The Holtonian

St. Louis Visit (with pics)

Well I promised I'd write about st. louis so here goes. We went up for my birthday last week to st. lou and also to see Hunt before he headed back to Iraq. It was a pretty good birthday weekend because I got to spend time with both Pete, Pete's new wife Joy, Hunt, and Bud and Leslie... the wife of course was there being a super trooper through a hectic weekend of TWO CARDS GAMES!! Yep I got to go to

Friday night's game to see the Cardinals make one of the best comebacks I've ever seen. I've never seen a game won in the ninth and man did i pick a good one to witness. The birds were down 4 to zero and the giants were just not giving much up for the Cards to gain anything. Its not that the Giants pitching and defense was all that great, its just a matter of the Cardinals not hitting anything. So the 9th starts off with a double by Mabry (this is all by my memory so details and players may be wrong) then someone else got on and we had two on no outs. Then the big catcher my main man Molina came up and hit a three run shot and we were all of a sudden only down by one run. The place was electric, the giants fans next to me were quivering. Then J-rod or John Rodriquez came up (he's a rookie who's pretty steakin good, the closest thing the cards have to a Francoer), he gets up and gets a good base hit. Then Nunez (Rolen's replacement at third who's batting a respectable 300) gets up and hits one and J rod makes it to third. So we got first and third one out (someone had struck out or something). So then mighty Casey walks to the plate, my man man Poo Holes. He gets up and the place is going crazy because one swing of the bat and its tied and a good swing and we can all go home and get into our Air conditioned cars. So Pujols works the count and gets to a 3-2 count. And bam! he hits a pop up to shallow right that the second baseman easily grabs... no one scores. THe mighty Casey has popped out. But then the big man himself, Big Jimmy Edmonds steps up. 2 outs bottom of the ninth go home a winner or a loser. First pitch... BOOOM A ball that sails to the outfield its going... its going... its..... hits the wall and rolls back in, the right fielder miss places it, Jrod easily scores to tie it up, we're tied!!! We're tied!!! Oh wait!?!? Whats this, Nunez is running all the way from first he's running, he's running... he rounds second and running... rounds third... the relay isn't in time and he's safe at home.... GO CRAZY FOLKS GO CRAZY>>>> CARDS WIN CARDS WIN CARDS WIN... oh my it was glorious. So beautiful. The cards came back to win 5 to 4...

Woowee, that was an emotional coaster. So the next day we go to the game with our friends Bud and Leslie. Bud got some good tickets behind homeplatish that gave a great view of the stadium.

The only problem... it was a 100 million degrees out. My shorts and shirt were completely soaked to the core by the end of the game. I don't think I've ever sat through a more intense heat. This game didn't have the excitement of the prior game, but the cards did win 4 to 2. But it was soooo hot you couldn't really even muster a cheer. But it was great to see Bud and Leslie and i met my quota of two Cardinals games a year.

The new stadium's coming along nicely too. I was opposed to the new stadium initially because i was like, why? They got one that's perfectly fine. But this new one does look nicer and will open up to the city sky line... well mostly just the arch will be visible, but it will give the city a nicer stadium that is appealing both in and out. Busch is great inside but the outside is very boring and very mid 20th century. This new one has the classic appeal. It reminds me a lot of the Braves stadium especially with the open view of the city.

They're building the new around the old, and when the season's over they'll tear down the old one to finish the new one.

They're already doing chairs and stuff in the new one basically doing everything they can so that when the season's over they can put a 100% into the remainder of the stadium.

These were taken from inside the old stadium on the outside of it.

So we had a great weekend but it ended on a sadder note. Janelle had to take Concerned to the airport to send him back to Iraq. It was hard to see him go but he's coming back in a few months into 06 and we'll have a major throw down then to welcome him back to civilization.

If you have something you want to send to him let me know and i'll stick it in one of our packages.