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Opened: May 12, 1966
Final Game: October 19, 2005
Capacity: 49,676
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]In 1999 I was 16. I had just received my driver’s license less than a month before. My dad had competed in the Open Boat Nationals the previous year in Richmond and decided to do it again, this time in Golden, Colorado. So out we went, leaving on July 3. We stopped in St. Louis on July 5 for the game there. For a long time this was the best game I had ever seen. The Cardinals won 1-0. Randy Johnson pitched for the Diamondbacks and struck out 12. The immortal Jose Jimenez, who had no-hit the Diamondbacks a week or two before, was even better for the Cardinals. Both pitchers threw complete games. I remember before the game buying a Cardinals hat and I got it autographed by two players, Darren Bragg and Jose Acevedo. I don’t know where the hat is but I’m pretty sure I still have it.[/vc_column_text][vc_media_grid element_width=”3″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1514556761306-c16303d6-3471-4″ include=”4646″][vc_column_text]
How did I get there?
Dad brought me. We drove into St. Louis in the morning after spending the night in O’Fallon, Illinois. Parked in a lot about a block from the stadium. We went up in the Gateway Arch.
Ticket prices
Don’t know. Dad bought them. As you can see in the picture there were not a lot of people at the game, something that would not happen today.
Finding my seat and amenities
Don’t remember anything about the park. As far as I can remember the only thing I bought was the program. A few years later when I was looking through it and it listed the Cardinals draft picks from that year. One of them was a Joey Pujols. What a future he had. It is fun to look back on that years later and see if you can remember faces to go with names.
In game experience
The Cardinals were not particularly good. Mark McGwire was on the team and the other Mac, Joe McEwing had his rookie hit streak snapped in this game. I remember very little about the actual game other than a lot of strikeouts and McGwire hit a laser of a single and scored the only run a few batters later.
Getting out
By a stroke of luck where my dad parked required two simple turns and you were on I-70 heading west. You couldn’t get much easier than that, though again not a lot of people were at the game.
Wrap
I have no real special memories of the place and I only saw one game here. It’s not like St. Louis is right down the street from me.[/vc_column_text][vc_btn title=”Back to the National League” color=”danger” align=”left” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Ftheworldneedsmorekevin.com%2Fbaseball%2Fnational-league%2F|||”][/vc_column][/vc_row]