Busch Stadium

Milwaukee Brewers @ St. Louis Cardinals
July 24, 2008

Brewers 4, Cardinals 3

W: Eric Gagne
L: Ryan Franklin
S: Salomon Torres
HR: Ryan Braun (MIL)
Attendance: 41,233
Time of Game: 2 hours, 49 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: St. Louis, MO
First Game: April 10, 2006
Capacity: 43,975
Type: Open
Surface: Grass

The second new stadium I visited in 2008 was the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis. The Cardinals moved into their new ballpark in 2006, which replaced the old stadium with the same name. I had been to the old park a few times, including the official tour visit back in 2004. I made it back the the Gateway City for a game during the third season of the new stadium. This visit was part of a summer trip back to Illinois. My sister Kathleen and I drove down to St. Louis on a Thursday afternoon in July for the game between the Cardinals and Brewers.

Before I go any further, I have to apologize for any omissions or details I may have forgotten for this writeup. Even though all of these reviews have been written well after my visits, at least I have had good notes to work from thanks to blog entries I wrote at the time for my fantasy baseball league. However, I never blogged about this particular trip, so I'm going strictly from memory and a little bit of online research.

Busch Stadium is situated in downtown St. Louis, immediately to the south of the old ballpark. It is a very short walk from the heart of the city, so there are plenty of things to do and places to visit before and after games. After the new stadium opened, the old park was knocked down. Plans had been made to turn that land into a "ballpark village" with shops and restaurants. This was supposed to be completed prior to the Cardinals hosting the 2009 All-Star Game. However, as of 2008, those plans had not materialized. At that time, it was still and empty space, partially used as a parking lot. As far as I know, this has not changed.

Busch Stadium is a very nice park, built with the same retro-looking style that has been very popular the last two decades. The red brick exterior gives the park a very classic look, and I would say is quite appropriate for the Cardinals. Unlike the old Busch Stadium which had a cookie-cutter multi-sport design, the new park looks and feels like a great baseball venue. The open design of the outfield provides a great panoramic view of downtown St. Louis, highlighted by the Gateway Arch. This also allows a bit of a breeze to flow in during the sweltering summer months, unlike the old stadium which turned into a sauna in July and August.

The seating area has a bit of a unique design to it. There are four primary seating levels from third base, swinging behind the plate and all the way out to right field. Then there is the more traditional three levels down the third base line out to right field. Throughout the park, the second level is much larger than the club level in most stadiums, which leaves fewer seats in the very top sections. The outfield consists of mostly bleacher seating in left-center and right-center field. Throughout the park, there are plenty of concourse standing room spots that allow you to watch the game from different vantage points. There are a couple large video boards in right-center. One curious design decision was putting the two main boards almost right next to each other. Those sitting in right field don't get a good view of either. At the time, the out-of-town scoreboard was the best and most detailed one I had ever seen. However, a few other stadiums have put in similar boards in recent years.

Busch Stadium plays very fairly for all players. Although not quite symmetrical, the dimensions are almost identical in right and left field. Albert Pujols doesn't seem to have any trouble hitting home runs in this park, but I wouldn't call it a launching pad by any means. Good pitchers can and do excel in this park.

Kathleen and I got to St. Louis well before game time in hopes of catching batting practice. Unfortunately, it rained all afternoon, which kept the tarp on the field right up to game time. But the rain did keep the temperatures down, so once it dried up, it turned into a pleasant evening. We sat in bleacher seats in left-center field. This game featured two playoff contending teams in a battle of the huge American breweries: Miller vs. Budweiser, Brewers vs. Cardinals. One of the beer vendors in our section used an interesting sales technique towards Brewers fans, offering them Miller Lite in a Bud Light bottle.

The Brewers were looking to sweep the four game series against their division rivals. One of their top pitchers, Ben Sheets, got the start against the Cardinals' Todd Wellemeyer. This turned into a great game, highlighted by a ninth inning rally. The Cardinals got off to a quick start with a run in the bottom of the first on a single by Rick Ankiel. An Albert Pujols sacrifice fly in the third made it 2-0 Cardinals.

