Note: This is the third of four posts related to my annual BallPark Tours baseball trip. For those who may find these reports a little self-serving, my apologies. For those who enjoy them, my thanks. These posts are intended to give you a look at what goes on during a BPT trip – as well as to entertain some of my fellow travelers. Back to the usual topics in a few days.
Day Three – Diverse Amusements
A key advantage to BallPark Tours is that tour operator Julian Lescalzo likes to give his clients a chance to enjoy more than just the ball parks in the cities they visit. He provides “in-port down time,” so that his band of travelers can enjoy the local sights, tastes and culture. By the way, if you are ever considering a traveling baseball adventure, BPT is the way to go – more info here.
On the morning of Day Three of the Ramble (a free day in St. Louis), our BPT band headed out in many directions. Among the popular attractions were the: St. Louis Art Museum: ride to the top of the St. Louis Arch; trolley tours of the city; Missouri History Museum; and, of course, the Saint Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame and Museum.
The Cardinals Hall of Fame and Museum proved a great stop.
After breakfast and a 45-minute work out in the hotel exercise room, I made my way to Ball Park Village and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame and Museum. Well worth the trip – and the ten-dollar (senior) admission charge ($12 regular adult charge). There was, however, a bit of a burn. They young woman selling tickets asked for my identification, saying “I’ll need to see your ID” … pause … “Not for the senior part.” I told her she could have said it was for the “senior part,” just to make me feel better about myself. She then went into an embarrassed explanation of the fact they don’t check for ages, just to make sure your ID matches the name on your credit card. The longer she talked, the deeper she dug. She declined to have her picture taken for this blog.
The museum is loaded memorabilia from Saint Louis baseball history – not just Cardinals, but also from the AL’s Saint Louis Browns, the Negro League’s Saint Louis Stars and a host of other professional and semi-pro baseball operations. Overall, there are more than 16,000 artifacts and hundreds of thousands of photographs, films and videos. It is, in fact, the largest collection of baseball memorabilia outside of the Baseball Hall of Fame. I even had a chance to pose with a Stan Musial game-used bat (they do make you wear clear plastic gloves). If you ever visit the museum make sure to take time to watch some videos. They cover a lot of ground – from Red Schoendienst and Ozzie Smith giving their views on turning the double play to past managers commenting on the DH.
World Cup soccer was popular at Ball Park Village.
I’d also suggest at least taking a stroll through Ball Park Village, which opened this March. It’s right across from Busch Stadium and bills itself as the first-ever sports-anchored entertainment districts. Plenty of restaurants, bars and entertainment to enjoy.
From the museum, it was on to lunch. Three of us took a $15 cab ride to Pappy’s Smokehouse (3106 Olive Street), one of Saint Louis’ top spots for barbeque (ribs, pork, chicken) Memphis-style. We arrived shortly after noon and the line was already well outside the entrance. We knew we were in the right place, however, when we offered a customer picking up a take-out order$500 for their bag of ribs and were told “Not even for that!” I had a lunch of a half-rack, with sides of coleslaw and fried sweet corn ($15.99) – and used Pappy’s Original and the Holly’s Hot sauce. Delicious and well worth the cab ride. A talk with the owner revealed that, in 2013, Pappy’s served 100,000 slabs (240,000 pounds) of ribs and a total of 320 tons of meat (not to mention 41 tons of sweet potato fries). I am a statistics guy after all. On a side note, our esteemed tour leader headed for the restroom after we finished eating and when he hit the button on the air blown hand dryer, the power went out in the entire restaurant. It was still out when we caught our cab back to the hotel.
Great spot for lunch.
