St. Louis Cardinals

#26 - Sunday, June 11th. 1:15 game against the Phillies. Adam Wainwright v Aaron Nola. Took a uber downtown and was dropped about 2 blocks from the stadium on this incredibly hot day. Lots of fans streaming in all in red. At the end of the game they announced that paid attendance was something like 47K, which speaks to the Cardinals fan-cred. Walking about to what I think was the main gate they had statues of all of the Cardinal players that had their numbers retired, probably about 9 or 10. Around the stadium there was really only one draw, and that's by design, Ballpark Village which was an extremely large complex pretty much just full of bars and restaurants for pre/post gaming. They're all connected by this giant open room that was packed. I also think there was the Cardinal Hall of Fame in this building. Anyway, decent game day buzz in and around this building, but didn't look like there was anything anywhere else around the stadium. It was super hot, we didn't go exploring too far though so I could be wrong.

Had seats in the left field corner per the recommendation of some fake baseball friends of mine (Shout out @TyBot). Not bad, felt close to the field. I liked how they did not have a grandstand in the outfield (for the most part) very open outfield that provided sight lines for the Wrigley-like rooftops from Ballpark Village. Once we started walking the concourse, however that openness closed off pretty much everywhere else in the stadium, which I thought was strange for a stadium built in 2006. Teams had begun embracing that open concourse since like the mid-to-late 90s, so I was confused as to why STL didn't follow suit with what has really become industry standard. It's not a super big deal because the rest of the stadium is rock solid, but it's because of that solidness I'm left perplexed. The other oddity was that they had two good sized jumbotrons (which is normal for parks of this era), but both were right next to each other, and not really at an angle that well served disparate seating groups (like one was for those in the OF and other for those sitting in the infield). they were both largely visible from the Third base/Left Field seats and that's about it. Again, quite strange.

Team History was ever present as they did several montages to celebrate the clubs 125th anniversary and went out of their way several times to remind the fans that they are 11 world champs. Another cool touch was that they had the score boards from old Busch in the inner concourse. They displayed the scores from around the league as they were at the end of the last game in that building in 2005. Very Cool. Food/Beer was supremely average from the looks of things. Very traditional baseball garb, they haven't really gotten overly crafty elaborate with monetizing inside space of the stadium, which was actually refreshing.

Anyway, legit place. It's doesn't hold up against some if's mid-2000s peers, but not a bad park by any means. I'm doing away with letter grades for now cause it doesn't make sense and I hate it now.  4 to go. Could finish this year, could finish in 3 years. Not sure at this point.  Oh, and Cards won. 6-5, almost blew it in the 9th when they're closer 'Oh' was handing out hits.