Baseball Heaven lives up to its claim

As an avid baseball fan I have heard a lot of tails about the game. Among them, one thing that bothered me for long was that St. Louis claims to be the best town for baseball fans in US. Since it was not at all obvious to me why it is said so, I wanted to have a in person experience of this myself. Before I entered, at the gate of the new Busch Stadium there is a sign saying "Welcome to Baseball Heaven". I didn't like the sign when I first saw it. Major league baseball is played in many cities, and why does St. Louis claims itself as the heaven? I planned to stay skeptical and try to find if there is any reasonable support for the claim.

As it played out, my skepticism had been replaced by belief and later turned into appreciation. St. Louis lives up to its claim and, in my opinion, is the best place for baseball among places I have visited (five stadiums so far). The fans here are attentive, supportive, and classy. If you love baseball, you will certainly love the experience here.

Getting the ticket

I hurried to the new Busch Stadium from my hotel room. It was still far from the game time, but I needed to get my ticket first. It was a popular match-up: Chicago Cubs v.s. St. Louis Cardinals. The tickets were sold out on the official website, but I expected someone would have tickets for sale at the stadium. As I walked towards the stadium, someone called me and said they have tickets available. For some reason, they could sell me the ticket at a price lower than the face value. It was a win-win situation, so I took it without thinking too much.

Around the park

Although it was early and the gate would not open in half an hour, the St. Louis fans already gathered around the gates and stood in line. It was a sea of red and white, the colors on the team jersey. The new Busch Stadium just opened on 2006 and was the newest stadium in the major league then. So I took some time to check out this stadium.

St. Louis has a long history in baseball, and they nicely turn pieces of historical moments into smart decorations of the new stadium. Along the sidewalk around the stadium, they put up tiles with descriptions of important moments for Cardinal baseball. It is a good way for people to realize how much has happened right here.

One of the classic events in modern baseball history, the HR-title battle between McGwire and Sosa, has its place among the plaques.

and there are so many of them along the sidewalk around the new Busch Stadium.

I have a vivid memory of this one as I saw the monstrous shot on TV. Lidge's career took a sharp turn after this homerun. He hasn't been as dominating as before after 2005.
This event was also well-known in Taiwan partly for a reporter faking an article about it.

This was taken at the gate of the new Busch Stadium. It is very close to the Gateway Arch, and the Millennium Hotel I stayed at.

After I entered the stadium, I saw a brand new arena in mint condition. It was a bit unrealistic, I had to admit, feeling just like walking in a model house. It didn't match well with the baseball history in the city. Perhaps age will make the stadium feel right again in the future. However I liked the facility here in the new park. The gift shops are roomy and well-lit, with all fan gears I could think of on display. The other facilities are nice and adequate, too.

A corner in the team shop.

One thing very different in this park as compared to other parks I had been is the surroundings. Sitting right in the downtown of St. Louis, the park is close to a lot of buildings. It makes the skyline behind the outfield complex but interesting. The Gateway Arch sitting at the far end behind the right center field makes it unmistakable St. Louis.

The view from the home plate. It is a very crowded skyline out there.

Before the game started, I decided to go to the team store and get a Pujols T-shirt. He is one of my favorite baseball players of all time, and I believe he is the type of baseball players that when he eventually retires, the fans will be happy that we live in the right time and have seen him play.

Me with the Pujols T-shirt on at the right field pavilion.

The mascot Cardinal.

The best game experience

So far my experience at the game was an ordinary one. Nothing was wrong, but nothing really special either. Even if St. Louis is a very good team recently, I still did not see why this is named baseball heaven.

However things were different at the game time. As the first pitch approached, more and more audience dressed in red and white flooded into the stadium. Cubs v.s. Cardinals is a favorite match up, and it was a sold-out crowd in the stadium. I kept my eyes open, waiting for some things to happen so I can accept or refute the claim that attracted me to drive 850 miles in two days to make the game.

As the game played along I was really impressed. Not by the players, but by the fans. The fans in this place really love baseball. To me, they are the right people who I want to sit next to when I enjoy a good game. They are attentive, supportive, and classy.

I am sorry to say it but I sometimes felt some people attend baseball games for wrong reasons. They are just out there to "have a feel of it". At the stadium, it is very common to see fans doing something else but watching the game. A very common scene is a guy getting more food than he can fit onto his lap and working on them for 3 innings, and whatever happens on the field seems irrelevant to him. Come on, this is no restaurant. I am not suggesting you not to eat, but at least pay more attention to the players on the field than the food on your lap. Or, even worse, playing with beach balls in the stand is very popular at least in south California. I once even saw more than 10 beach balls bouncing back and forth around the diamond. This is a huge annoyance to me and I sincerely hope they could ban it. To me, the game should be the heart and the focus in the stadium, above food, beach balls, or anything else not part of the game. This should as simple as one should not talk on cellphone in the movie theaters.

