St. Louis Weekend Recap

I was unable to post this weekend because a very busy schedule during my trip to St. Louis. For this post, let's go in a little bit of a different direction and recap my time in the Gateway City.

On Friday afternoon, I arrived at my hotel "The Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark". The room had an amazing view of beautiful Busch Stadium from the window. The park was great... but there's nothing that can match Wrigley.

Next I walked across the street to the stadium and took a look at all of the statues of Cardinals legends. At 5:15, the gates opened and folks starting flooding into the park. Cardinals batting practice was about half way through and many of the Cubs were starting to get warmed up. At about 5:40, the Cubs starting taking some BP. During this session I ended up with a souvenir on a ball tossed into the crowd by Jeff Baker and an autograph from Tom Gorzelanny.

The seats were very good, great view from the second level. The game was not as good, as the Cubs scored twice in the first but then the bats went silent in the loss. Derrek Lee did blast a solo home run.

The next morning I got up and headed over to see the Saint Louis Arch. Because of the line, I opted not to go up into the arch but still got some great pictures.

D-Lee stayed hot with another dinger on Saturday. Aramis Ramirez also went deep and Carlos Marmol held on for a 3-2 W! Prior to Saturday's 3:15 contest, I arrived early once again in order to watch BP when the gates opened at about 1:15. Many of the Cubs chatted with fans and signed autographs, including Starlin Castro whose signature I nabbed just minutes before game time.

After the Cubs/Cards battle on Saturday, I walked down the street to the Edward Jones Dome where the Rams were opening up their preseason. They fell to the Vikings 28-7 but it was thrilling to see the pro debut of Sam Bradford. The dome, which was very nice, had a decent sized crowd that showed up with hopes of a better year for their team.

I did not catch the Sunday game, but I tuned in on the radio on the way home as the Lee homered twice and the Cubs took the series.