bat from Jolbert, it was a special night! Jeremy even played the Budweiser song during 7th innning stretch and by the end of the game we were so wiped out that we abandoned any plans of post-game activities. Beil Street would have to wait until another time!

July 15, 2006

Our first visit to the new ballpark was a winner! Since it was a Saturday "premium" game against the Dodgers, I didn't bother buying expensive seats. I wanted to see as much of the new Busch Stadium as possible, so we bought Standing Room tickets and moved around the ballpark each inning to enjoy the different viewpoints. Jeff Suppan pitched into the eighth inning of a tight ballgame. Albert Pujols tied the game with a line drive home run over the left field wall, and Scott Rolen got the game-winning hit after the Dodgers intentionally walked Pujols in the 10th inning! What a way to see the new Busch Stadium!

We weren't as fortunate during the next series against the Braves. On Monday night we watched Jeff Weaver make his first start as a Cardinal on ESPN. What a complete disaster! The next night was even worse when Jason Marquis got blasted for 7 runs in the first three innings against the Braves. Fortunately, Bill and Carla and I had seats in the Bank of America Club with unlimited food & drink, so we weren't feeling too shabby at all that night. Besides, we were in first place! Norm was at the park too, so he kept in touch with his cell phone to enjoy some of our complementary beverages.

I was eager to see the old, out-of-town scoreboard from the old ballpark so I went up to the suite level to take a look. Unfortunately, the ushers aren't very accomodating up there but, luckily I convinced one to let me take a look at both scoreboards, hanging inside the concourse along the first base side of the stadium. In the end, the new ballpark is a beautiful facility with great seats everywhere, but the buzz level and the crowd noise just can't compete with the old Busch Stadium.

July 21, 2005

The final season at the Old Busch had some special moments. As a MLB Season Ticket subscriber, I'm able to watch just about every Cardinal game each season and this season was a special one. The final countdown, the big crowds every night, another 100 win season, and the last regular season game with its parade of former Cardinal greats will always stay in my mind. We visited Busch II for the last time in July. It was my son's first visit to the only ballpark I had ever known as a kid growing up in St. Louis and we had box seats down the right field line for a Thursday afternoon game against the Brewers. Man, it was hot that day, but my son was determined to get his Card's cap autographed as the pitchers stretched before the game in right field. Ray King obliged; the Cards fell 12-7.

On Saturday, it was nearly 100 degrees again but we stayed cool in the shade behind home plate in Section 248. Not a bad location for having SRO in a game against the Cubs! The bad news: Matt Morris gave up eight hits and three home runs and the Cards came up short, 6-5. The next morning we drove down to Johnson's Shut-Ins, never realizing at the time that not only would I never see old Busch Stadium again, I wouldn't be able to relax in the cool waters of the Shut-ins for quite some time either! AmeriEU's negligence on Tom Sauk Mountain has ruined any future visits to enjoy the Black River for who-knows-how-long.

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