James Sutton, St. Louis, MO -- Sep 25, 2006 14:08 PM
10 visit(s). My rating: 8
Growing up in St. Louis, as well as still living here, Busch Stadium II was like a second home and was my church. Growing up going there every summer was a highlight. I remember the sights, the sounds and the smells of this place. The wonderful smell of hotdogs and peanut shells still stay in my nose. My favorite memories were going to the game with my grandfather. Sure, he embarrased me before the game by singing along to the songs played by Ernie Hayes on the organ before the game started, but those are memeories that I wouldn't trade for the world, especially since his passing. The stadium itself was nothing spectacular to look at except for the wonderfully designed arched roofline. It was sad to see the stadium not long after the last game. All of the seats, decorations, signs, etc. were removed and all that was left was a lifeless, empty concrete shell. Watching it torn down slowly with a wrecking ball was like watching a loved one whither away in a hospital bed to their death. This process did allow those to give it its proper goodbye, but it was sad to see it in that dying state. Now that Busch Stadium II is gone, I am sad, but it is all of the memories that will never die.

Joseph Johnston, covington, LA -- Aug 20, 2008 22:02 PM
2 visit(s). My rating: 7
Busch Stadium in St. Louis was a cookie-cutter flying saucer of a stadium, with the rotating lower decks and all, but if one such stadium could have survived into the cookie-cutter retro-parks, this could have been the one. I was impressed by what great baseball fans St. Louis had. We sat in the LF upper deck, so we didn’t get to see the Cards LF Rex Hudler make a great catch. This was in 1990. I think they were playing the Mets. Our kids really enjoyed it. We got to tour the park that morning. If I remember correctly, they let us walk on the artificial turf, which was spongier than most. Busch had a well-appointed museum, with scale models of Sportsman’s Park and the then-current Busch itself. Sportsman’s reminded me of my HS English teacher’s scale model of the Globe Theatre. They also had a store there, with retro Cardinals AND Browns jerseys. If it weren’t so pricey, I would have bought the Browns jersey with the Dodger-like cursive script, but in brown.