Goodbye Busch Stadium

I don't even remember the first time I went to Busch Stadium because I was too young to remember. In the 70s at Busch I saw Hank Aaron, Pete Rose, Don Sutton, Steve Carlton, Willie Stargell, along with Cardinal greats like Lou Brock and Ted Simmons. The 80s were an awesome decade to be a Cardinal fan, with "Whitey Ball" giving us another World Championship in 3 World Series appearances. Ozzie Smith, Bruce Sutter, Darrell Porter, Willie McGee, Tom Herr, Vince Coleman, Terry Pendleton, and others made the 80s a very high point in Cardinal history.

Here are the games I most enjoyed attending at Busch (in chronological order):

1. Seeing Hank Aaron play for the Atlanta Braves. I don't remember the year, but Hank Aaron was my very first sports hero. I was probably only four years old, but all I could talk about was Hank Aaron and I remember sitting in the upper deck behind home plate and seeing Aaron play. Back then I loved home runs less for their baseball value and more for the opportunity to see that Cardinal fly around on that big screen in the outfield.

2. Sometime around 1981 or so we were at a Cards game when Garry Templeton totally lost control and flipped us the bird (us being the Cardinals fans). We had pretty good seats behind the Cards dugout and Garry apparently got tired of the boos and decided to show us how felt about it. He was soon traded to San Diego for another shortstop...named Ozzie Smith. Talk about a good trade!

3. 1986 - My Dad was hired to take pictures of speedster Vince Coleman for a set of baseball cards. I got to go out on the field before the game and shake his hand. I couldn't believe how muscular he looked up close. I learned that day that to see someone on TV is one thing, but to see them face to face is another. I also remember how weird that astroturf felt to walk on.

3. 1987 - My senior year of high school. I load up with a bus full of students (Student Council if I remember correctly) to go to Busch to see the Cardinals play our arch rivals, the Cubs. A little more than half the kids are Cards fans and the rest are dreaded Cubs fans. The Cards produce a late game comeback providing much fun to taunt the sCrub fans on the 90 minute ride home.

4. 1996 - NLCS - My wife and I join our friends Tim and Sarah for Game 3, a Cardinals victory over the Braves. Gant goes deep twice. We get to take advantage of the new rail system in St. Louis, parking over in E. St. Louis and riding the light rail right up to the gates of the stadium. We're sitting in the upper deck behind home plate. Old Willie McGee is the crowd favorite.

5. 2004 - August 31st - After my mother's successful surgery that morning at St. Luke's, Dad and I go downtown to see the Cards beat the surging Padres. We buy tickets in front of the stadium from a teenager...we sit thirteen rows behind home plate for really cheap. Edmunds, Renteria, and Pujols all homer. Woody Williams gets the win.

(6) 1998 - Mark McGwire hits home run #62. OK, so I wasn't there! But my Dad was, and that counts. Although it's been tarnished by the whole steroid thing, it was big at the time.

I also attended a preseason Cardinal football game back in the early 80s, but that was rather cold and uneventful. The best thing Bill Bidwill ever did was get that team out of Busch stadium, so the stadium could be customized into a ballpark instead of a multi-purpose cookie cutter.

The powers that be did a good job of improving Busch through the years. Adding natural grass was a real step forward. By 2004, Busch had been transformed into one of the best looking ballparks in America. After attending that Padres game in 2004, I began to wonder if they should just keep the old ballpark and forget the new one.


The best part of Busch Stadium is the arches. Watching this year's NLCS, I loved the images from the hidden camera in front of home plate. Looking up at the catcher and batter, the arches in the background had a beautiful glow at night. I appreciate the effort the architects made at keeping this feature in the design of the new ballpark, and I recognize that the modern arches of the old Busch couldn't be duplicated exactly in the new "retro" ballpark, but I feel they came up short in their effort to retain this charming distinctive to St. Louis baseball.

The Old Busch is actually Busch II. The old Sportsman's Park became Busch Stadium before the current stadium was built. Now that Anheuser-Busch has purchased naming rights for the new ballpark, the name will carry on.

Goodbye Busch II. Thanks for the memories!