My First Cubs/Cards Experience: Cheap Beer, Friendly Fans and a 5 Year Old Con Artist
My co-worker Kathleen and I were told we had to take a Project Management course. Kathleen looks up the different locations where they offer this class. When she informed me of the different locations we had to decide where to go. We decided to avoid D.C. since we’ve been there before. So we decided on St. Louis. Neither of us have ever been there, she wanted to check out a college in St. Louis for grad school, and the most important factor in our decision, the final season of Busch Stadium after 39 years. Being the huge baseball fan that I am, I always wanted to go to Busch Stadium. I mean, my hero but now outcast throughout the baseball fraternity, Mark David McGwire, had spent his final 4 years wearing the Red and White Cardinals uniform. (He is still adored in St. Louis). I was also hoping to get to Busch Stadium sometime this summer before they tear it down at the end of the season. I have to go to the great stadiums (Busch was a borderline “7 Baseball Wonders of the World---if it were for present-day stadiums only, it would have easily made it) in which the Gas House Gang of the 30’s which included Dizzy Dean, Jersey native Joe “Muscles” Medwick, Frankie Frisch and being managed by Leo Durocher. Busch Stadium was also the place where Bob Gibson commanded the pitching mound. It’s also the place where the great Stan Musial roamed. Now, here in 2005, these cards are a sort of newer version of the gas house gang, where these players can do it all from top to bottom of the lineup. If you need a bunt, just call on David Eckstein, Reggie Sanders, John Mabry or Mark Grudzielanek to lay it down. If you need that big 2 out hit whether it be a double or Home Run, you can count on the middle of the lineup which includes Larry Walker, Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen. If you want a defense which is nearly flawless and filled with Gold Glovers, or future Gold Glovers (Albert Pujols), you can count on Molina, Rolen, Eckstein, Larry Walker and hi-light real, Jim Edmonds (remember the catch in Game 7 of last years NLCS against the Astros?). You want good pitching and one of the best bullpens in the National League? Turn to the Cards with a sick rotation of Mark Mulder, Jason Marquis, Chris Carpenter, Jeff Suppan and Matt Morris (Mulder, Carp and Morris have Cy Young capabilities.) Turn to the pen for Left Handed specialist Ray King, rubber-arm Julian Tavarez (and plus he’s played on a lot of winning ball clubs, starting from Cleveland to Florida), and then letting Izzy close out the games. This team has it all, along with one of the best managers ever – PERIOD! Tony LaRussa just knows the game and does not get enough credit for it.
But going to the April 20 game wasn’t just about going to see this well orchestrated team that was put together by GM Walt Jocketty, but it was to also watch the 2nd biggest rivalry in baseball, next to the Sox/Yanks rivalry. This was the Cubs/Cards rivalry. And as a baseball enthusiast, this is a series you just have to watch live, in person.
We get to the Stadium fairly early, about 2 hours prior to the game. As I walk up to Busch Stadium, I am again, in amazement and in awe. It’s Busch Stadium. Stan Musial’s statue stands right outside the stadium. Kathleen and I go up to Will Call and get our tickets for that nights game. After we get our tix, we began our journey to find a bar and get a few beers in us. The nearest bar is down the road. But this bar was the nicest baseball stadium bar I’ve ever seen. And the memorabilia all around the bar was amazing. Beer was extremely cheap ($3 for LaBatt bottle). So we get a couple brews before the game, then it starts to down pour. Kathleen and I had no jackets or umbrellas. We run back to the stadium and take cover and get ourselves red Cardinal Ponchos. But we didn’t need them because where our seats were, Left Field upper deck, there was a cover over us.
The first thing we did once we got to our seated area was buy a lot of food. We were hungry and purposely did not each much so that we can test the food at the stadium. As you can tell, I am a big fan of stadium food. The first thing I order is a 32oz. Beer, which cost me only $9. I also order a braut and nachos along with the peanuts that were given to us. (When we left the bar to go to the stadium, Kat and I were handed 2 big bags of shelled peanuts and they were spectacular.) After receiving all our food (Kat got herself a small beer and some food, don’t remember what though) we head up to our seats, and they were up there. But we didn’t mind. All we cared about what being in the atmosphere. In attendance were a lot of Cubs fans, as St. Louis is only a 4-hour drive from Chicago. Now, I was always aware of how faithful and friendly the Cardinal fans are. Take a look from last year alone. After Larry Walker was acquired from the Colorado Rockies, he was given a standing ovation from the Cardinal Faithful’s after he Struck Out! But for this game, I was expecting some angst amongst the Cubbies and Cards fans. But no. They are all friendly. They joke around with one another, don’t argue at all. Not one fight. Now, from experiencing Sox/Yankees games at The Stadium, I’m used to fights, name-calling, cursing, and the whole 9 yards. I mean, about 9 years ago, when I was all of 13, I attended an Oakland/Yankee game with my friend Porky and his family. And during the game Yankee fans were throwing food at me because it was obvious I was an Oakland fan (I was wearing one of my Oakland jerseys). But these people were throwing food at a 13 year old. That’s alright. But there was none of this. Even when the people were belligerently drunk, they still stayed friendly with one another.
