BUSCH STADIUM MEMORIES III

One night I watched the CARDINALS game with Curt Flood. I don't know the date, but it's written on a baseball in Scott's trophy case of balls in the memoribila museum, read basement in Mt. Vernon.

Courtney and I knew Dr. Ted Savage who played with the Cardinals and cubs in his less than illustrous career. He has some office/staff job with the Cardinals now. Anyway, he introduced us to Curt Flood, Jr at a ball game one night and we sat with them in the good seats behind home plate. Two weeks later, I'm walking by the Kosher Dog stand close to behind home plate and Curt Jr. yells, "Hey Ted, " at me. I was stunned that he remembered me at all. And Courtney wasn't even with me at the time to give him a clue.

He was with Robin Smith from Channel 4 News and he introduced us. "Hey, my dad's here tonight," he tells me. "We're in our seats, so come see us later."

I gathered up Courtney who was hawking some autographs near the dugout. We went and bought a baseball and headed to the good seats. Curt was so cordial. I tried on his World Series ring. Just after the '82 Series I had tried on Mike Ramsey's at a baseball card show in Carbondale, I believe. This was cooler. This was Curt Flood's!

His was the first autograph I ever got when he signed outside Sportsmen's Park when I went with the Little League. I had it displayed on a bulletin board in my bedroom till I left for college. And here I was sitting with him, and his son, and Robin Smith whom I had watched on tv since I was in high school.

We laughed, especially Curt Jr. when Lankford lined a foul ball back at me. I stood up and jumped for it, but it hit hard off the facade and down to the screen. "That nearly knocked your head off," he teased.

What a fun night. I'm not sure what Courtney thought about it, but it was great for me to hobnob with the celebs. I never saw Curt Jr after that night. I asked Bob Gibson about him at a St. Louis card show and he said he was still in California. And, of course, Curt passed away. What a pioneer, when he refused the trade. But who wouldn't want to remain a Cardinal?

MY BUSCH STADIUM FAVORITES PART II

On a warm September day in 1995, the St. Louis RAMS made their Home debut at Busch Stadium. They had just come off a road victory at Green Bay. The day was a spectacular early autumn day. Bright and sunny, the day, cooperated with the atmosphere at Busch. Season ticket holders were giddy in anticipation of where their seats were since the Dome wasn't ready yet. We were seated in the sun in high rise bleachers, though since we were fourth row, we weren't too high.
I was so much ready for the NFL having been a semi-regular attendee of the St.Louis Football Cardinals back in the Coryell years of Mel Gray, Dan Dierdorf, Jim Hart, Terry Metcalf, et al. Caroline's boss had season tickets at the press level, which would be where the luxury boxes are now. We were covered, but no enclosure, no food. I remember one Halloween, 1977 I believe, Mr. Lee and I went to watch a Monday Night game and Howard Cosell was on our level about 40 yards from us. Anyway, I'd seen bad NFL football courtesy of Mr. Bidwell. But nothing like the storied RAMS.
It was one of those electric times at the stadium. I don't remember who we beat, but we won. In fact in 1995, the Rams started 4-0. Hope was there, but none of us could imagine what 1999-2001 would bring for the RAMS. All we knew was St. Louis had a real pro team. And tailgating was in vogue.

MY BUSCH STADIUM FAVORITES

Since I have more history than almost anybody reading my blog ever, then I have more difficulty keeping track of all the memories I've had there. Plus, I'm really pretty lousy at dates and numbers of players. I know the numbers is irrelevant to this story, but it's sad but true. In fact, my memories go back to Sportsmen's Park where I saw my first game, where all theLittle League teams attended one game per year, where I saw my first scheduled doubleheader against the cubs and ernie banks (it was a great day to lose two if you were a cub that day), where our Sunday School class went to our annual game and got back really late at night, where a batting practice home run by Frank Robinson went off my hand as I misplayed it in right center field, where I hassled my first player who's name escapes me but he had a funny wind up. So I'll digress no more about Sportsmen's, but will lose sleep over the pitcher's name with the funny wind up. I remember he later pitched for the Senators.

Also thanks to Derek and Chris for sharing their moments. It's surprising how many of those games I also attended. The game I'm discussing today, no order for top ten or anything like that was the day after Jack Buck died. The tribute to him on the big screen really touched me. In fact, it was the only time I ever cried in the old park. (Except for the brutal wind that blew through the portals and down the back of my neck at the old St. Louis Cardinals football games.)

Jack just personified Cardinal baseball. I thought of all the times going back to my high school years that I had listened to him. I thought of Caroline and Scott and Courtney and all the great times we had going to the games, listening to the games as we were driving somewhere I really didn't want to be. Jack was like your favorite hat, a pair of shorts after a too long winter, Mr. Roger's sweater. He just made you feel comfortable. As great as Harry Carey was, and he was a much better Cardinal announcer than cub announcer where he started to become a caricature of himself, he was nothing compared to Jack. As great as Mike Shannon is (yup I'm an unabashed Shannon fan, too), he was nothing compared to Jack. And you know what? I bet those two would agree with me on that, too.

No I couldn't tell you who won the game that night, but I'd bet it was the Cardinals, just because it would be proper and fitting. But I know when they put Jack's picture on the big board and played that sappy song "I Will Remember You," I wept openly.

CARDINALS WIN 100
Too awesome. With 1/2 their team hurt for 1/2 the year, too. What a job by Tony. And don't foget Walter J either. He didn't cave into trade demands and mortgage the future. Although I'm not sure much of the future will be manned by the current minor leaguers. And I'm not forgetting Molina as a farm product. The Shoo's kind of interesting, but living in the West and the Cardinals early clich, I didn't get to see much of him or them at all. So my judgment of him could have been as bad as my football weekend.

And you wondered why I led with baseball. ASU simply couldn't get it done. Who could? USC is powerful with White and Bush. There simply has not been two running backs like them since, well, last year with Ronnie B. and Cadillac. I hated the way they were the ones who wore down ASU in our heat. What's up with that?

Next up. My St. Louis Rams. Yeah, I'll still claim them. Probably because I was at church when most of the game was played. It was on tv here. Tv that started at 10:00 am. It works great for Monday Night football, but I miss all the early games, or most of them anyway. So I didn't get to see our defensive game ball-receiving coach marmie in action. When I did see the defense, I was calmly screaming for a blitz once in awhile instead of allowing huge size Shockley and Burress outjump our peewee sized dbacks (come to thinkof it, they played like the Dbacks--how in the world could that team finish second in any division?) In one fantasy league I'm familar with, an owner traded Randy Moss for Stephen Jackson. Think he's sick right about now? It looks like SJax is another first rounder who didn't or isn't panning out for the good guys.

My Pix for the sucker game are down the tubes, too. At least the first two. And at this writing I'm losing to the Crappers. Also my Indian pick of AL champs is out the window, too. Maybe if I picked with my head instead of my heart I'd do better. If you didn't catch Bill McClelland's article on Busch Stadium in the STL Post today, check it out at STLToday.com. That's it. Happy blogging or blog reading.