It was Cleveland vs. Royals in the middle of June (Intriguing I know)

Gil Meche ended up with an 8 inning shutout with 11K’s and the Royals scored about 11 runs off Carl Pavano. It was an ugly game, but I always liked Meche, thought he would be a good pitcher for the Cardinals if they picked him up.

I flew home to surprise my mom for her 50th birthday and ended up having time to see part 1 of Gary Bennett weekend in 2006.

In 2002, I saw the team get serious in the ninth from right next to the cards dugout. I went to the game as part of a summer research program and spent the entirety of the last three innings convincing everyone else there (most of whom didn’t care at all about the Cards) to stick around for the end of the game. Needless to say that was well worth the effort.

Skip Schumaker’s walk-off homer vs the cubs in ’08

Albert Pujols knocking out the “I” in Big Mac Land

Astros several years ago. I think that might have been the first game my wife (then girlfriend) went to. The next one was a 14 inning loss, so she saw three games’ worth of innings in those two nights. She was later happy to find out that baseball games aren’t always that long.

I also got to see Matt Morris absolutely dominate the Dodgers in 2004. My friend and I couldn’t believe has fast that game was going.

And Ankiel’s walk-off hit when we got three in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Cubs last year.

And Wainwright’s complete game win against Houston last year thanks to a ninth inning walk-off hit by Skippy.

Those are the funnest Cards games that come to mind at the moment. When I was a kid I got to see the Royals win an 18 inning game against the Rangers (and I just discovered that the loser was Kenny Rogers – awesome). The Royals tied it in the bottom of the ninth, and no one scored again until the bottom of the 18th. The coolest thing about that game was that so many people had left by the 14th-15th inning that we got to move down to just a few rows behind the 3rd base dugout – the closest I’ve ever been to the field at an MLB game.

Baseball Reference is so freaking awesome. I could waste all day there.

because we can only sneak a peek at it when they’re the visiting team. Boog surrounded by every infield coach not behind home plate and taking a bounce between his legs and catching it behind his back. Blake Hawksworth spending long minutes signing autographs by the high wall next to the dugout. Albert playfully booting Tony on the butt as he strolled around for his turn to bat. Boog taking a few minutes to commune with an electric fan before his pre-game interview.

During the game, LaRue sat in the high-walled bullpen catching and tossing items to autograph for the pitchers.

…by a couple of college girls in Philly at the Vet when I was 14 – hooves down that was the best thing that ever happened to me at a ball games (cudn’t even tell u who won that game, or even played it), and may have sent me down that dark, scary road for admiring udder action which I currently tred, hoof by hoof. See, it’s not all hostility in Philly!
;=8)

Watching the whole juice box deflate was absolutely fantastic.

Albert Pujols’ 1,000 RBI grand slam. Chris Perez’s MLB debut.

Busch II

Ozzie Smith playing shortstop…

but my faves are seeing the wizard do the backflip, and seeing brett wallace hit a home run and make a diving catch into the stands near where I was sitting. sheds tear

His walk-off grand slam last year

First time I ever entered the new Busch, I had an opposite field batting practice home run ball hit by either Spiezio, Eckstein, or some other lighter skin color right handed bat on the ’06 team. (Shame is that I never could tell who hit it.)

Oh.. you wanted good memories.

Oh.. you wanted good memories.Just spending a week at Busch II before they blew it up was great for me. Took in the whole Dodger series (2005). Sanders went yard twice in the one game, Larry walker was in the house… fun times.

Oh.. you wanted good memories.Just spending a week at Busch II before they blew it up was great for me. Took in the whole Dodger series (2005). Sanders went yard twice in the one game, Larry walker was in the house… fun times.Have seen StL many times in Pittsburgh between Three Rivers and PNC but none of the game were ever classic. I guess I did get to see Mulder throw some 86 mph heat a few years back does that count?

Probably my earliest concrete memory of a baseball game involved Geronimo Peña. I’m pretty sure he hit a homerun and charged the mound in the same game. Even if it didn’t quite happen that way that’s how I remember it, and it’s awesome. I have vague memories of other games from that period but nothing that vivid. I’m sure I remember watching players like Lee Smith and Bernard Gilkey and Todd Zeile, and of course Ozzie Smith. But that’s the earliest time I remember the events of a particular game that go together.
A few years later I distinctly remember going to a game (I think against the Dodgers) where the Cards were down 6-0 by the end of the first inning. Needless to say lots of people left and it seemed like it would be a downer. However, the Cardinals refused to give up, and kept at it until they eventually won the game 9-7. A comeback like that seemed almost impossible to my young self with those ragtag mid-90’s Cardinal teams.
Probably my favorite memory at Busch II was my last game there, in 2005. It was the first Cardinals game that my then-girlfriend and now-wife went to with me. It was against the Cubs, and a suicide squeeze involving So Taguchi and David Eckstein won the game in the bottom of the ninth. Everybody in the stands could feel it coming, it was just a great moment.
Probably the awesomest game I’ve ever been to was the now-mythical Easter Sunday of 2006. Witnessing that game at the stadium drove home to me just how awesome Albert Pujols is. Before that I just hadn’t seen his awesomeness in person very much. It was a life-changing moment… well, it was a fandom-changing moment. The Cardinals have had some truly great players in my lifetime but only Albert Pujols is Ridiculous.

outfield catch at Baltimore’s old Memorial Stadium (1988 ?) . Bo ran full speed towards the gap to snag a long drive about just short of the warning track and his momentum was going to carry him right into the outfield wall. Instead of crashing shoulder first into the padded wall, Bo shifted his weight and ran sideways up and then back down the wall hardly breaking stride.

was this game – Mulder’s Gem. It was cold, and we kept moving seats to be in the sun. The game moved quickly, and all 3 friends and I were keeping score (and still have our scorecards). We kept track of pitch counts ourselves since it wasn’t anywhere in the ballpark. Once the bottom of the ninth was finishing without anyone scoring, we all compared counts and saw he had only thrown 94. Once Mulder came out for the 10th, the whole stadium erupted. He finished the 10th with still only 101 pitches thrown. Sadly, TLR pinch hit for him to start the bottom of the tenth, but we scored anyway to cap off a great game.

