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To Graymond: Busch Stadium then and now...	rlrad	::	2009-05-17 17:31
Hi Gray, Thanks for checking out my gallery, I'm glad you found some shots you liked. Yeah, as you might imagine, it is hard to get used to the new stadium, having spent most of my life enjoying baseball at the old one. I went to the very first game at old Busch Stadium, and one of the very last, and easily 100 in between. I saw Gibson pitch during the world series there, grew up with Harry Caray and Jack Buck calling the games, then later Mike Shannon with Jack Buck. My dad had season tickets in 67 and 68 and we went to almost every home game, and every world series game at home. I sat in the cheap seats, the bleachers for a buck, and in the green seats right behind home plate and most of the party boxes and corporate boxes for several companies. It was part of my history and my entire being and I will forever be a Cardinals fan and love baseball. My dad, my best friend and I sat in the seats behind Stan Musial the night Mark McGwire started playing for the Cards - he hit three towering home runs and watching the look on my dad's face reminded me why I loved baseball. My dad grew up in Chicago, a rabid White Sox fan, but he became a forever Cardinal fan right there in that stadium, too. As I eluded to in my note, there seemed to be a better ethnic mixture of folks at the old stadium, a better balance of fans who were all there for the sport and their favorite players. Now many of these folks go because it is prestigious to have $160 seats, and they sit with their backs to the game most of the night chatting with other like fans. At least, that is the feeling I get from a lot of the people there now. Sure there are plenty of fans, a lot of folks really enjoying the game, showing their kids how to enjoy the game, but it is just so god-awful expensive. I mean the cheap seats are $21 bucks a crack on the weekend, and that is the reduced-price recession deal - those are the ones where you have a better view of the Arch than the game... there are better deals for those willing to hunt and get up really early to wait for some $5.50 take what you can get tickets. There are a lot more choices at the new park, though. You don't have to walk around the entire stadium to get a microbrew - there are plenty of stands with Alt-beers (something other than Anheuser-Busch products) and a tremendous choice of food, including a full service Hardee's hamburger joint at the top, nachos and I think you can even get sushi, should you want some. I hate the corporate boxes. They are so sealed and impersonal, I would rather sit at home and watch it on TV. Less chance of a DUI on the way home, too. The old stadium corporate boxes enhanced the game with some luxury, the new ones enhance the luxury with baseball, but it is not required and now when I go I end up talking business the whole evening and missing most of the game. We used to enjoy the game and talk business on the way to and in the restroom! So, is it better, I don't think so. I do love that bright new scoreboard - it dynamically updates as pitchers ERA's change and batters get hits and the other scores are always tracked in real time, where the old stadium actually paid a couple guys to change the scoreboard manually from inside it. Sometimes they got it wrong and they were never on time. It was part of the charm, but I love that new ability now. Of course, many of the seats have no view of it, so that can be frustrating. The seats are a little wider at the new stadium, but the stands are much steeper. It doesn't smell like the ball park, either. Part of it is that there is no smoking anywhere in the park, so it will never smell like the ball parks of my youth, ever. It's hard to explain, Gray. I don't know how old you are, from your thumbnail on your intro page it looks like you might be within 10 or so years of me - I'm 52. We grew up differently in the 1960's and 70's, and I'm a little conservative. I like the new park, but I miss the old park. I miss the feelings I had there, probably more than anything. I had a lot of fun and meaningful times with my dad and my buddies there. Almost all of them are gone or too far gone - my dad died, almost all my best childhood friends are paying the price for being too liberal with drugs and alcohol for so long - I joined the Navy and got away from that stuff for 20 years, saved my life and a lot of heartache. Maybe I'll make new feelings at the new Busch. I don't know if I want to try to afford it, though. Once at old Busch, my buddies and I rode the bus into the city and got bleacher seats for a daytime Cards - Pirates game. We got there early and watched batting practice and started harassing Willie Stargell from above. I guess we pissed him off pretty bad, us little bastards, because he came up to the wall and started telling us off - that never happened to us before. Usually they put up with our razzing and ignored us until we tired of it, maybe Willie was having a bad day. It was funny, but we were really scared we might get kicked out of the park, which would have been hard to explain to our folks why we came home early. No one wanted to let their folks know that another adult found them to be a pain in the ass! Anyway, I hope this answers your question a little bit. Have a great week! Reed			United StatesUnited States Cold Beer Here! A Night at the Ball Game rlrad (1189)
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Thread	Username		Date
To Graymond: Busch Stadium then and now...	rlrad (1189)	::	2009-05-17 17:31

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