Chicago Cubs |
St. Louis Cardinals |
4 |
2 |
W: J. Samardzija |
W: A. Wainwright |
S: K. Gregg |
|
Highlight: |
The views |
The Sun Showed Up!
This was the perfect day of baseball and Americana. I kicked my morning by heading down to the Gateway Arch. So far I have not really had any time to do touristy stuff in most of the cities, but I made sure to make it up to the Arch so I could take some shots of the stadium from 630 feet in the air.
I was surprised to see the Arch so packed on a Tuesday, before realizing that most of the visitors were out-of-towners like me who had tickets to the Cardinals game. As I discovered yesterday, there are quite a few people who travel from great distances to see Busch Stadium. The view of the stadium from the Arch is spectacular. Seeing the stadium from the Arch and then seeing the Arch in the background of the stadium is a pretty cool way to spend a day.
Because of the rain delay yesterday I was not able to properly walk around the stadium. Today I took advantage of the beautiful weather and took a stroll up through the concourse. Sadly, the Cardinals Hall of Fame is going through a redesign so I was unable to see it, but I am told that it will be a special attraction.
Like Atlanta, there were some pregame festivities that included live music on the concourse. Three young men entertained the crowd with covers of music from the 90s and early 2000s.
With
the Cardinals museum currently under construction, there are not many
amenities inside the park. This is not a complain however as the
people more than make up for the lack of attractions I did come
across a Build-A-Bear that gave kids an opportunity to create their
own Fredbird doll. While walking around the stadium I simply enjoyed
the views from the upper deck and chatting with ushers, vendors and
fans about baseball.
I gave the stadium one more chance to feed me a good meal, but unfortunately I was 0-3 in the food department. Today I tried a turkey burger platter and once again left disappointed. I spoke to my seatmates later in the game about the lack of good food at the park and they agreed that this was one of the few areas where Busch Stadium needed to improve.
Game Time
For the second night in a row I lost count of the "first pitch" participants. I maintain that while it is a nice gesture to include so many people in the tradition, maybe change the name to "first pitches"? It's a subtle change, but an important one nonetheless.
The home team has not fared very well on the tour through my first ten games. Through today's game I am .500 in home team victories. The Cardinals were unable to carry the momentum from last night's victory to today as Cubs pitcher Jeff Samardzija pitched into the 9th inning to pick up the victory. Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright overcame a horrendous four-run 1st inning to pitch the next six innings giving up only three hits, but the damage had been done.
One of the charms of Busch Stadium is that they still employ a live organist. Hearing the organ being played during breaks in the action and the 7th inning stretch is a welcome respite from the pop song of the moment that comes blaring over the stadium speakers.
Once again I chatted with my seatmates about the game of baseball. There were quite a few Cubs fans in attendance. Even though the Cardinals/Cubs rivalry is not what it once was, there is still plenty of animosity between the two fan bases. There was a family of four sitting next to me that included a father who was a Cardinals fan with a mother and two children representing the Cubbies. Suffice it to say the father was not looking forward to the long drive home after his Cards dropped this one to the lesser Cubs.
There is nothing constructive for me to add about this stadium that I did not include in yesterday's post, so I will leave you with some more pictures of the beautiful Busch Stadium.
Next up: The Kansas City Royals
Game Stats
First Pitch: Several people
Game Time Temp: 84
First Pitch Time: 7:15 PM
Seventh Inning Stretch: Live organ music
Total Pitches Thrown: 256
Total Hits: 16
Total Singles: 8
Total Doubles: 5
Total Triples: 0
Total Home Runs: 3
Total Walks: 2
Total Strike Outs: 10
Total Errors: 0
Game Time: 2:34
Attendance: 44,139 (100.4% full)
Home Plate Umpire: Bill Welke
Travel Stats
Miles Traveled: 50 miles
Time in Car: 1 hour 30 minutes
Sleep Time: 7 Hours 45 minutes
Bottles of Water: 9
Food Eaten: 2 breakfast bars
Fun Stats
Ballpark Food: Turkey burger platter, Ice Cream helmet
All Star Game Ballots filled out: 1
Money spent on parking: $10
Money spent on ticket: $69.00
Money spent on food: $20.75
Total money spent on Merchandise: $0.00
Total Money spent at stadium: $99.75
Total Money spent today $181.75