An Ode to "Old Busch"

No, not to old beer (I have heard Busch is really, really bad anyways).

But to the stadium.

A column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch by Jeff Gordon (one of my favorite writers) really stuck it to me. This stadium is going to be obliterated. I am sure the new ballpark (aptly named "Busch Stadium," at least some things are sacred) will be plenty nice. I've gone to some nice parks, like SBC in San Francisco, and some awful ones, like the Metrodome here in Minneapolis. But Busch?

I have been to a bunch of Cardinals games there over the years. My family never followed any other sports in the area: the fottball team evacuated in the mid 80s, hockey never really excited us. Soccer? heh.

So it was always baseball. Some of my favorite memories have been in Busch:
- my grandparents taking my brother and I to games with a thermos of iced tea and bags of popcorn. We sat near the top of the stadium, but it was always great.
- some birthday were mom got box seat tickets. Closest I had been. "There's the dugout!"
- my parents buying tickets in 1997 to take their college son to see his favorite player who had recently arrived in St. Louis: Mark McGwire. He promptly hits his first Cardinals home run.
- flirting with my to-be girlfriend, fiance, and wife at a intern outing in the summer of 1997.
- getting a great birthday present in 1997: a trip to the ballpark with my now-girlfriend. We sat in the upper deck right behind home plate (the best seats, in our opinion). Mac launches another bomb, this one hitting the "Post-Dispatch" sign above the center-field scoreboard. We were not sure it got out, but it turned out to be the longest homer I have ever seen. Happy birthday!
- taking my youngest sister to her first game in 1998 with my almost-fiance and her father. McGwire goes deep three times. She wears a Willie McGee shirt from mom and a Cards cap I got her (gotta be equipped right).
- my "bachelor party" with my brother in 1999. It was killer sunny in the center field upper deck, but Mac launched another one.
- and last year, going with my inlaws to what will likely be my last time there.

Too bad.