YCS Baseball Roadshow: Stop 6, Busch Stadium, St. Louis, MO

Well, the YCS staff's dream to one day, collectively visit and comment on all 30 Major League parks is one step closer to reality. Last night after a thoroughly entertaining (and drunken) SLU Law softball game in which my three-run homer (yes, a homer) was not enough to lift Motion to Strike over the Bad News Barristers, my buddy Matt and I decided to head down to kind-of brand spanking new Busch Stadium for the first game of a four-game set between the Cardinals and my Cubs.

With the Cards and Cubs being the hot ticket that it was, we were very fortunate to snag some tickets off the streets from the scalpers for very close to face ($30 for $26 seats), and the view was not too shabby (aside from the hole in the ground beyond left field where old Busch used to stand.)

First off, let me just say that any notion of Cardinals fans being the "best fans in baseball" who are just that much more knowledgeable and passionate for "getting behind the hometown team" is a load of bullshit. The stadium was half-empty in the top of the second inning. There was never really any significant noise from the home crowd, and this is a team that, admittedly while they're in a bit of a tailspin/free fall right now, is still playing meaningful baseball in mid-September, and had the division leaders and their archrivals in for the weekend.

The Cardinals fans in our section, however, were pretty cool to us. After some good-natured heckling, we ended up hanging out with a group of Cardinals fans from Belleville, IL, which is right across the river. When asked who they hated more, the Royals or the Cubs, the answer was simple and direct. "We hate you personally more." OK.

I laughed at the "McDonalds Big Mac" corner in left field where they give the fans giant french fries to wave to distract the opposing batter who's only 340+ feet away. Not to mention the fact that it's there to commemorate where Big Mac hit his 62nd Home Run...except it was in a different stadium. Oops.

Beer, as in any ballpark, is a ripoff, but here, it felt even worse. $8.25 for
Bud Light. That is extortion. Two beers cost me $16.50. The brewery is literally right down the street, so you can't build shipping costs into that. A-B rules St. Louis like the Russian mob, and they're ripping off the townsfolk for $8.25 in exchange for watered-down Clydesdale piss.

Some other strange observations about Busch...

If a tornado strikes St. Louis, and you are a woman at Busch Stadium, you are shit outta luck. Say hello to the flying monkeys for me.

The Olde Tyme charm of a hand-changed scoreboard is kind of lost when it's quoting stocks. I wonder if during day games when the markets are open they hand change it live. If so, my hats off to those guys.

The courthouse near Busch is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Dred Scott
Decision. Is that something you'd really like to be proud of? "150 years ago on this spot, informed people of this state determined that people ARE in fact property."

The Cubs just about gave me a heart attack in the 9th inning by allowing two homers, then loading the bases before finally winning 5-3.