Fisher Times-Post-Dispatch-Courier

5 days, 3 baseball games, 1 late inning close loss, 1 spectacular but unsuccessful comeback, and 1 extra innings win.  Saturday and Monday were tickets I’ve had since before the season started, and were fun enough - especially Monday’s game.  I had 400-section nosebleeds, but after the Phillies took an 11-0 lead on Ryan Howard’s grand slam in the 6th, the stadium started to empty.  Never one to leave a game early, I caught sight of some field-box seats that weren’t being used and moved down, just beyond third base, 5 or 6 rows back.  And then the Cardinals offense came to life putting up 3 in the 6th, 6 in the 7th, and 2 in the 8th.  Meanwhile the bullpen gave up another homerun, leaving the score at 12-11.  Several drives (particularly one by Ryan Ludwick and one by Yadier Molina) looked like they were out of the park, but the dead wind in the stadium was no help as they were caught at the wall or on the warning track.  The game ended 13-11, but was wholly satisfying to those who bothered to stick around, which didn’t include the folks sitting in the front row, which is where I spent the last two innings of the game.

Then there was last night.  I finally got going early enough to bike down to the stadium at  7:30AM, and purchased a pair of "First Pitch" tickets for $5.50 each (there are 125 pairs sold day-of-game at 9:00AM before every game).  The catches are (1) you don’t enter the stadium until 10 minutes before game-time, (2) you probably won’t get any of the give-aways, and (3) you don’t know where your seats will be, or even if you will get a seat.  So just before game-time, I enter, get my tickets, and find that I’ve got 3rd base field-box seats.  Great seats, great view, great fun.  Cards took a 1-1 tie into extra innings, and on Yadier Molina bobble-head night (no I didn’t get one, drat!) who else but Yadier Molina drove in the game-winning run in the bottom of the 10th.  Fun stuff!

Mmmm.  An exciting day indeed.

First, early rise, plenty of studying.  8 hours worth, in fact.  Roughly.

Then off to downtown for a baseball game.  Of course, early afternoon was awful weather.  We had severe thunderstorm warnings all afternoon and on into the evening.  But after I got to the park, it only threatened, and missed us to the north, and except for the occasional glance into the gloomy dark sky, the weather couldn’t have been better for a baseball game.  And, finally, the home team came through with a quality game.

Big Brad Thompson got the start and pitched well, except for giving up a home run to the opposing pitcher.  The offense was on the verge of breaking through all game long, but left several men stranded on base until late in the game when a couple of home runs and a 2-run rally in the bottom of the eighth set up the one-run win.  Fun!

Then I battled the crowds (I’ll bet at least half of the 43,000+ there went my way) to the Arch Riverfront, where Fair St. Louis was going on.  Just in time, it turned out, as I managed to get down the stairs just as Cyndi Lauper was finishing up her set with Time After Time and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - the only two Cyndi Lauper songs I would recognize.  Frankly, I didn’t realize she was still alive, much less still dying her hair purple and performing.  But that was fun, too.  And I didn’t have to suffer through any of her recent stuff or anything that I didn’t know.  Missed the Goo Goo Dolls last night, though.

Oh, and she is sooooo Brooklyn, every time she spoke I was waiting for an "oye!"

And then fireworks, which were astounding.  Awesome.  And fun!

Then I realized that I was standing at the riverfront.  There were a few thousand people on the Arch steps, and several thousand more on the grassy park under the Arch beyond that.  Tens of thousands of people between me and my car.  And only two entrances, twenty feet wide.   Climb up the stairs, fighting the crowd, across the grassy park, fighting the crowd, up the hill, fighting the crowd, down the hill, fighting the crowd, through the bottleneck, fighting the crowd, then 10 blocks of walking with the crowd.  Then home!

Fun. 

Last night I went to the exhibition game between the AA Springfield Cardinals and the AAA Memphis Redbirds - the first game played at the new Busch Stadium.

I arrived at my usual time: two hours before game time to watch batting practice.  My first thought upon arriving is that the stadium is surprisingly unfinished.  I think this is a result of the placebo effect: in research trials, the doctor can tell a patient that they may be getting a placebo - even that there is likely no medical benefit from the drug if they receive it (in tests for safety) - but the research subject still believes/hopes that there will be a positive effect (which is the very reason for giving a placebo - to make sure the positive outcomes are due to the drug and not the healing power of hope).

I told you that to tell you this: they’ve been telling fans since the beginning that some of the stadium would not be finished.  BUT they’ve been trumpeting how far ahead of schedule the stadium is.  End result - I was shocked that so much of the stadium is closed off, and so many features haven’t yet been installed.  Example: the electric display screens on the third base side aren’t in yet.

As for the experience itself, it was great.  I stood in a short line on Clark Street (the other gates had thousands of people waiting in line, but because there was a lot of construction on Clark still going on, you couldn’t tell from the main gate that Clark was even accessible) for a few minutes before the gates opened.  There was a brief delay when the crew couldn’t open the lock on the gate and a worker had to cut off the lock.  It was obvious overall that the stadium needed this game to get warmed up for the season - everyone was a bit rusty, from the PA announcer to the organist to the scoreboard guy.

Speaking of the scoreboard, it is amazing.  I think it might be hi-def, but at any rate it is crystal clear, with bright and vivid colors, and, best of all, its visibility is not affected by angles, so it is just as visible from anywhere in the park.  The view out of the stadium is spectacular, as promised, though the ‘good’ seats along the first base side are blocked from the arch by the jumbotron.   Access around the stadium is vastly improved, as well, as you can now walk from the box seats to the bleacher seats without having to walk back into the walk-ways (which are now disgustingly wide and accommodating).

I sat in a dugout box seat on the first base (home) side, in the 8th row.  Good seats, but not great, because the angle of rise is so low - people around you block the view of the field in places.  The PR folks promised improved sight lines and no ‘dead zones’ on the field, but from my seat I couldn’t see some of left field (the very corner, really, and as I never had the privilege of sitting this close in old Busch, the sight line may very well be vastly improved.)  For my money, give me a terrace seat or a loge box - cheaper and higher so that the entire field can be seen.  As for the seats themselves, the comfy padding made sitting in the seat the entire game actually pleasant.

A final pick - there need to be informational displays (and probably will be soon) either behind the plate or along the 3rd base side, as I kept having to turn around to look at the jumbotron to discover the count/outs/who’s batting.

My night was fun.  Got a bit of sun during batting practice, wandered around and got some good pictures, and caught a foul ball - and had it signed by several Springfield players.  I felt like a bit of a baseball geek, though, because I felt like the only person (besides the minor league season ticket fans and families at the game) who was paying attention and cheering.  Thousands of fans were there solely to look at the stadium and never even bothered to go to their seats - resulting in a real crush of people under the stands just walking around looking at things.  But, that’s me - I’m not just a spectator, I like to participate.

And for those of you who are still reading, if I’ve made you think that I’m critical of the stadium, I’m not.  It’s beautiful and pristine and wonderful, and will provide for some special days and nights of baseball for years to come.  Now, bring on the Cardinals!