This trip is about baseball, so let’s get to it – the Cardinal’s/Phillies tilt in the evening. The Phillies topped the home town Red Birds (who are trying to chase down the surprising Brewers) 5-1. The game started out as a pitchers’ duel between the Phils’ A.J. Burnett and the Cards’ Jaime Garcia, with Saint Louis up 1-0 after four innings. The run came in the third on a hit batter (3B Matt Carpenter), a single by CF Jon Jay and a run-scoring single by LF Matt Holliday. The Phils (now winners of nine of their past eleven) answered with two in the top of the fifth – on a lead-off double by John Mayberry, a one-out double by pitcher A.J. Burnett (ending the debate on why we didn’t see a pinch hitter), and an RBI double by SS Jimmy Rollins. The Phils then broke the game open with three more runs in the sixth (RF Marlon Byrd led off with a home run, CF Dominic Brown doubled, Mayberry singled him home, Cards’ first baseman Matt Adams made a nice play to retire 3B Cody Asche, Burnett worked a walk and SS Jimmy Rollins hit a sacrifice fly.
A few observations on the game:
- A.J. Burnett threw a complete game seven-hitter (Don’t see those much anymore) and gave the game ball to his grandmother, who was seeing him pitch in person for the first time ever.
- There was about a 50-minute rain delay (that started at least fifteen minutes before the rain arrived). One BPTer remarked that the FORD in Ford Plaza (site of many pre-game festivities, might stand for Fear-Of-Rain Delay. Everything did look brighter after the rain.
- It was Bob Gibson jersey night (first 25,000 fans) and I arrived early (about 5:00) to stand in a crowd outside the gates – in 90+ degree heat – to make sure I snagged my prize. Turned out, they still had jerseys at 6:00 (7:15 game time).
- I got my 4-6-3 double play in the bottom of the first inning.
- Our seats were in the outfield (metal, bench-style), yet the tickets cost about twice as much as the previous game. (Not a fan of baseball’s premium pricing strategies.)
- I don’t know why I notice these things, but the top six spots in the Cardinals’ line-up were Matt, Not Matt, Matt, Not Matt, Matt, Not Matt (Matt Carpenter, Jon Jay, Matt Holliday, Allen Craig, Matt Adams, Yadier Molina.) The Matt/Not Matt order may be the latest version of the left/right strategy.
- As USA Today, Fox News, MLB.com and other media outlets reported, players, umps and fans alike were set upon by swarms of annoying and not very tasty bugs. In the words of the MLB.com report, “From every which way, the small creatures swarmed upon Busch Stadium, and there was no escaping.”
- The A.J. Burnett on the mound was not the one that pitched for the Twins.
- The Cardinals need to revamp their score card – it only has lines for nine players, and this is in a league that does not use the DH. Oh, and if any Cardinal executives are reading this, an on-screen replay now and then wouldn’t hurt.
- My box score oddity for the game – a 3-1-3 out. Phillies’ 1B Ryan Howard hit a grounder to first, off the glove of Cards’ 1B Matt Adams. The ball bounced back toward pitcher Trevor Rosenthal, who stumbled, but managed to shovel the ball back to Adams at first as Ryan jumped over the Cards’ closer.
Day Four – On to Kansas City
Day four of the Ramble began with free breakfast (thanks again, Julian) – and an 8:00 a.m. departure time, as we hustled down the highway to make a 1:10 start in Kansas City. The time passed fairly quickly, thanks to the early opening of the “Back of the Bus Bloody Mary Bar” and the stand-up (actually sit-down) comedy team of Chatterbox, Cliff and Brillo. We were regaled with stories on every topic from every era. There were, in fact, “no awkward silences.” There was also a dice game with sports and entertainment books as prizes, an announcement of the early winners of the runs scored prediction contest and a reappearance of the “Jimmy” buffet.
The arrival at Kauffman Stadium reminded many of our group of the old Metropolitan Stadium. Located in the suburbs rather than right in the city, there was lots of parking – and lots of tailgating. Brats were being grilled, Frisbees were flying and cold beer was disappearing across the parking lot.