It was pure jubilation.

First of all, I’m a long time lurker and this is my first post. I would like to thank all of you for the entertainment you have provided me for the last few months. It got to the point where I couldn’t watch a game without checking the game threads on VEB. It’s a great group of folks here.

I grew up a Cardinal fan in California (my dad is from Missouri). We used to go see the Cards and Giants play at Candlestick a couple of times a year. I moved to L.A. in 1985 and would go see the Cards and Dodgers every time the Cards came to town. I despised the Dodgers, and especially Pedro Guerrero. When he was traded to the Cards, I had to force myself to like him. The first time Guerrero came back to Dodger stadium as a Cardinal, he was booed mercilessly. He proceeded to hit a home run in his first at-bat and I gladly rose and cheered as the rest of the stadium booed. Later in the game, he repeated the feat and I was once again happy to be the only person in my section to stand and applaud.

Another one was in 2002 at Busch II when Polanco, Pujols and Edmonds(?) went back-to-back-to-back.

My worst experience was a game I missed. My wife and I had planned to go to a game in ’99 at Dodger Stadium. She decided that she would rather go to the game the next day, so I stayed at home and watched the game on TV. It just happened to be the night Fernando Tatis hit 2 grand slams in the same inning. Needless to say, I was not pleased with my wife that night.

3) Willie McGee hits a walkoff homer on opening day 1997. So very cold that night that my family and I were all drinking hot chocolate and shivering underneath blankets. And just when it looks like their headed for extras, which my dad already told us that if it goes to the 10th we were gonna leave cause it was too cold, the most unlikeliest of HR hitters sends us home with a W to start the season.

2.) Favorite at the new Busch was 2009, Holliday’s walkoff to beat the Cubs. My wife and I got Redbird club tickets as a wedding present. Got to enjoy the posh side of the park for the first time and what an exillerating homerun to beat our arch enemies.

1.) Not to wear thin the longball, but by favorite, by far, memory of being at the game was 9-8-1998. Big Mac’s 62nd homerun! The excitement in that place the whole night was amazing. Every swing he took, the stands became one giant flashbulb going off. I was in the noseblead seats that my family I and I got for free because of the Cardinals giving seat vouchers to kids with good grades. (picked out that game by chance 3 months earlier) I couldn’t even see the ball go over the fence, because we were in the left field outfield, but the massive eruption of cheers afterward let everyone know we were present for history! Cardinals won the game against Sosa’s Cubs, Lankford hit a punishing homerun when they walked McGwire earlier in the game, and filing out with everyone singing along to ‘Celebration’ that was blaring from the speaker system just rounded out perfectly the best Cardinals game I’ve ever attended.

3) May 15, 2004 Chris Carpenter enters the day with a 3-1 record and a 4.62 era (this was Carp’s first season playing with the Cards. At this point he was still a “?” on whether he would be an impact player, or even be the player he was in Toronto. As I watched this game progress, Carpenter just got better and better painting the zone and keeping the ball down (18 GB outs to 2 FB outs). He picked up the win in the first moment I became sold on Carpenter being effective after being out for an entire season.
2) April 9, 2001 It’s Opening Day at Busch II, and there is a new rookie in the lineup for the Cardinals. His name is Albert Pujols. He hits his first homerun in front of the hometown crowd (already had 1 earlier in the year). Larry Walker hit a 2 run homerun for the Rockies and broke his bat doing so. It was bizarre. The Cardinals ended up winning in the bottom of the ninth, 3-2. Bobby Bonilla led off the inning with a double, Lankford sacrifice bunted and was safe at 1st and Pujols came up in the 9th as a rookie. What did the Rockies do? They Intentionally walked him. The game ended when Lankford scored on a wild pitch.
1) September 20, 2000. In July of 2000, one of my friends asked if I wanted to go to a Cardinals game with him. He said he would order tickets for the 20th of September because he felt that would be the day the Cardinals would clinch the division. As it turns out, he is right and we are going to the game the Cardinals would clinch the division. There was an excitement in the air that night. It was unlike any other game I ever attended. The game started by Rick Ankiel fanning the first 4 batters he faced. By the bottom of the 3rd, there had only been 2 baserunners (walk to Berkman, double by Lankford). The Cardinals began the inning with a single by Mike Matheny. Ankiel was due up and struckout, but was followed by a Vina single, and a Paquette single (no one scored). Up next was Jimmy Edmonds and he socked a Grand Slam. The place erupted. Before the crowd even settled down from the slam, Ray Lankford hits another HR. The Cards were up 5-0 and coasted the rest of the way to the clinching W. Paquette and Lankford each finished the game with 2 HR. It was by far the most exciting game I have ever attended that ended up favoring the Cardinals.

The worst game I attended was the Cardinals Pirates game in Pittsburgh July 12, 2008 where the Cardinals blew a 10-6 lead in the 9th, then led of the 10th with a solo homerun, only to have Jason Michaels hit a 2-run shot in the bottom half to win it.

We used to go to games at Busch II once every couple of years or so when I was growing up (mid ’80’s). I just remember bits and pieces of those. It seemed like every time we went, they were playing the Mets, and the Mets usually won. I do remember before one game, they played some kind of Old-Timer game and I got to see Gibson pitch and he also cranked one out. Sure miss those tight polyester t-shirt jerseys….