As the Major League Baseball season winds down, we’re going to have a treat: a four-game series in St. Louis between the Cardinals and the division-leading and World Champion Chicago Cubs. My friends know that I don’t hate the Cubs like a lot of St. Louisans. Heck, I consider Chicago my second city, and...
I recently read Wait ‘Til Next Year, a memoir by Doris Kearns Goodwin about her life growing up as a Brooklyn Dodgers fan. An interesting part of her childhood was that her father taught her how to keep score during baseball games, so that she could listen to the day games, keep score, and...
It was 10 years ago tonight—July 19, 2006—that I had the best seats I’ve ever had for a baseball game, and it was one of the wildest nights I’ve spent at the ballpark. My brother, who at that time worked for Anheuser Busch, which at that time was one of the better employers in St. Louis,...
In 1984, Jean and I flew to New York for my friend Geoff’s wedding. Our U.S. Air flight back to Chicago had a stopover in Pittsburgh. As we arrived at our gate at La Guardia, there was an unusual buzz in the terminal; the gate people were all smiling, and there were lots of...
I had some time before work this morning, so I took a walk around downtown to take some pictures. I gravitated toward Busch Stadium to see how “Ballpark Village” is coming along, visit the statue garden, and see if the yard looked ready for baseball. Well, it might be ready, but it’s hard to...
3. Sunday, Bloody Sunday, by U2. October 27, 1985: Denkinger screwed up, and the Cardinals were ticked. After the nightmare finish to Game 6 of the 1985 World Series, it was easy to see that Game 7 was going to be a powder keg. The only question was, who was going to set it...
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....
This is going to hurt a while. It was supposed to be Mizzou’s year: a team full of seniors who played above expectations all season, ranked No. 3 nationally going into the NCAA Basketball Tournament. They were poised to become the first Missouri team to make it to the Final Four. But it didn’t...
Twenty-five years ago tonight, Kansas City, Mo., game six of the 1985 World Series between the Cardinals and the Royals. I was at home watching on television with my friends Kurt and Sue — my parents were out of town at the Lake of the Ozarks. It was looking good for the Cards, leading...
Really? Baseball already? Spring training began this week. Well, last week, if you count pitchers and catchers. Forgive me if I don’t share the reverence that some apparently feel for the phrase “Pitchers and catchers report…” This morning, it was 20 degrees in St. Louis. Early April is six weeks away, but there’s a...
