In honor of today’s St Louis Cardinals home opener, I thought I’d put up a few photos of the construction of Busch Stadium.
This is, of course, the third Busch Stadium in St. Louis; the first one was on the north side of town, and the second, opened in the 1960s, was right downtown. The new one was built in 2005 and 2006 immediately south of the old one; in fact, they had to build half of it, and then as soon as the 2005 season was over they tore down the old, round, “modern” stadium to allow them to build the rest of the new, “traditional” ballpark.
I never thought the old stadium was all that bad, and I would have been fine with keeping it for another decade or so. But the new one is an absolute gem.
And who would have thought that the place would see two World Series championship celebrations in its first five seasons?
Anyway, here are some pictures I took while Busch III was being built and Busch II was being demolished. As usual, click the thumbnails for a larger view.