Wellemeyer got into a jam in the fourth when he couldn't find the strike zone. He walked four Brewers batters in the inning, including a bases loaded walk to Jason Kendall. The damage was minimal though because the Brewers hit into a double play and did not get a hit in the inning. Wellemeyer helped his own cause in the bottom half of the inning. His single scored Ryan Ludwick from first thanks to an error by right fielder Corey Hart. Hart knocked in a run of his own in the fifth on a ground out, scoring J.J. Hardy and cutting the Cards lead to 3-2.

Both starters pitched well after that and the bullpens kept things in check as well until the ninth. Cardinals closer Ryan Franklin entered the game in the eighth and retired both hitters he faced, but getting the last three outs proved to be more challenging. Following a one out single by Hardy, Braun launched a two run home run in our direction giving the Brewers a 4-3 lead. It was the fourth hit of the night for Braun and the fifth time he reached base safely in five plate appearances. Salomon Torres came in to pitch for the Brewers in the bottom of the ninth and struck out all three batters he faced to pick up the save. The Brewers won the game and swept the Cardinals in a four game series in St. Louis.

This game was the end of a perfect seven game road trip for the Brewers. Overall, it was their eighth consecutive victory. This late July run helped lead them to the post-season for the first time since 1982. They won 90 games in 2008, earning them the National League Wild Card. They dropped the division series to the eventual World Series champion Phillies, three games to one. This loss kept the Cardinals in third place, but only four games out of first. Despite winning 86 games, the Cardinals finished in fourth place, their lowest finish in the division standings since 1999.

I was very impressed with Busch Stadium. It is certainly a huge upgrade over the old park. Cardinals fans have almost always supported their team in large numbers, and that has certainly continued in their years in the new park. Of course, it helps that they put a contending team on the field most years.

Since this trip in 2008, all of my visits to new parks have come during the first season for the stadiums. This meant a trip up to New York in 2009 to see a pair of new ballparks. I will write about those next. I have the benefit of having visited new Yankee Stadium for the second time just a few weeks ago for the ND/Army football game. Hopefully, I will be completely up-to-date with this blog by the end of the year.

Photo Album

From St. Louis (new)

From St. Louis (new)

From St. Louis (new)

From St. Louis (new)

From St. Louis (new)

From St. Louis (new)

From St. Louis (new)

Next stadium: New Yankee Stadium, New York

Nationals Park

Atlanta Braves @ Washington Nationals
March 30, 2008

Nationals 3, Braves 2

W: Jon Rauch
L: Peter Moylan
HR: Chipper Jones (ATL), Ryan Zimmerman (WAS)
Attendance: 39,389
Time of Game: 2 hours, 22 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Washington, DC
First Game: March 30, 2008
Capacity: 41,546
Type: Open
Surface: Grass

Although my official tour of the 30 MLB stadiums ended in 2007, that was hardly the end of my trips to new baseball parks. As I mentioned in my last post, St. Louis had already opened a new stadium since my visit there and Washington opened their new park in 2008. So I visited those two parks in 2008 and have made trips to three other brand new stadiums in the years since. The first stop was at a ballpark I have been to at least 50 times the past three years, Nationals Park in Washington, DC.

After moving to our nation's capital in 2005, the Nationals spent three years at the dated and not particularly well maintained RFK Stadium. If baseball was going to survive its third stint in DC, the franchise was going to need a first class stadium. In the spring of 2008, that is exactly what they got.

Nationals Park is situated in southeast DC on the shore of the Anacostia River, just a little over a mile due south of the Capitol building. Although there is plenty of potential, the stadium's location is probably its biggest drawback. It is mostly an industrial and residential area with very little commerce. This was supposed to change shortly after the Nationals moved in, but the economic downturn has postponed a lot of local projects. So there is not much to do or see in the immediate vicinity of the ballpark, which is very unusual in Washington. The location isn't all bad though. The park is very easy to get to via public transportation, with a Metro stop just a block away from the main entrance to the stadium. This is an absolute necessity in a city with so much gridlock on the roads. Another plus about the location is that you can get some pretty nice views of the city from the upper deck, particularly on the first base side.

