St. Louis - Baseball Heaven

Unless you were a Yankee fan this past weekend. 

This weekend Alison and I took a quick trip to St. Louis. We wanted to watch the Yankees play the St. Louis Cardinals. Blake and Debbie traveled with us. The company Blake works for is based in St. Louis and he usually works in St. Louis once or twice a month anyway. So this trip was convenient for him. He worked in St. Louis the week before and met us there.  

Alison, Debbie, and I took the redeye after work on Thursday night and arrived in St. Louis a little after midnight. Blake was there to pick us up and take us to our hotel. 

On Friday Alison and I worked from our hotel in St. Louis. While we don’t love working from a hotel room, we didn’t want to take any work off for this trip, and we have the flexibility to work from almost anywhere these days. 

After work, we met up with Blake and Debbie and headed up the street a couple of blocks to the Gateway Arch National Park. The arch is quite the monument. I wasn’t expecting too much, but when you turn the corner and see the arch it is impressive. We explored a little, but it was so hot and humid. It was as hot or humid as I have ever felt. Fortunately, we spotted a lemonade stand and bought 4 lemonades just as they were about to close. It was maybe the most refreshing lemonade ever. 

After we finished our lemonades we asked over to Busch Stadium. It is a beautiful ballpark. They have a shopping, entertainment, and restaurant district called a ballpark village. This place is hopping. They opened the gates two hours before the game and we headed right in. We beelined it to the field and watched batting practice. The Yankees were batting and we sat and spotted all of our favorite players. We love spending time at the ballpark. 

As the start of the game approached we made our way up to our seats. For this game, we were sitting on the second deck on the third base side. They were great seats We had a nice view of home plate and could really keep an eye on the infield defense. The game started at 7:15pm and mercifully we were in the shade,  but as the sun went down the temperature did not. It stayed hot and humid. We love baseball and are willing to seat through some discomfort for the game we love. 

We were really excited to see Aaron Judge play in this series

Game 1 of this three-game set was exciting. There were lots of full counts, lots of high leverage situations, excellent pitching, and exceptional defense. The Yankees even hit well, but our situational hitting was terrible and we left too many men on base. Late in the game, Paul Dejong, who was hitting maybe .140, managed to drive in two runs and out the Cardinals 4-3. That score would hold as we would drop the first game. While we always prefer a Yankees win it was an entertaining and competitive game. 

It was a beautiful night for baseball

We enjoy a good mascot race. The theme of this one was somewhat strange. I would characterize it as mid-west agriculture. Regardless it was fun. 

One cool thing was seeing Albee Pujols play. He resigned with the Cardinals for his final season. He is a sure-fire Hall of Famer and had his best seasons with the Cardinals. It was great to see him back in St Louis. It was also great to see Matt Carpenter in St. Louis. He was a long-time Cardinal, but his production fell off a cliff last year. This year he revamped his swing and ended up signing with the Yankees. He has been a revelation and has been a tremendous home run hitter the past few weeks. Each game during his first at-bat of the game he would get a standing ovation from the crowd (and it was a sold-out crowd every game). Moments like this transcend the game.  

Albert Pujols at the plate

On Saturday our first stop was this little breakfast spot near our hotel, Cafe de Blaire. It was so good. We would eat breakfast here every day. The owner was so happy to see us and provided excellent service. The food and smoothies were pretty great too. We just kept coming back. 

After breakfast, we went back to the Gateway Arch National Park. We had reservations to ride the tram to the top of the arch. The whole experience is really dialed in. First, they give you some background on the arch. Then they split you into groups and line you up by the tram entrance. Then they load you into the tram, which is surprisingly small (see photo). Then they send you on your way. The ride to the top takes about 4 minutes. We got 10 minutes at the top to enjoy our views of St. Louis. The windows were quite small, which meant you had to lean over and look straight down through them. Despite the small windows, the views were excellent. At the end of our 10 minutes, they loaded us back into the tram and we headed back down the arch. This time the ride took about 3 minutes. 

These trams were really small. If I sit up straight I would hit my head on the ceiling.

It was another sweltering day, even hotter and more humid than the day before. If you can believe it. So we really wanted to avoid being outside as much as possible. We were in luck because at the base of the arch there was a great museum. We spent the rest of the morning exploring the museum and learning about St Louis. Since this was the gateway to the west many people flowed through this area as they settled in the western portion of the US. The history of St Louis is intertwined with the history of western expansion and manifest destiny. There were even a few interesting exhibits about Mormon pioneers. 

Debbie found the Great Salt Lake

In the afternoon we left St. Louis to visit our friends Dave and Leslie Ott. A big part of the reason we came on this trip was to visit them. We met Dave and Leslie five years ago on our trip to Israel. They were in the same tour group as us. We really got it off with them. On long drives, we would all sit at the back of the bus and talk about life and baseball. We became fast friends. They have visited us a few times on trips to Utah, so we were excited to return the favor and visit them in St. Louis. We stopped by their house and received the grand tour. We also met their dog, Molly, and caught up on each other’s lives. 

