Day 3 - St. Louis

Start: Columbia, MO
Stop: St. Louis – Busch Stadium (III) – Philadelphia Phillies vs. St. Louis Cardinals
Finish: Greenfield, IN
Today began a crazy 36 hour stretch in which we would drive for 10 hours while attending 2 games. We woke up around 8 AM in order to take advantage of the free breakfast in our hotel. After eating we went back to our room to lie down and get prepared for our tough times ahead.
We checked out at noon, but still had about 4 hours to waste in Columbia. We took Eric around the Mizzou campus because he had never been there before. We showed him where we will be living in the fall (Mark Twain Hall), the famed University of Missouri columns and the new journalism institute that will be opening next year.

After going to Mizzou, we found a park where we could play baseball. We got Eric running around which has been one of our goals in the time he has spent with us. Some of us (Kyle and I) made some great diving catches and plays, while other people (Eric) gave a nice effort but didn’t quite make as outstanding plays. I am just kidding, of course.

We then left Columbia to head to St. Louis for our next game. I had high hopes for the stadium since it is fairly new (2006) and I wasn’t disappointed from the outside because it was very beautiful. However, the park was in a pretty trashy part of town which did not help my feel for the park. We went to the home plate gate to meet one of Eric’s teachers from college, Don Bagert, and his friend, Charlie. We then trekked to our $32 seats in the upper deck near the left field foul pole. These outrageous ticket prices pretty much summed up the pricing around the stadium ($28 dollars for a baseball????).

Once we got to our seats, the promise I saw on the outside of the park quickly faded. The scoreboard did not have much good information on it, we could barely hear the announcer’s dull voice and the pump up tactics usually seen in MLB ballparks could not be found here.
The experience was not all bad, though. Eric and Kyle had the toasted ravioli and they both enjoyed it. I had a bratwurst which was very juicy and very tasty. Also the park was just as beautiful inside as it was outside. View our Flickr profile for a closer look at the stadium.

Finally, time to talk about the crazy game we saw. It started good for the Phillies, scoring 3 in the first inning. However, they would not slow down there. Philadelphia then blew the door off of the game in the fourth inning, scoring 9 runs. They ended up winning 20-2, which was pretty awesome for us to see even though we were cheering for St. Louis. We got to see back to back to back homeruns by the Phillies which was also pretty special. Although Kauffman Stadium was better overall, the New Busch Stadium wasn’t too shabby!

Game result: Cardinals lose 20-2
Record: 1-2