In my view, Nationals Park is the first stadium built in the last 20 years which did not attempt to implement a retro look or feel. I said "first" rather than "only", because I would say the same about Target Field in Minnesota. Unlike most newer parks, Nationals Park does not have a brick exterior. Rather, it has a gray colored concrete and siding exterior which fits in well with most other DC buildings. It is a wide open stadium, especially in left and center field. The primary entrance to the stadium is in center field, where there is a huge concourse situated behind all of the outfield seating areas. There is an extensive selection of concessions and dining areas throughout the park, including the very popular Red Porch an Red Loft in center field.

The seating area features the typical three levels in foul territory, with gaps between sections of the upper levels, much like San Diego and Philadelphia. There are also a lot of lower level seats in the outfield, unlike RFK Stadium which had no such seats. There is a second deck in right field with an enormous HD scoreboard above it. Although my season tickets have always been in left field, I have sat in various locations throughout the park and am yet to find a bad seat. Some of the upper deck seats are quite high, but still provide a great view of the field and are very reasonably priced anyway.

Although it isn't quite the pitchers paradise of RFK, Nationals Park is still a great pitchers park. The biggest difference moving over from RFK is that it no longer takes a ridiculous blast just to clear the wall for a home run. But you still don't see many cheap ones hit in this park. The dimensions to the right field gap are shorter than left, but the higher wall in right does take some home runs away. One final observation about how different the old and new parks are is that there is actually some air flow in Nationals Park. Not that it is particularly windy, but there is an occasional breeze. At RFK, the lack of air movement created some very steamy summer nights.

I could have picked any number of games to count towards my official visit to the park, but I decided to go with the big one: the first regular season game played at Nationals Park. I had actually been in the park the day before for an exhibition game against the Orioles. But this one was a Sunday night game on ESPN and the first game of the 2008 season played in the United States (there were a couple games played in Japan the previous week). Just as he did for the return of baseball to DC in 2005, President Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch. It was the second of three presidential first pitches I have seen in person. As you would expect, the stadium was jam packed for this historic game. And what a game it was!

To give you some idea how bad the Nationals were in 2008, their starting pitcher for this Opening Day game was Odalis Perez who went 8-11 with a 5.57 ERA the previous season. The much more formidable Tim Hudson got the start for the Braves. Perez starting things with a bang, striking out the first batter, Kelly Johnson. The Nats offense wasted no time setting ballpark milestones either. They scored the first two runs in the bottom half of the first. Christian Guzman led off with a hit and scored on a double by Nick Johnson. Austin Kearns followed with a single to score Johnson. The Nats were off to a quick 2-0 lead.

Perez pitched surprisingly well in this game. The Braves didn't touch him for a run until the fourth inning when Chipper Jones hit the first Nationals Park home run to deep center. I found it quite fitting that Jones was the one who got the first home run because he seemed to hit home runs in every game I saw him play at RFK. He easily had the best home run ratio of any player I saw in person in that park. Anyway, he picked up right where he left off with a home run in the new stadium as well, but the Nats continued to lead by a run.

This 2-1 lead held until the ninth. Jon Rauch came in for the Nats to try to nail it down. But a one out double by Mark Teixeira put Rauch in a bit of a jam. Martin Prado pinch ran and advanced to third on a ground out and then scored on a passed ball by catcher Paul LoDuca. The perfect night was ruined, or so it seemed. Peter Moylan came in to pitch for the Braves in the bottom of the ninth and quickly retired the first two hitters. But then Nationals star third baseman Ryan Zimmerman came up to the plate. He blasted a 1-0 pitch into the seats in center field, giving the Nats a walk-off 3-2 victory. It was a fitting end to a very exciting night in DC.

This game was not a sign of things to come for the Nationals, however. They had a dreadful season, finishing with the worst record in baseball at 59-102. On a positive note, this poor season led to them having the first pick in the draft which they used on Stephen Strasburg. Meanwhile, the Braves also went on to have a miserable season, losing 90 games and finishing ahead of nobody but the Nats.

