Real Baseball in Springfield
Posted April 3, 2005

After a narrow 4-3 victory over their AA affiliate, the Springfield Cardinals, the day before, St. Louis's mighty offense erupted, resulting in a lopsided 18-6 score. Considering I didn't go to an exhibition game to see a minor league team give a major league team a hard time, I was quite pleased with the results. After all, each of the Cardinals' sluggers got their chance to go deep. Walker, Pujols, Rolen, and Edmonds all hit home runs, in addition to Hector Luna and Yadier Molina (not in that order; I didn't keep score, okay?). Mark Mulder went six not-so-great innings, but at least he showed some endurance and the ability to be really tall. Mulder is seriously a giant. Albert Pujols is 6'3", and after one inning ended with an out at first base, Albert jogged back to the dugout and passed Mulder on the way. For a minute I wondered what building Albert was in the foreground of, and then realized it was Mark Mulder. If Albert hadn't squeaked and darted out of the way, he might have been stepped on by the Mighty Mark Mulder.

Seeing as the St. Louis team won't be back in Springfield for at least another year (if they even come back then), I mostly focused my photography efforts on them. And by mostly, I mean I didn't take a single picture of any Springfield Cardinal at all. You can't blame me. On one end you have legitimate major leaguers, and in many cases, superstar caliber players. Then on the other end you've got these stupid looking guys that will hopefully never make it to the majors. I hope I'm wrong there, but the AA team looks pretty bare to me. I know I'm not a certified scout and even if I was it'd be hard to tell much from one game against a good team like the St. Louis Cardinals, but I'm pretty sure our AA team sucks, plain and simple.

Anyway, I was very impressed with the stadium. For once I was quite proud of this stupid city. I'm sure the Cardinals (the real ones) were pretty pleased with it, too. The outfield grass looks better at Hammons Stadium than it does at Busch, anyway, even if the swirly wave-like grass patterns made me wonder if the grounds crew was inebriated at the time. I definitely hope the really loud, middle-aged guy that was sitting behind me never comes to another game again. This guy hadn't even drank anything (to my knowledge), and he still wouldn't shut up. The problem with minor league parks is that hecklers can actually be heard pretty well, and the fact that he was right behind me didn't help. Here are a few comments this insightful fan blessed his neighbors with:

- When Larry Walker hit his home run: "You're old but you're good! Take a seat old man; you earned it!"
- When David Eckstein failed to catch a bullet up the middle: "I can't help but think Renteria would have gotten that!"
- When David Eckstein came anywhere within his range of vision: "We want Renteria!" (No, no we don't.)
- When David Eckstein failed to stop yet another rocket: "What are you doing playing so far in? Were you playing with the rosin bag? Renteria!"
- When David Eckstein was batting: "We're trying to put him on the injury reserve. Help us out, pitcher!"

I know David Eckstein isn't as good as Edgar Renteria, and I know he's roughly the size of a large house cat, but why don't we see how he does in the regular season first? I'm a little tired of hearing about how he isn't Edgar Renteria. I think that much is obvious, but then again, some people are under the mistaken impression that there was this outright swap of Renteria for Eckstein. Hey, guys: Renteria voluntarily left St. Louis because Boston offered him an extra five dollars and some clam chowder. At one point I felt compelled to inform him of this fact, so when he bellowed yet another time for Renteria I simply turned and quickly stated, "He went to Boston," and then returned to taking pictures. Hey, someone has to stick up for David Eckstein. I don't want the image of him crying in the clubhouse on my conscience. As a side note, though, watching him throw is genuinely funny. I laughed every time it happened. Also, I hope he and Scott Rolen never miscommincate on an infield pop-up and collide.

All in all though, I greatly enjoyed my first trip to Hammons Field, and I look forward to returning. Next time I'll try and take some pictures of the players of the home team. I'm not making any promises, though. The camera has a knack for zooming in on prospects who actually have a chance of making it to the majors someday, and I don't argue with it.

Pictures
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Pujols rounds the bases after hitting a fat AA pitch over
the puny AA right field wall.