The Cubs ended up beating the Cards 3-1, but John Mabry gave everyone a gasp of hope in the bottom of the 9th with 2 out and a runner on base as he drove the ball to deep left center, but just short. Still, a great game even though Nom-ah went down with the left groin injury (no one in the stands understood what happened because we just saw the ball head over to Eckstein at Short and watched the double play be turned without a sign of Nomar in sight.)
But after the game I had a devised a plan. Our seats were right behind what is called “Big Mac Land”. This section was named after Mark McGwire during his time he spent, and broke the 37-year-old homerun record, with the St. Louis Cardinals. And everyone in the section had yellow hard hats on. Now, I needed a souvenir from the stadium, and what better souvenir than a hard helmet which were made for my childhood hero?
So I figured if I went up to someone I’d be able to get a helmet. I would give them $5 for the helmet, hoping that would cover the charges of it and explain my story about how I’m from Jersey and this is my only opportunity to be out in St. Louis and how Mac was my hero, yada yada yada. So by the time the crowd dispersed which enabled us to get down towards that section, there weren’t many fans still in the section. But I spotted a young boy, no more than 5 years old. I notice him wearing one of the hats. I figure he’s a young kid and if I offered him $5 he would just take it because $5 to a 5 year old is like $100 to people in their 20’s.
I approach the young lad and offer him the $5 right away for the helmet. He starts laughing at me. I say, I’ll give you $5 for that helmet. He continues to laugh at me. We finally exchange money and helmet. He is still laughing. I then notice his guardian had 2 more helmets that were still in the bag. So I asked if I could switch the helmet the little boy gave me (he was wearing it) for one of the new ones. No problem. But the little brat is still laughing at me.
Apparently, he duped me. They give the helmets away for free.
No worries.
I had to head to the bathroom after the game. As I’m in there, Cubs and Cards fans are once again embracing one another and telling each other “Great Game”. As I’m walking out, I turn to the Cubs fan and say, “I guess you’ve never been to Yankee Stadium?” He replies “No, but I’m going there for all 3 games against the Cubs in June.” I told him “Good luck with that” and just explained to him that its nothing like Busch Stadium. I told him to beware of the name calling, possible fights, and possibility of food being thrown at them. Just be prepared for the worst harassment he has ever experienced.
After Kathleen and I do our “touristy” things like take pictures, stand around and talk about this and that, we decide to get more drinks in us at the bar we were at before the game. As we are walking towards the bar, we once again see the fans of opposing teams embracing one another. So I just had to take some pictures. We finally get to the bar after breaking through the crowd. This bar was packed with Cardinal and Cubs fans, but with mostly young people in their early-mid 20’s. I had so much fun, plus the beer was cheap (*remember, $3 LaBatt bottles?).
There were people dancing all over the place and the customers would go absolutely nuts when the DJ would play anything by St. Louis native, Nelly.
Kat and I moved to another bar down the street and that bar, once again, was an inside/outside bar. Lots of drunken people. I think she even got on video some guy holding himself up on a table then eventually tumbling to the ground.I don’t really remember too much getting back to the hotel, but I will never ever forget my first Cubs/Cards experience.
But going to the April 20 game wasn’t just about going to see this well orchestrated team that was put together by GM Walt Jocketty, but it was to also watch the 2nd biggest rivalry in baseball, next to the Sox/Yanks rivalry. This was the Cubs/Cards rivalry. And as a baseball enthusiast, this is a series you just have to watch live, in person.
We get to the Stadium fairly early, about 2 hours prior to the game. As I walk up to Busch Stadium, I am again, in amazement and in awe. It’s Busch Stadium. Stan Musial’s statue stands right outside the stadium. Kathleen and I go up to Will Call and get our tickets for that nights game. After we get our tix, we began our journey to find a bar and get a few beers in us. The nearest bar is down the road. But this bar was the nicest baseball stadium bar I’ve ever seen. And the memorabilia all around the bar was amazing. Beer was extremely cheap ($3 for LaBatt bottle). So we get a couple brews before the game, then it starts to down pour. Kathleen and I had no jackets or umbrellas. We run back to the stadium and take cover and get ourselves red Cardinal Ponchos. But we didn’t need them because where our seats were, Left Field upper deck, there was a cover over us.
