A walk in the (ball)park

In my limited experience surfing the blogosphere it appears that there really is nothing that isn’t postworthy. It can be a challenge to make life seem

1.) interesting enough to warrant blogging and
2.) busy enough to post frequently.

All we did this past week was go to Sam’s, clean the garage, and take in a Cardinal game. Rather than bore you with the excruciating minutia of the former two (I’ll hold those stories for later just in case!) I’ll use this space for discussion of the latter.

Tuesday night Momma and I took TNH (The Newest Horvath) to its very first baseball game and our first trip to the new and improved Busch Stadium. It’s not like we had a choice in taking TNH, but I digress. I personally would have preferred that its first game be at Grizzly Park and that its first taste of ballpark fare be a Best Hotdog in Baseball (and where I have a knack for catching foul balls) but this chance just fell in our laps so we took it.

We left a little more than an hour ahead of schedule so we would have ample time to walk around the stadium and take in the newness. We passed on riding the MetroLink and found a small parking lot three blocks from home plate for $10. Not a bad price, but not a very attractive area either. It really is amazing that you can, in the course of four blocks, walk past the Hilton and the brand new ballpark and end up underneath some (abandoned?) train tracks in an unlit ‘parking lot’ that is more ground glass and overgrown weeds than blacktop, surrounded by a dilapidated chain link fence that the lot owner brings with him on game days. Not that we ever feared for our safety, there are lots of people visiting the taverns lining Broadway and police are ever present, it’s just such a stark contrast. Momma I have walked through 400 plus square blocks of downtown Chicago and never seen anything like this spot. Certainly not near the city’s #1 attraction. Busch stadium is truly a diamond in the rough.

As we strolled to the park the weather was delightfully October-ish. Temps in the 60’s, cloudy and humid with a slight breeze. Just about perfect, if you ask me. From outside, the new stadium’s brick façade is stunning, even with Highway 40 running basically right into it. Upon entering the gates the view is nothing but shops, kiosks, beer carts, and concession stands as far as you can see. It is semi enclosed, darker than you would think and kinda claustrophobic. The playing field is not visible; it’s inside the inside, like a courtyard. You actually have to look for it. But first things first. We walk about halfway around the perimeter in the first inside to find our section and see the surroundings. The sights are typical of every stadium in the country; it looks like a great place to be separated from a week’s pay. Only cleaner. Ho hum. We head inside the inside and check out our seats. Nice sightlines and nice view of the arch, but the ads are gaudy and pretty much everywhere, the beautiful manual scoreboard from the old park is absent, the sound system is abhorrent, and Cardinal history is greatly underplayed, bordering on forgotten. Overall I give it another ho hum.

Chow Time! We take a 20 section stroll in search of nachos. We parted with $24 for two plates of ultimate nachos and two sodas and head back to our seats. The nachos were absolutely delicious and it was a supreme struggle to finish them off. They were definitely worth every bit of $7.

Game Time! The Cardinals take the field at 7:06, it started raining 10 seconds later. OK, not really a rain but a heavy mist riding on a 15 mph north wind. The perfect weather turned rather miserable. Mark Mulder took the hill for the hometown nine and proceeded to allow one run in the visitor’s half. New Cardinal Preston Wilson tied it up in an equally speedy bottom half. By then the rain was starting to soak through our clothes so we headed out to the shops in search of those cheap $5 plastic ponchos. Funny thing, they were SOLD OUT. In the top of the second inning. With half of the stadium still empty. But they had plenty of $40 umbrellas. Go figure. We’ll just tough it out, thank you very much. We get back to our seats just in time to see the score go to 2-1 and from behind a sea of umbrellas we can see the scoreboard go to 3-1, but we can’t see the field anymore. We bought a $5 bag of THE WORST PEANUTS ON THE FACE OF THIS EARTH and got ready to be serious about watching baseball. Alas, the rain kept coming, the Marlins kept scoring and we headed back out by the shops in search of a spot that has both cover from the rain and a view of the field. After twenty minutes, two more Marlins runs, a pitching change, and a fruitless search through half a bag for just one tasty peanut, we realize that there is no such spot and there are no good peanuts in that bag. We decided to take our wet, cold selves home.

Back at the parking lot we found 85 cars and trucks parked in an area barely big enough for 50 golf carts. Momma stood out in the cold rain and directed me as I moved the car back and forth three feet at a time for about 10 minutes before we were finally able to get out of the sardine can we were in. Free at last! And home 30 minutes later.

So we spent three hours and a total of $39 and TNH only got to experience less than one sixth of a Cardinal game and a plate of nachos (and if TNH is anything like its daddy it's STILL experiencing them).

Mark Twain thought golf was a good walk spoiled. He should've been with us Tuesday night .