| The
weekend of May 4th and 5th, my Dad and I hit the road for
a quick two-day baseball road trip. We were embarking on two
new cites and stadiums, both great baseball towns: St. Louis
and Milwaukee.
We hit the road at 5:00am on Saturday to take the seven and
a half-hour drive over I-70 to St. Louis. The drive itself
seemed very short--maybe it was the great conversations about
our fantasy baseball teams, and how much I am annihilating
the rest of our league. Maybe it was the Kool-Aid truck we
were stuck behind. Have you ever seen a Kool-Aid semi? It’s
pretty cool. OH YEAH! Maybe it was coming up with
the list of all the stadiums we had gone to. Not that the
list is that long compared to others, but we have most of
the Midwest covered:
-
Jacobs Field
- Municipal
Stadium
- Riverfront
Stadium
- Great
American Ballpark
- Tiger
Stadium
- Comerica
Park
- PNC
Park
- Camden
Yards
- Yankee
Stadium
- Old
Comiskey Park
- New
Comiskey Park
- Wrigley
Field
And
in 2 days add:
- Busch
Stadium
- Miller
Park
I
had two big reasons to want to travel to St. Louis. 1) This
was the final season for Busch Stadium. The Cardinals are
building a new park next door. 2) Albert Pujols. The Cardinals
first baseman is my favorite baseball right now. And has been
for the past four seasons, since he came up as a rookie.
Well, we reached St. Louis. Big clue? The giant Arch. The
stadium is downtown, with not much atmosphere around it--parking
garages mostly. And the new stadium is being built next door.
As you walk around Busch stadium, you can see inside the new
park. It still has a long way to go, but it looked interesting.
So
we go inside Busch. First thought? Why the hell do they need
a new stadium? This one was beautiful! Apparently it was built
in the 1960s and the Cardinals want a smaller/intimate park
now, just like everyone else. Probably will be loaded with
luxury suites. Anyway, the park was cool, and you can see
the St. Louis Arch hovering above stadium in centerfield.
I went down to see if I could get any pictures of Pujols taking
batting practice, but he was now where to be found. The Padres,
the opponent of the day, were throwing and stretching.
We
walked around the concourse, my dad in search of souvenirs.
I was in search of a hot dog... and I struck gold. Cardinals'
wieners come in jumbo sized and run you $4.50. Add in a huge
helping of garlic fries and I was set. The hot dog was delicious!
It was about a monster--you could barely see the bun. One
of the best ballpark dogs I’ve ever had. And in case
you were wondering, Busch Stadium only sells Budweiser products.
Game
time. Our seats were not too bad; We were in the second level,
down the third base line, and we could see into the Padres
bullpen. The stadium had 45,000 people there that day and
they all had red on. The seats were red too, so it looked
even more packed. Before the game, I had told my dad that
I wanted Pujols to homer five times, but for the Cardinals
to lose a close one, so that I could see one of my other favorite
players, Padres pitcher Trevor Hoffman, close the game out
in the ninth inning. Well, in the bottom of the first, Albert
Pujols jacked a shot to center field. Home run. I was snapping
my digital camera as much as I could. He didn’t homer
the rest of the game, but the Padres came back to take the
lead. In the ninth, Trevor Hoffman came out and closed the
game down for a 5-4 Padres victory. Not too shabby of a prediction.
Then it was on too Milwaukee, another six hour drive. We stopped
and slept over in Chicago that night, so it was only a couple
more hours to drive in the morning. Eventaully, we see downtown
Milwaukee and get off at the next exit to go to the park.
It is out in the middle of nothing, surrounded by parking
lots, and we found out why--Tailgaters. Everywhere. We pulled
into the lot and I think we were the only car not to have
a grill fired up. It was just like a football game. I can
only wonder what a Packers game would be like?
 The
newly built Miller Park (2000) was completely different than
Busch Stadium. First off, it has a retractable roof, which
adds to the unique architecture of the whole park. It is very
open. One could hit a homerun through the open windows and
out into the parking lot. Another unique feature is the Bernie
Brewer slide: Bernie Brewer is the mascot of the Brewers.
At the old Brewers Stadium, whenever a Brewer hit a homerun,
he would go down a slide and into a huge glass of Brew! They
brought the slide into the new park, but not the glass of
brew, instead he whirls down to the bottom level. Still fun
to see, though we didn’t see it used (no Brewers hit
homers). Our seats were awesome thanks to my mom’s company,
who is a distributor for Miller beer--15 rows behind the Mets'
dugout. Yeah, they played the Mets. It turned out to be a
decent game with the Brewers winning it in the bottom of the
ninth on a pinch-hit single by J.J. Hardy.
How
were the hot dogs though? Okay. They were burnt, which was
good, but they didn’t have anything extraordinary going
for them. And if you were wondering, you can only get Miller
products in Miller Park. Yummy Miller Lite.
The
greatest thing about going to a Brewers game, though, is the
Sausage race: Giant costumed wieners race around the park.
On this day, my first wiener race, the giant Italian, Polish,
Brat, and Hot Dog ran around the back of the field and tag
little weenies. Smaller versions of them who race down the
right field line for victory. I believe that the Polish Sausage
won on this Sunday afternoon, though the Hot Dog was leading
the overall standings.
And then it was the long drive back home. Too bad we didn’t
see any more Kool-Aid trucks.
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