Busch Stadium III and the Fourth of July

July 4, 2015

Day 88

We had a short drive today into Saint Louis from Wentzville and had already arranged parking with the hotel we were staying at tonight for our game today at Busch Stadium. We parked and started walking toward the Arch. We had been to Saint Louis on our last road trip 3 years ago and were surprised to find all the construction going on around the Arch which made it a little difficult to get to. It was hard to get good photos as you could not easily back away due to the construction and it is much bigger than it first appears. They still had the tours going up to the top of the Arch but you could not enter the Museum of Westward Expansion. Maybe they had a temporary exhibit at the Old Courthouse but we did not enter to find out.

St Louis Arch

The Arch is a lot bigger than it first seems

We visited the Ballpark Village which was new since we were last here. It is a nice addition to the downtown area, offering more food and drink alternatives to the ballpark than previously could be found.

Inside baseball village

We witnessed a marriage proposal right outside the ballpark!
She said yes!

 We enjoyed a packed stadium for the patriotic 4 ^th of July game between the Cardinals and the San Diego Padres. There were 44,700 in attendance, nearly a full house. It was a hot and humid day in the sun but still a very enjoyable game. There was lots of red and white in the stadium and our Mariner's shirts supplied the blue! 

The only thing we didn't like about this stadium is that you cannot see the playing field from the concourse so there is not really any place to stand and watch the game. Our seats were fine but the heat was intense. The Cardinals have the second most World Series Championships (11) behind the New York Yankees and they have a great fan base to show for it. They were a little restless as their beloved Cardinals had just lost 4 in a row, the first time this season. How sad is that? The Padres scored first, leading 1-0 until the 6th, when Tommy Pham of the Redbirds got his first major league hit, a double.Then Matt Carpenter followed up with a hit to score Pham and tie the game.  In the 8^th, Pham started things off by reaching on an error and stealing a base. Carpenter advanced him with a ground out and Jhonny (not a typo) Peralta sacrificed him with a pop up to short center field.  Pham's speed was enough to score the go ahead run. Near the end of the game some very friendly fans asked us about our Mariner's shirts and asked if we were from Seattle. They were very interested in our trip as it was his dream to see all the ballparks. We gave them all our information and told us to contact us at any time and to check out the blog. We hope they will and wish them the opportunity to do something like this.
 As the fans would say, it is only natural that the Cardinals would win on America's birthday.

Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina

Starting pitcher Martinez warms up