Good Bye Busch

I went to a Cards game last night. It is always good to go see the Redbirds. Thanks to my good buddy Pete who had the four tickets he passed on to me. Wishing I could have found three other people to go (I exhausted my phone book looking for names). It is hard to do on short notice I guess, never seems difficult for me though, that will probably change. It is a good thing that the Cards don't play in November because if someone asked me to go on the day of the birth of my child, I would still be torn :)

I didn't think I was going to get sentimental with this season being the last one at "Old Busch", but that changed last night. There I was hovering over home plate in the third deck (which I am starting to think is the best place to sit if you are going to sit in the upper deck) when all the sudden memories starting pouring into my mind. I began thinking about my first game at this old stadium back in 1986. I was 8 years old and did not know much about baseball then. My love affair began on that day. I saw the Cards, who had the championship stolen from them the year before (thank you Don Dinkinger), playing the New York Mets- pond scum!. Those Mets went on to beat the Boston Red Sox in the Series thanks to Bill Buckner's error (actually, for other reasons, but Buckner always gets the blame).

I attended another game against the Mets where I saw something never been done at Busch before or since. I saw Mike Laga hit a foul ball out of the stadium. I didn't realize how monumental it was at the time. I do remember thinking about looking for the ball on the parking lot when I left. Now, I think how weird that would have been to be on the street and have a ball drop from the sky near you.

Here's the report from baseball almanac: Laga’s foul ball on 9/15/87 vs. New York was the only ball, fair or foul, ever hit out of Busch Stadium — it went out on the first base side about 2/3 of the way down the line.

I sat back in my seat last night and took in the view of the arch as I could just see the southern portion edged out from the side of a building. I took in the beauty of the arches built into the Stadium's design. I will never forget my memories of Busch. Especially one's like last year as my friends and I watched the Cards beat the Astros in the NLCS. I really hope we go out with a bang. Things look good now. And for the numerologists out there, Tony Larussa is in his 10th season as manager of the Cards, he wears the #10 and the Cards are going after their 10th title.

Bring home # 10 boys.

On a totally unrelated note: The dead bird count it up to 8. I am hoping to find two more.