As most people know, the Nationals have had a rough six years in DC so far, finishing in last place every season except one. However, it should be noted that they have risen to the occasion in the three most anticipated games in franchise history: the first game back in DC in 2005, this stadium opener in 2008 and the Stephen Strasburg debut game in 2010. All three were exciting Nats victories. Unfortunately, those types of performances have been few and far between. There is hope for baseball to be successful in DC though. Nationals Park is a great place to see a game and they will have no trouble filling it if they ever field a competitive team. But only time will tell if that will ever happen.

Photo Album

From Washington (new)

From Washington (new)

From Washington (new)

From Washington (new)

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From Washington (new)

From Washington (new)

Next stadium: New Busch Stadium, St. Louis

Minute Maid Park

St. Louis Cardinals @ Houston Astros
August 30, 2007

Astros 2, Cardinals 1

W: Matt Albers
L: Joel Pineiro
S: Brad Lidge
HR: Lance Berkman (HOU)
Attendance: 37,520
Time of Game: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Houston, TX
First Game: April 7, 2000
Capacity: 40,950
Type: Retractable roof
Surface: Grass

At long last, my 30 ballpark tour came to an end in Houston. Following a few days in the Dallas area, I drove down to Houston for a Thursday afternoon game between the Astros and Cardinals. As has been the case on several of these long baseball trips, I was a bit worn down by the end of this one. So I didn't spend a lot of time exploring Houston. Not that it would have been terribly pleasant to do so anyway in the late August heat. I drove straight to Minute Maid Park, which is located right in the heart of downtown Houston.

Minute Maid Park is another one of the modern retractable roof stadiums. From the exterior, it looks much like Chase Field in Arizona. In other words, it doesn't really look like a baseball stadium. But, again just like Arizona, the choice to build a retractable roof stadium in Houston made a lot sense. Unfortunately, the roof was closed the entire time I was in the stadium, so I didn't get a sense what the park would feel like with the roof open. I've said it before, but I'll say it one more time: I do not like indoor baseball. When the roof is closed at Minute Maid Park, it feels exactly like a closed dome stadium. There are large glass windows in left field allowing some of the natural sunlight to seep in, but other than that, you aren't going to be fooled into thinking you are outside when the roof is closed.

Originally called Enron Field, they quickly changed the ballpark sponsorship and name following the energy company's demise. Minute Maid Park replaced another stadium that was once considered a marvel of modern architecture some 35 years earlier, the Astrodome. While Minute Maid Park did not take on many of the characteristics of the Astrodome, it does have a few quirks that are reminiscent of other historic parks, namely an inclined hill in straight away center field that outfielders must scale as they run back for balls hit near the wall. On that same hill is an in-play flag pole, much like the one they had at old Tiger Stadium.

Another historic aspect of the stadium is it's connection to the train industry. The main entrance of the stadium was once part of Houston's old Union Station. In a tribute to that history, the stadium features a large wall in left field with a replica train that runs along the top of the wall whenever an Astros player hits a home run.

This is one of the more unique modern stadiums in terms of the design and seating arrangement. It is not an especially large park with a capacity just over 40,000. There are very few seats in left to left-center field, just the Crawford Boxes in left field. These seats are situated above a fairly tall wall in left, but are frequent recipients of home run balls due to the short distance to the wall. There are a lot of great standing room vantage points in left field too. Large arches in the wall allow people to see the field from the outfield concourse. There are two levels of seating in right field, and the standard three levels around the rest of the park. Although I didn't get to check out the view from there, the club level seats seem to be especially close to the field in this stadium. Overall, it doesn't appear that there are many bad seats in this park. I sat out in the lower level in right field.

