I recently completed a trip to St. Louis to accompany my grandparents as they departed for a cruise on the Mississippi River. The vacation itself was great. My parents, grandparents, and I spent Thursday night, Friday, and Saturday morning enjoying local St. Louis cuisine and even got to visit the Gateway Arch and its accompanying museum. But on Thursday afternoon, before my grandparents arrived in the Show Me State, I took in a Cardinals game at Busch Stadium with my parents.
The game was incredibly fun. Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina tied the record for the most career starts by a pitcher-catcher battery in baseball history (which would explain why the stadium was packed on a Thursday at noon) and Yadi even hit two home runs, doubling his season total. Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado had okay-ish games (Arenado made two errant throws that truly threw me for a loop), Waino pitched like a 41-year-old All-Star would (in other words, not great, but not terribly), and the Cards lost 11-6 to the Nationals. Was I upset to see St. Louis lose? Not really. Even though I love the Cardinals by proxy because my two favorite players happen to have been traded there (Nolan is my favorite, Goldy is in second), they’re set for the playoffs and for years to come, so watching them lose live didn’t really grind me gears. But was I pleasantly surprised at just how cool Busch Stadium is? Absolutely.
The reason I was so shocked at my new love for Busch Stadium is that the ballpark isn't frequently mentioned when ranking Major League Baseball's top stadiums. Wrigley and Fenway are usually up there, while Camden Yards and PNC Park hold permanent residency in the top two spots of the list in any order. I’ve heard awesome things about T-Mobile Park in Seattle (which I want to go to next, preferably for the 2023 All-Star Game) and can say from personal experience that Oracle Park in the Bay Area is fantastic, but St. Louis’s Busch Stadium doesn’t seem to get the love it deserves. I think a lot of that has to do with the presence of St. Louis media in baseball, or rather the lack thereof; being a small-market team, even though the team itself operates on a big budget, has its drawbacks in terms of public relations in the most literal sense. But the biggest reason for why Busch Stadium doesn’t get as much love as it deserves is simply because the fanbase is so unique in the best way possible.
As I said before, the stadium was packed on Thursday to see Waino and Yadi do their thing. On top of that, Albert Pujols was in the lineup, which most certainly added to the density. But I’ve been to packed games before because most games at Yankee Stadium are crowded, but I’ve never, and I mean never, heard a fanbase applaud their favorite players as much as the Cardinals faithful clapped it up for all three St. Louis legends. Adam Wainwright walked onto the mound from the bullpen before the top of the first to a roar so vibrant and palpitating that I didn't know what was really happening; Albert Pujols was getting boisterous cheers even after grounding out, let alone coming to bat; and the game had to pause for at least 30 seconds each time Yadier Molina rounded the bases after his home runs because the fans demanded curtain calls. As a Yankees fan, I’ve seen my fair share of greats in person, but they never received responses like the ones received in St. Louis. Derek Jeter and Aaron Judge wish they could get that sort of love in the Bronx.
It goes without saying that I’ve loved Waino, Albert, and Yadi for as long as Cardinals fans and the rest of baseball. I know what they mean to the city of St. Louis, but now I know how that meaning sounds and looks. St. Louis is a city of dedicated people that love where they’re from and will do anything for the Gateway to the West. That love is directly reciprocated by the St. Louis Cardinals organization in plenty of forms. Never have I heard of a fanbase loving its owners (whether that owner be the Busch family or the DeWitt family) as much as the Cardinals’ fanbase does, as described by my tour guide during my Saturday afternoon tour of the stadium. Even the team name comes from the fans, who nicknamed the team the Cardinals because of the color of their uniforms when they were called the Perfectos (which I think is such a better name, but I digress).
It just seemed like the team in the front office, the team in the stands, and the team on the field were all one cohesive unit when taking in the Busch Stadium atmosphere. On top of that, the architecture and city backdrop of the stadium are awesome, while the concourse and surrounding ballpark district remind me a lot of Baltimore. We’ve heard of managerial problems in St. Louis before, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that the Cardinals are the most drama-free team in baseball. Remember when I said that good franchises win baseball games? That’s because good franchises care about their teams and that care comes right back in the form of victories. The Cardinals happen to care about their city, too, and it’s been paying dividends for them for over 100 years. Just look at the list of World Series championships won by each team in the National League, and then ask what a good franchise that wins baseball games looks like. It looks like it bleeds cardinal red.
Comments