And the St. Louis fans really made me impressed about this. Through out the game, they yelled, cheered, gasped, and sighed with every turn of the game. Most of them were so deeply involved in the game that I felt there were not really 44,937 individuals in the stadium. The fans appeared to be a collective entity and they were just part of this game. This is difference #1.

The second thing is, the St. Louis fans are so supportive for the local team. To begin with, I think more than 60% of local fans came to the game with some team jersey or T-shirt. It was a complete sea of red and white on the stand, something I haven't seen before. And it of course did not stop there. I remember vividly that when Pujols came up to bat in the first inning, the cheer was so loud as if he had hit a homerun already. Such support is not exclusive to players who perform well. Jeff Weaver, the starting pitcher of the day, gave up 5 runs in 6.1 innings of work. This was an OK performance at most to me. But, we he was replaced by the coach, the fans still gave him a good ovation for keeping the team in the game. That was very impressive. Comparing with fans who boo players on their own team, this is surely difference #2.

Take a look at the stands. It is a sea of red and white.

And difference #3, perhaps the most important one, is how they treat players and fans of the opposing team. There were plenty of Cubs fans on the stand that day, but it was very peaceful. The Cubs fans were free to cheer for their own team, and people wearing Cardinals jersey next to them seemed to be fine. Consider Cards vs. Cubs is one of the classic match up, what I saw was amazing. If you don't believe me, try wearing a Giant hat in a Giants vs. Dodgers game in Dodger Stadium. The fans who sit around you will make you feel lucky to walk out of the stadium with your head still atop your shoulder to wear that hat again. I have seen plenty ugly things there. Taunts, quarrels, sometimes even fights. I once saw a guy throwing a glass beer bottle right at the head of another person sitting 10 rows in the front, because he wore a Giant hat. And of course, booing the other team is a standard ritual in many stadiums. I believe undesirable aspects of the game these still exist at St. Louis, but at a much reasonable level. To me, this is a much better way to enjoy baseball.

The perfect ending

The game was a nail-biter. Cardinals jumped atop first, but the Cubs tied the game at seventh inning. Early part of the game featured stellar performance by Scott Rolen who hit an inside-the-park homerun (actually an error was charged to the defence, so it did not say so in the box score) and had a very important defensive play.

For the seventh inning stretch, an old gentleman led the song "take me out to the ball game". I figured that he is the legendary guy who sings this song regularly at the Wrigley Field because he showed up with a Cubs hat. But, when he sang "So we root, root, root for the Cardinals", he threw the Cubs hat away and put a Cardinals hat on, and the fans went absolutely crazy. This was one most interesting 7th inning stretch I have been to.

The old gentleman started to sign "take me out to the ball game" with a Cubs hat on.
(Any one knows who this man is? Please drop me a note.)

and ended it with a Cardinals hat as the crowd cheered.

Finally, at the bottom of 9th, two teams are tied at 6. the Cardinals had the base loaded and Gary Bennett, the catcher, came to bat with two outs. The crowd was on their feet for 10 minutes at that moment waiting for a victory. All of a sudden, Gary launched a high fly ball into the left field.

The crowd held their breath as the ball was hit into the dark sky. With a graceful curve it traveled, and landed on the left field pavilion with a thunderous cheer.

A walk-off grand slam. This was my first time to see it in person.

The Cardinals players took the field waiting for their hero at the home plate. The crowd on the stands all jumped up and down as Gary ran the bases. When he touched home plate, the cheer reached its peak and it was a perfect, perfect ending for a good experience of baseball.

As for me, I was too tired to stand up and join the celebration actively. My back did not feel right after the long distance driving in these two days. I just sit on the bench and tried to put this dramatic moment into my memory. What a game.

The Baseball Heaven

I highly recommend a visit to St. Louis if you love baseball. Yes, MLB baseball is played at a lot of places in North America. 30 stadiums in US and Canada, to be exact. But, it is not only the game that counts. The fans here contribute greatly to an unforgettable ballpark experience. They have a good major league baseball team, but more importantly they have major league fans here. Although I was skeptical in the first place, the baseball heaven truly lives up to its claim.