Farewell to a ballpark

Tuesday afternoon, a friend of mine called me to ask if I wanted to go to the Cardinals baseball game instead of meeting her for dinner like we had planned. I said, "Are you serious?!" A co-worker had given her his tickets. I couldn't believe my luck. I had just been thinking a few days earlier that it was sad I wouldn't be going to another game before they blew up Busch Stadium. Now, with just seven home games left (if you don't count post season, of course), I suddenly had a chance to say goodbye.

It was surreal to see a portion of the new stadium from the walkways of the old stadium. They have it partially lit so that you can see it and it just didn't look real. It looked like it was a movie set. The new stadium doesn't have as many seats as the old stadium, but it looked like it was so much bigger.

I will miss the old Busch. It was a unique structure. All you had to do was see a picture of it and you knew which stadium it was. There's no stadium like it in the major leagues. It's different. The new stadium looks like all the new stadiums. It's supposed to have a retro feel to it, and it does, but it could be a stadium located anywhere. Nothing about it says St. Louis. Old Busch with its circular design and its ring of mini arches at the top just said St. Louis to me. And soon they will be blasting it to smithereens.