Busch Stadium Memories: Honorable Mention

Over the next few weeks, I will be counting down my top 10 memories of Busch Stadium. There will be no Beatles, no Bob Gibson, and no Lou Brock since the list is made up of games/events I actually attended.

I'm kicking off the Busch Stadium countdown today by taking a look at several moments that couldn't quite make the top 10, but warranted mentioning. In no particular order, here are some of the best moments I've experienced at Busch:

May 1992 - the Cardinals are celebrating 100 years as an organization, the original Dream Team is getting ready to head to Barcelona, and Scott Quinn and David Justice are ready to rumble. I'm going to need Scott to tell the story (can I get a blog entry on this?) because he's a better story teller than I am, so I'm going to leave this alone for now.

April 1995 - I hate to admit that one of my lasting memories was an exhibition game at the end of Spring Training, but it was. The Seattle Mariners played the Birds in Busch right before Opening Day and I went to the game with several of my Rend Lake College teammates. I can't tell you who won, who pitched, or who was in the Cardinal lineup that day. But I can tell you that Ken Griffey Jr. and Jay Buhner put on one of the most impressive BP performances I have ever seen. Those two hit bomb after bomb after bomb. I distinctly remember Griffey going upper deck just above the scoreboard in right. I'm not kidding. Upper deck. Wow. And I distinctly remember Buhner, on three consecutive swings, go Stadium Club window, upper deck, Stadium Club window. Watching those two on that night was better than seeing Big Mac launch balls into Big Mac Land. Which reminds me...

McGwire's first game at Busch (August 1997) - I went to the game with Mr. Quinn, Mr. Hicks, and I think Scott. For some reason I'm thinking maybe Scott couldn't go, so maybe Michael Hicks went. Anyway, we got to the game in time to watch McGwire hit about a half-dozen balls into the Mississippi River. It was impressive, especially since it was the first time any of us had seen him take BP. A couple of ironic things about this night: One, I had seen McGwire play the night before...in Atlanta. Chad Hammons and I had driven down to see a couple of games at Turner Field and after the 2nd game we drove straight home to MV. We got home around 6:30 in the morning and TQ called me about 10:30 to see if I wanted to go to the game that night. I couldn't refuse the offer. The second ironic thing was that McGwire hit a homer in the game, but we didn't see it. The Rams had a preseason game at the TWA Dome and after watching BP, we walked down the street and watched the first quarter. After the quarter ended we headed back to Busch, only to find out we had missed McGwire's bomb. Oh well, TQ and I saw him hit one later...oops that's a top 10 moment so I better move on.

October 2000 (Rick Ankiel's playoff meltdown) - It wasn't pretty then, it isn't funny now. Unfortunately or fortunately, however you look at this, I was at both games and no matter how ugly it was, it is hard to forget.

May 1993- I'm not sure who the Cards were playing, but after getting a rainout and practice cancelled, me, Chad, Damon Kelley, and Matt Hawkins grabbed some straight A passes (remember those things?) and headed to the game. What made this game memorable? The one and only time I've caught a foul ball at a game. Many BP balls and Scott's arch enemy David Justice once threw me one himself, but only 1 foul ball. Thank you, Ray Lankford.

Coming Soon: Moment #10 (9/15/86)