The first thing we did once we got to our seated area was buy a lot of food. We were hungry and purposely did not each much so that we can test the food at the stadium. As you can tell, I am a big fan of stadium food. The first thing I order is a 32oz. Beer, which cost me only $9. I also order a braut and nachos along with the peanuts that were given to us. (When we left the bar to go to the stadium, Kat and I were handed 2 big bags of shelled peanuts and they were spectacular.) After receiving all our food (Kat got herself a small beer and some food, don’t remember what though) we head up to our seats, and they were up there. But we didn’t mind. All we cared about what being in the atmosphere. In attendance were a lot of Cubs fans, as St. Louis is only a 4-hour drive from Chicago. Now, I was always aware of how faithful and friendly the Cardinal fans are. Take a look from last year alone. After Larry Walker was acquired from the Colorado Rockies, he was given a standing ovation from the Cardinal Faithful’s after he Struck Out! But for this game, I was expecting some angst amongst the Cubbies and Cards fans. But no. They are all friendly. They joke around with one another, don’t argue at all. Not one fight. Now, from experiencing Sox/Yankees games at The Stadium, I’m used to fights, name-calling, cursing, and the whole 9 yards. I mean, about 9 years ago, when I was all of 13, I attended an Oakland/Yankee game with my friend Porky and his family. And during the game Yankee fans were throwing food at me because it was obvious I was an Oakland fan (I was wearing one of my Oakland jerseys). But these people were throwing food at a 13 year old. That’s alright. But there was none of this. Even when the people were belligerently drunk, they still stayed friendly with one another.
The Cubs ended up beating the Cards 3-1, but John Mabry gave everyone a gasp of hope in the bottom of the 9th with 2 out and a runner on base as he drove the ball to deep left center, but just short. Still, a great game even though Nom-ah went down with the left groin injury (no one in the stands understood what happened because we just saw the ball head over to Eckstein at Short and watched the double play be turned without a sign of Nomar in sight.)
But after the game I had a devised a plan. Our seats were right behind what is called “Big Mac Land”. This section was named after Mark McGwire during his time he spent, and broke the 37-year-old homerun record, with the St. Louis Cardinals. And everyone in the section had yellow hard hats on. Now, I needed a souvenir from the stadium, and what better souvenir than a hard helmet which were made for my childhood hero?
So I figured if I went up to someone I’d be able to get a helmet. I would give them $5 for the helmet, hoping that would cover the charges of it and explain my story about how I’m from Jersey and this is my only opportunity to be out in St. Louis and how Mac was my hero, yada yada yada. So by the time the crowd dispersed which enabled us to get down towards that section, there weren’t many fans still in the section. But I spotted a young boy, no more than 5 years old. I notice him wearing one of the hats. I figure he’s a young kid and if I offered him $5 he would just take it because $5 to a 5 year old is like $100 to people in their 20’s.
I approach the young lad and offer him the $5 right away for the helmet. He starts laughing at me. I say, I’ll give you $5 for that helmet. He continues to laugh at me. We finally exchange money and helmet. He is still laughing. I then notice his guardian had 2 more helmets that were still in the bag. So I asked if I could switch the helmet the little boy gave me (he was wearing it) for one of the new ones. No problem. But the little brat is still laughing at me.
Apparently, he duped me. They give the helmets away for free.
No worries.
I had to head to the bathroom after the game. As I’m in there, Cubs and Cards fans are once again embracing one another and telling each other “Great Game”. As I’m walking out, I turn to the Cubs fan and say, “I guess you’ve never been to Yankee Stadium?” He replies “No, but I’m going there for all 3 games against the Cubs in June.” I told him “Good luck with that” and just explained to him that its nothing like Busch Stadium. I told him to beware of the name calling, possible fights, and possibility of food being thrown at them. Just be prepared for the worst harassment he has ever experienced.
After Kathleen and I do our “touristy” things like take pictures, stand around and talk about this and that, we decide to get more drinks in us at the bar we were at before the game. As we are walking towards the bar, we once again see the fans of opposing teams embracing one another. So I just had to take some pictures. We finally get to the bar after breaking through the crowd. This bar was packed with Cardinal and Cubs fans, but with mostly young people in their early-mid 20’s. I had so much fun, plus the beer was cheap (*remember, $3 LaBatt bottles?).
There were people dancing all over the place and the customers would go absolutely nuts when the DJ would play anything by St. Louis native, Nelly.
Kat and I moved to another bar down the street and that bar, once again, was an inside/outside bar. Lots of drunken people. I think she even got on video some guy holding himself up on a table then eventually tumbling to the ground.I don’t really remember too much getting back to the hotel, but I will never ever forget my first Cubs/Cards experience.
posted by Mark D. Miller at 12:23 PM
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