Bill's Journal Entry #7

Busch Stadium

Date: July 1, 2002

Location: St. Louis, Missouri

Opponent: San Diego Padres

Travel companion: My dad, Marvin Verkuilen

Link to my photos: http://cards.webshots.com/cp-30848358-wRRD-album/42570353vgYDIn 

Game Result: Thanks to a quirk in the Major League schedule, which just happened to coincide with a quirk in our travel schedule, we got to see the Padres as the road team for the second consecutive day -- once in an AL stadium and once in an NL stadium. Fortunately, the Padres kept this game a bit closer. Unfortunately, it wasn’t much closer, as the Padres fell 7-3. It wasn’t even that close -- the Cards led by six at one point. Pitcher Woody Williams belted one of the three St. Louis homers in the game.

Stadium Summary: When I first approached the outside of this stadium, I was pleased, saddened, and apprehensive. Pleased by the monuments to former Cardinal greats surrounding the stadium, and the pennants celebrating the Cardinals. Also pleased by the general appearance of the stadium -- despite not being the most attractive stadium in the Majors, it just seemed somehow to “work” in that location. The architecture and the completely round shape seem to fit well with the surrounding area, and the arched supports of the light structures blend with the Gateway Arch (located just around the corner) quite nicely. Saddened, at the still fresh flowers at the memorials to both Jack Buck and Daryl Kile. And apprehensive, just knowing that this is one of the cookie-cutter Veterans/Three Rivers/Riverfront/Fulton County/Busch stadiums that were/are so terrible for baseball -- and as of 2004, it will be the last one still in use. And because of this, when we entered, I was definitely pleasantly surprised. This isn’t a great stadium, mind you, but once it became a baseball-only facility, they did a decent job of making improvements they couldn’t previously. Gone are the awful artificial turf and sliding pits, and in is natural (though rather beat-up looking) natural turf. Also added are seats that run along the base lines, rather than the previous bowl configuration. True, a good number of seats still don’t face the infield, and much of the stadium is rather bland, reminiscent of when the stadium needed to be ready for the Rams or football Cardinals on a moment’s notice. But it was still considerably better than I was expecting from a cookie cutter.

Best way to get an aerial view of a stadium from a National Monument: Ride to the top of the Gateway Arch, the tallest structure in St. Louis. In addition to great looks at the river and the city, the view from the Arch also allows you to scout out seating locations in the stadium. Go early in the day -- not only do you beat the lines, but you also get the sun at your back when viewing the city and the stadium.

Second best, not-quite-aerial view of the stadium: From the Marriott Hotel’s hot tub, located in a second-floor atrium across the street from the stadium. After a long day or two of driving, it was hard to top.

Best two signs (at least so far) that you’re among very knowledgeable baseball fans: 1) Fans who won’t stop cheering for a pitcher who hits a homer until he comes out for a curtain call. And 2) A scoreboard that shows what players did in previous at bats only using scorebook notation. I really have to give credit to the St. Louis fans -- they showed themselves to be the most knowledgeable fans I’ve seen on my tour. I doubt highly that any other stadium would have collectively realized the rarity and significance of a pitcher hitting a homer. Also, to tell fans that a player hit into a double play in his last at bat, any other stadium would have put “hit into double play” on the scoreboard. In St. Louis, they simply put “4-6-3 (DP)”, and everyone knows what it means.

A trend continues: Three Cardinals homers continued my home-team-homer streak, which is now at seven. Only 23 more straight, and I’ll be perfect for the year…

Stadium grade: C+  Maybe not a “Field of Dreams,” but possibly a “Cookie-Cutter Field of Dreams”.

Overall grade of my experience at the game: B  The two best features of this stadium are the fans, and the Cardinals themselves, and both proved to be a blast to be with.

-- Bill Verkuilen    biggbill@hotmail.com

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