Posted on 10/21/2005 8:54:56 AM PDT by Southside_Chicago_Republican
Busch Stadium's final bow came under a cool October sky, with class and grace and the tiny, brilliant flashes of drugstore cameras sparkling deep into the night.
It ended Wednesday with two of St. Louis' finest, capless and balding in their blue police shirts, standing in the left field grass and tossing a baseball back and forth as if they were still schoolboys. It ended with Emma Ganske, who had driven from her home in Collinsville without a ticket but who had talked herself into the old park at game's end, reaching over a low wall and scooping a handful of precious soil into a paper cup.
It ended with team employee Jason Piggee of Normandy, exactly at midnight by the big electronic clock high in right field, circling the Busch Stadium bases one last time, blowing kisses up into the empty scarlet seats.
"One more game, one more game, one more game," came a chant from just behind third base as the lights began to dim.
They would linger here, many of them, until early morning, to mark one more message on the smooth walls, to wave one more goodbye, or simply to remember.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
Mike Laga hit the only foul ball out of Busch Stadium.
ahem maybe 1984?
September 15, 1986.
Of course, with how our club performed in '05, renovation excitement is the only type we're having just now, unless you count our search for a new manager and several key players! :)
Went to a Cubs-Cardinals game at Busch a few years back. I was the only Blue cap in a sea of Red caps. I got up, looked around and turned around and yelled as loud as I could, "What the hell are all you Cardinal fans doing at a Cubs game ?"
Cubs fans are always welcome here. Hope you come back for the new stadium next year. The friendliest rivalry in Baseball.
Thanks Ken.
It was a great season and I met some very neat people on this ping list.
We'll do it again next year.
Were you surprised at Mulder's brain lock...in NOT throwing to third? Maybe he needs TWO La Russa spring trainings?
amazing how the place provides so many vivid memories
My wife passed in '03. She was (like me) an avid Cardinals fan. She entered Hospice in Sept of '02. My fondest memory was the last game she could attend, a playoff game in October. I called down in advance and they set up a cart to get her from the parking lot to our seats and the ushers were so nice and kept asking if they could do anything for her. After the game, they came, helped her to the cart and took us to our car. It is a perfect memory.
Is it true that the only one who ever hit a ball (albeit a foul ball) completely out of Busch was Strawberry?
I believe he hit the clock.
Yeah, We guess we remember... the last game at Sportsman's park. In Grandpa's basement. Him drinking a Falstaff Longneck, listening on the radio, or... I think he had an old b&w TV down there. By Golly, Busch Stadium. Shining, magnificent humongous thing it was. We just went through this in Houston with the Astrodome. Kudos to the Cubs for keeping their old bandbox until it came back into style again.
Best thing that ever happened to the Astros was getting put in the same division with the Cardinals IMO.
But for what it is worth, my all-time favorite was the original "Busch Stadium" (AKA "Sportsman's Park") that was the home of the Cardinals until 1966.
My uncle lived 3 blocks from Sportman's Park and was a beer vendor there for years. We used to walk to the park from his house.
Well, lets face it. BS was a dinosaur, pitchers park in a home run era, built with Astroturf over concrete, God knows how many careers it shortened. But I'm reminded of what Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address: "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." As Brian Kilmeade might say, it's "The Games That Count", and the fans, and the hearts and souls of the people. Like my folks, GRTS, who brought me to see the Cards, and better days, and better times. Simpler. When America was real, and everybody just knew it, and not a cheap facsimile. Have a (old) Coke and a smile.
Were you surprised at Mulder's brain lock...in NOT throwing to third? Maybe he needs TWO La Russa spring trainings
Actually that was deja vue all over again. He did the same thing in game 2. And to compound it, just as in game 6, he lets a run score with a wild pitch. Fine pitcher, crappy fielder. Tony will get his head on straight for next year. He'll do so much infield drill in spring training, his legs will fall off.
Well, lets face it. BS was a dinosaur, pitchers park in a home run era, built with Astroturf over concrete
It was/is a multipurpose stadium. Some of the lower seats 'swing' in and out to reconfigure it for football.
The astroturf was put down because the Cards have probably the largest 'out of town' fan base in MLB. People won't plan to come to STL from Tennessee, Mississippi, Illinois, Indiana etc etc if there is a chance of a rain out, so the astroturf was there to keep them to a minimum.
It was reconfigured to a pitchers park in the 'Whitey Ball' era when he built his teams on speed and pitching. Rather odd for a manager who had come over from the AL, which relied on slugging. Whitey was the manager who got the umps to start calling balks again. Before the Vince Coleman era, a pitcher could stand on his head and they couldn't call a balk.
Come'on. It was Gigantic. It was the house that Gibby built. And Carlton, before they started calling him "Lefty". I loved it. Astroturf was great. Or did I used to watch them on grass when I was little? Maybe so. I'm old now, and the mind plays tricks. Red Schoendienst. Dal Maxville. I loved him cuz he couldn't hit and neither could I. (I learned). Mike Shannon -- I was glad to learn he's doing the play by play. Good guy. Tim McCarver. Good player. Jerk to get an autograph from. Orlando Cepeda. Curt Flood (Remember him?) Lou Brock. The Alou brothers, Mattie, Felipe, and Jesus.
I don't care if it was hugh. It was great. I don't see why they have to ditch places full of memories like that after forty years. It's too soon. Too soon.
I don't care if it was hugh. It was great. I don't see why they have to ditch places full of memories like that after forty years. It's too soon. Too soon.
The official reason is the interior facility (plumbing, underground structures) have deteriorated to the point that renovation will be too costly. The underlying reason is that the teams in MLB share ticket revenue, but the luxury boxes are the teams revenue. They will have fewer general admission seats and more luxury box seats in the new stadium.
Busch was astroturf when it opened. It was only recently that they went to grass.
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