Diamond Gems - musings on baseball both locally and nationally
Last week I attended the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) annual convention in St. Louis. During the convention I was fortunate to see three games at the new Busch Stadium. It was the 34th ballpark in which I have seen a major league game. Some people collect stamps or coins; I collect ballparks.
The old Busch stadium was one of the cookie-cutter type, oval, designed for multiple purposes and devoid of character although the Cardinals did try to personalize it to some extent.
I was impressed to find that the ballpark has an organ. I am old-school, a traditionalist, and I like the sound of an organ played in the park. Another interesting touch included light standards that I thought resembled toothbrushes.
Busch is designed so you can walk entirely around the field on the lower deck. During this series a small exhibit about the Negro Leagues was located down the right field line. On the facing of the left field area and on the scoreboard were the retired numbers of the Cardinals.
The Cardinals have had a long and proud history in the National League as evidenced by these retired numbers. Rogers Hornsby, a jersey with no number. Ozzie Smith 1, Red Schoendienst 2, Stan Musial 6, Enos Slaughter 9, Ken Boyer 14, Dizzy Dean 17, Lou Brock 20, Jackie Robinson and Bruce Sutter 42, Bob Gibson 45 and August Busch 85. There is also a retired mic for legendary announcer Jack Buck.
The food was good but consistently overpriced as always at an entertainment event. The scoreboards/message boards located around the ballpark provided a wealth of information. Out of town scores, statistics, pitch counts are just a sample. Old Busch was near the bottom of my rankings of major league parks; new Busch would be in the upper half of the list.
Jim Sandoval can be reached at casandman@aol.com