We continued our conversation over dinner, before heading back to downtown St. Louis for the second game of the three-game set. Today was Joe Torre Night at the ballpark. They honored the MVP and All-Star Cardinals player and Hall of Fame New York Manager. He was even in attendance for the game. It was perfect, everyone in the stadium that night loves Joe Torre. So he got a really nice standing ovation. They were also giving away a Joe Torre bobblehead. We barely made it to our seats by the first pitch, so we didn't snag one, but not to worry Dave had his son get one for us. Dave and Leslie were such gracious hosts. 

I was nervous about this game. The Yankees were starting their fifth starter, Domingo German. The Cardinals were starting their newest starter, Jordan Montgomery, who was a Yankee up until the trade deadline last week. He was pissed when the Yankees traded him. I thought he might be pitching his heart out for revenge. This game turned out to be a pitching duel. Jordan Montgomery would give the Cardinals 5 strong innings. He pitched into some trouble, but also managed to get out of it. German was actually pretty good. He did give up a run in the first inning, but settled down and kept the game scoreless. Both teams went to the bullpen and it was a parade of 0s on both sides. The Yankee's normally potent offense was quieted. Alison, Blake, and I all kept saying we didn’t think one run would win this game, but it turned out that it did. The Cardinals took the second game 1-0. The energy at this game was tremendous. The low score meant everyone in the stadium was on the edge of their seat for every at-bat. I could hardly believe the size of the crowd. They not only sold out the seats in the stadium, but they also sold out every standing room space as well. This game was the all-time record for attendance at Busch Stadium, including post-season and the all-star game. 

For Christmas Dave sent Blake and me each a Cardinals hat. I told Dave the one and only time I would wear it was for this picture. We sure enjoy our shared love of Baseball.  

On Sunday we went to the third and final game of the series. Today we had amazing seats. Blake was able to score his company’s tickets. The seats provide access to the Cardinals club area of the ballpark with the seats on field level directly behind home plate. It was really cool to sit so close to home plate. 

Once again we arrived at the ballpark when the gates opened two hours before the game. We headed straight to the Cardinals Club. In the club, they had a very nice buffet that we could enjoy before the game. We ate some food and then Alison and I went out to watch batting practice, but after the late game last night and the early start this morning there was no batting practice on the field. A few players were milling about so I stood over by the dugout and got Alber Abreu, one of the Yankee's relief pitchers, to sign a baseball for me.

We found our seats before the first pitch. These seats were so fun. We were so close to the players and we could hear everything at home plate. We were hoping for a better game than the last two. It was different than the other two, but the outcome was the same. The Yankees struck first, scoring a run in the top of the first, but the Cardinals stuck back and scored one in the bottom of the first. The Yankees were pitching the starter they acquired at the trade deadline, Frankie Montes, we were hoping for a great debut, but he struggled with control. Pitching opposite Frankie was Adam Wainwright. Wainwright has been a Cardinal stalwart for years. This is his last season, along with their catcher Yadier Molina, who has been also been phenomenal for years. We were pretty excited to see them both in their final season. Before the game started the Cardinals put a stat on their scoreboard - Wainwright and Molina have been the starting battery for 308 games. That is truly impressive. 

The only downside to these seats was the heat. It was another scorcher. There was no escaping the heat and no shade. It was totally worth enduring the heat to enjoy the game,  but man was it hot. We were all dripping with sweat. The good news was that these seats had concierges who would bring us complimentary water and food so we didn’t have to get up during the game. That way we had plenty of ice water to stay hydrated on this hot day. 

Neither starter really had it today. The Yankees scored three runs in the top of the second to take the lead. Then St. Louis answered back with five runs in the bottom of the second. It seems like the Yankees scored and scored, but St. Louis was always right there. There was very little good pitching today. 

We loved watching Aaron Judge in the on-deck circle he is such a massive human being. 

At one point during the game, a kid was standing down by the netting near the batting circle and Aaron Judge walked over and gave him a fist bump. That was really cool to see. 

Between all of the walks, full counts, and pitching changes it was a really long ballgame. We had to leave in the middle of the sixth inning. Our flight home left at 6:35pm, 5 hours after the game started. We wanted to stay for the whole game and waited as long as we possibly could, but at 4:40pm we called it and left. Our timing could not have been better. We walked back to our hotel, picked up our rental car, dropped off the car, took a shuttle to the airport, checked our bags, made it through security, and arrived at our gate right as they started boarding. 

Unfortunately, while we were in transit a few more runs scored and the Yankees lost 12-9. This was a rough series. The Yankees have been in a slump lately and we hit St. Louis while they were on a roll. But that happens in baseball. Even the very best teams will lose around 60 games a year. The Yankees are still one of the best teams in baseball. This series was a low moment in the season. Hopefully, they bounce back this week.  While seeing the Yankees get swept was not what we wanted, you can’t predict baseball. We still had fun seeing these two stories franchises play ball.