in 1999, a couple of friends and i got in my car and drove to st. louis. there is no good way to drive to st. louis from the twin cities, although i understand that it is a bit better now. anyway, we drove through iowa to get to missouri but crossed over into illinois and drove through wisconsin to get back.
the point of our trip was to see a couple of games at busch stadium between the cardinals and the dodgers. sure, we made time to go up inside the arch and take in the westward expansion museum or whatever it is on site, but most of our weekend was focused on baseball. and driving.
the dodgers won the first game of the series behind kevin brown, but lost the two games we attended - the saturday and sunday games of the series.
nothing really notable happened in those games (mark mcgwire failed to hit a home run) other than a walk-off ray lankford home run (his second dinger of the game) in the sunday game. one of the things that i remember most was how much beer was being consumed around me. cardinal fans can drink. the other is that i thought the cardinals had done a nice job transforming the stadium from a multi-purpose venue to a baseball-only facility.
i have this 1994 score cardinals checklist card
to represent my trip in my "stadiums in which i've seen a game" mini-collection. here are my ticket stubs:
busch was the second stadium that i had been to (jack murphy was the first) where the visiting team used the third base dugout which went against everything i had been taught starting from little league. the cardinals had lots of history on display here, with the nl pennants on top of the aforementioned dugout, the world championship banners in left field, and their retired numbers in right. jackie robinson's number is represented by the flag furthest to the right.
i haven't made it back to st. louis since 1999, but i would like to check out their new stadium someday.
That's a fantastic photo! Sounds like a great time, even if McGwire didn't hit one out and the Dodgers didn't win when you were there.
ReplyDeletethanks chris. baseball roadtrips are always fun.
DeleteNever took the time to analyze the sides of the dugouts, because I always assumed that the home team was on the third base side. Like you mentioned, I probably got that from Little League. Plus I know the A's dugout is on the 3rd base side. Pretty sure the SF Giants are too.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Like Chris pointed out... great photo!
when the twins built their new stadium, they moved the home dugout to the first base side. the reasoning was that the layout of the site allowed for more spacious clubhouse and workout rooms on that side of the ballpark.
DeleteI didn't make it to Busch II, but I finally made it to St. Louis in 2019 for a few games. It feels more open than the older stadium did (at least what I'd seen on TV and in pictures) and being able to see the Arch is a fun touch.
ReplyDeleteyes i should have noted that this is busch ii. i think i could have walked around to the right field side and see the arch from inside the stadium - that might have been a better photo to represent the city.
DeleteThere was a sports trivia game show years ago where the teams were made up of 2 guys form the same city. One day it was Philly vs. St. Louis. The announcer said, "from Philadelphia, where they name their stadiums after the honorable military..." The announcer then said, "from St. Louis, where they name their stadiums after beer!".
ReplyDelete