It was of course, another hot and steamy day (a scorcher in Minnesota parlance) and so we all lathered up with sun screen. Then it was across the parking lot to the gates, where we had to have our bags searched, water bottles emptied and pockets emptied of cameras, cell phones, etc. – before raising our arms and being “wanded” by security personnel with hand-held metal detectors. Kansas City must be one tough town. Then it was on to our (great) seats, lower level, behind the first base dugout – in the shade.
The ball park itself, which opened in 1973, is the sixth-oldest stadium in major league baseball. It’s been remodeled (2009), but still has that ‘70s feel (a little more toward stadium than ball park). Still, it seemed more intimate then Busch (we were closer to the action), has a great scoreboard video screen and the fountains offer a unique look. What I am saying, I guess, is that it may have a ’70s look, but it works. It’s a good place to watch a ball game.
Wow! I coulda “shoulda” had a V8!
Once in the park, I scored by Bloody Mary at the Boulevard Pub (for rating purposes only). This one got a two on a scale of ten. Very mild mix (almost just tomato juice), a small 1/4 slice of line -no pepper, tabasco, celery salt, olives or other add-ons – at a cost of $9.25. This trip, Busch Stadium won the Bloody Mary wars.
The Royals/Mariners game was a crisply played (that’s what we say now when a game goes under 3 hours – 2:42) 2-1 Mariners victory – featuring Seattle’s 6’ 10” Chris Young versus the Royals’ (undersized at just 6-feet) Jason Vargas. The Mariners scored first (in the third inning) on a single by the number-nine hitter (SS Brad Miller), a single by CF James Jones and a run-scoring base hit by LF Cole Gillespie. Meanwhile, Young was perfect through four innings. When he finally gave up a hit, it almost looked like he couldn’t stop. The Royals’ LF (and clean-up hitter) Alex Gordon led off the fifth with a home run, which was followed by a single from C Salvador Perez (thrown out 8-4 trying to stretch it into a double) and another single by RF Justin Maxwell. Young then settled down and gave up only a walk over the next 2 2/3 innings. The winning tally was scored in the top of the ninth. Mariners’ 3B Kyle Seager rapped a two-out double. Catcher Stefen Romero hit a hard hopper that was bobbled by Royals’ 2B Pedro Ciriaco (but ruled a hit), as Seager moved to third. DH Jesus Montero brought Seager home with a single.
Some observations:
- There were four 6-4-3 or 4-6-3 double plays.
- My odd score card notation for the day: 2-5-1-2-3-6. Yes, you read that right. In the top of the ninth, with Stefeno Romero on third and Jesus Montero on first (Hmm, the Romero-Montero Show/), Montero broke for second and Romero (don’t get confused here) came down the line “a bit” from third. It turned out to be a bit too far. (Any one catch the movie reference?) Royals’ catcher Salvador Perez fired to third baseman Mike Moustakas and Romero was caught in a run- down that went from Moustakas to pitcher Fernando Rodney, back to Perez, then to first baseman Eric Hosmer and, finally, to shortstop Alcides Escobar, who put on the tag.
- There were only two “first pitches,” a low (high for me) for this trip.
- The Royals fans, bless them, did not attempt the wave.
- We almost saw a second consecutive complete game, as the Royals’ Jason Vargas went 8 2/3 innings.
- The score card had plenty of room – 12 lines, each divided by two. (Try to visualize it, too hard to explain.)
- The game, which proved “clean” from a score-sheet perspective, didn’t start that way. Within the first three batters, we saw an error and a balk.
- I made a bad pre-game decision to go “old school” and buy a hot dog from a vendor in the stands. Never saw a hot dog vendor. Did they go the way of rotary phones?
Impromptu Car Show at the Holiday Inn.
After the game, we checked into the Holiday Inn Country Club Plaza – very near a great (if, perhaps a tad upscale for a baseball trip) dining, entertaining and shopping district. There is a classic car show in town and, with some or the participants staying at the same hotel, we did enjoy an impromptu preview.
Final thought for the day. Four-dollar house wine at the Holiday Inn and one more game to go. Are we having fun yet? Yep, we are having fun still.
