Bye Bye Busch Stadium

Today was the day the construction (or de-construction) crews started to tear down the old Busch Stadium to make way for the new Busch Stadium. Half of the new Busch Stadium is already built; the old Busch Stadium is in the way of the second half and construction guys were just waiting for the baseball season to end so that they could get on with the demolition and finish the new stadium just in time for opening day next April.

So today, at 3 pm, I was eagerly awaiting the wrecking ball knocking a big hole in Busch Stadium. I have to tell you, I was unimpressed. Especially after the earlier talk of imploding the thing. Now, that's what I wanted to see. That's how a baseball stadium should go out. Big time. All I saw was a little puff of dust. After a few hits, there was a dent.

It's going to take months to tear down the stadium that way, but construction was ahead of schedule and they thought this would be a better (or more cost efficient?) way of getting rid of the old in with the new.

Lots of people are sharing their Busch Stadium memories, so here's mine: Our first vacation after we were married was to St. Louis. A long weekend trip. We were young. It was a sunny, warm summer. We drove from our house outside of Tulsa to St. Louis for the weekend. The Braves were in town, so we were going to catch a game or two while we were here.

"A game or two" turned into FIVE games in one weekend. You see, the Braves/Cardinals had been rained out earlier in the season and they were making up those games as doubleheaders on two of the days we were there. (I don't think I knew this when we were planning the trip.) So we spent A LOT of time in Busch Stadium that weekend. We went to the Zoo, but to be honest, I don't remember it. We walked under the Arch, but didn't have time to go in it. It was all baseball, all the time.

To Chris's defense, though: 1) I was still pretending to be extremely interested in baseball at that point, only being married about six months or so; 2) We were young, and young people do things like that; 3) I did enjoy seeing Ozzie Smith do flips out on the field, and at the time, I knew the entire Braves line up; 4)There was also the enjoyment of seeing the crowd and inevitably, the drunk person yelling "Where's the Busch" when only the Budweiser guy was nearby selling beer.

Good times.