The interesting design of the seating area also creates a very unique playing surface. Besides the hill and flag pole in center field, there are a lot of other interesting aspects of the outfield. In many locations in left field, there are literally lines on the wall to indicate what is a home run and what is in play. Moving out towards center from the Crawford Boxes, the wall dimensions shoot out quit a bit and there are several corners where balls can take funny bounces. Minute Maid Park is generally considered a good hitters park, but that is mostly because of the short porch in left. The rest of the field is relatively pitcher friendly. It is 436 feet from the plate to the wall in dead center, which is about as deep of a distance as you will find in all of baseball. Oh, and the playing surface is real grass, as opposed to the Astrodome which introduced AstroTurf to the world.

I have one small logistical gripe from this particular game that I feel compelled to share. As I always do, I bought a program before the game, but was shocked to find out it was $10 (at least twice the normal price). Later I discovered I was given an Astros yearbook rather than a program. So when I went back to try to make an exchange, I was informed that they didn't have any programs left. They had sold out of them a day or two earlier on Craig Biggio Day when they commemorated his 3,000 hit. I guess they don't have many printing presses on call in Houston. Anyway, the yearbook didn't have a scorecard, so I had to buy one of them as well. It had to have been the first stand-alone scorecard I had ever seen that didn't include a place to write in the pitchers and their stats, so I had to do that separately on the roster sheet, as you can see in my photos below. So that situation was a little odd, but back to more important things...

This game featured two NL Central rivals who had been the pride of the division in recent years, each having won a pennant over the previous two seasons. However, both came into this one below .500. In fact, the Astros had just fired their manager, Phil Garner, earlier that week. That didn't keep the fans away though. Over 37,000 were present for this Thursday afternoon rubber match of the three game series. The pitching matchup featured Matt Albers for the Astros and Joel Pineiro for the Cardinals.

Both starters pitched quite well in this one. The Astros got on the board first in the bottom of the second inning. Following a Mike Lamb walk, Luke Scott doubled down the left field line to knock in Lamb, but was thrown out at third trying to stretch it into a triple. The lead didn't last long though. In the top of the third, the eighth place hitter, Pineiro, led off with a single and advanced to third on a double by Brendan Ryan. Pineiro scored on a David Eckstein ground out. So Tony LaRussa's unusual batting order with the pitcher hitting 8th paid off this time.

Lance Berkman gave the Astros the lead in the fourth inning when he led off with a long home run to right field to give the Astros a 2-1 lead. Surprisingly, that score held up the rest of the game. After that, neither team had multiple hits in an inning until the 8th. The Cards got a couple singles off reliever Chad Qualls, but could not score. Craig Biggio had a pinch hit infield single in the bottom of the 8th for the Astros, but he was stranded as well. Then Brad Lidge pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to record the save and preserve an Astros win.

2007 was a very disappointing season for both of these teams. With the loss, the defending World Series champion Cardinals fell two games below .500, but remarkably they were only three games out of first place. They did not pick up the pace in September though and finished a distant third. The Astros finished even further behind the leaders and wound up in fourth place.

Following my brief stay in Houston, I flew to Chicago the next morning and spent the weekend in South Bend for the Notre Dame football season opener. So after thousands upon thousands of miles traveled by car, plane, train and foot, I had finally completed my six year, 30 MLB ballpark tour. It was a very rewarding experience and certainly something I would recommend to any big baseball fan. I have often been asked if I would consider doing something like this for other sports and the answer is no. For one thing, I don't love any other sport like I do baseball. But besides that, no sport features venues with such unique characteristics. Only in baseball is each playing field completely different. And similarly, the ballpark surrounding these fields are so much more interesting than those used for football, basketball or hockey.

So that pretty much wraps it up. But not really! I will continue to use this blog to add my visits to new stadiums that have opened since I completed my tour in 2007. Already by the time I finished, one stadium I had visited had been replaced (St. Louis) and another was scheduled to open the following year (Washington). In order to continue to be able to say I've been to every MLB stadium, I have been visiting each of these new parks as they have opened. So I actually have four more stadium reviews to write (Washington, St. Louis and both New York parks), plus I'll be adding Minnesota to that list later this week. So more to come soon!

Photo Album

From Houston

From Houston

From Houston

From Houston

From Houston

From Houston

From Houston

Next stadium: Nationals Park, Washington