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Ballpark Tour: Cardinals

With the offseason underway, we continue our tour of all of the different baseball stadiums I’ve been to over the years.  This week, we look at the St. Louis Cardinals, a team you would think I would have visited more often due to its proximity to Chicago but have only made the one visit.  So, without further ado, let’s take a deeper look at my history with Busch Stadium, the former home of the Cardinals.

Stadium Name: Busch Stadium

Years in Service: 1966 – 2005

Visits: 1

Busch Memorial Stadium, more commonly known as Busch Stadium, was the home of the St. Louis Cardinals from 1966 until 2005.  The stadium also played host to both the St. Louis Football Cardinals from 1966 until their move to Arizona in 1987 and then the newly relocated Rams in 1995.  Following the 1995 season, the stadium was retrofitted for baseball use only, replacing the astroturf field with grass and installing a new scoreboard.  The stadium was demolished during November of 2005, in part to make room for its replacement.

I made my one and only trip to the second Busch Stadium on June 21, 2001 for an exciting Cubs victory over the host Cardinals.  It was a packed house that day, and we had standing room only tickets, so I didn’t get to see much of the stadium.  I do remember a conversation with a local, who, in a deep southern accent, kept talking about his fascination with reserve outfielder Todd Dunwoody, who got the start in right field that day in place of Sammy Sosa.

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FB10: Week 37

Yet another disappointing week, but at least I have started trending in the right direction.  The week got off to a slow start on Sunday, falling 36 steps shy of 3800.  Monday fell off a bit, down to 3500 steps.  A big drop on Tuesday left me at 2100 steps. A big increase on Wednesday had me only 7 steps short of 4600.  Thursday fell back down again to 2700 steps.  Friday was the best day of the week, finishing over 4700 steps.   Saturday dropped back down again, coming only 11 steps shy of 4000.

Total steps: 25,427

Daily average: 3632.4

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Book 43 (of 52) – Break No Bones

Break No Bones – Kathy Reichs

While working on a dig of prehistoric graves with a group of students, Dr. Temperence Brennan finds a much more recent corpse.  She calls in an old friend, the local coroner, who asks Brennan for help in identifying the remains.  When more bodies show up, she teams with the local sheriff, her ex-husband, and her Canadian boyfriend to identify the bodies and break the case.

Break No Bones, the ninth novel from Kathy Reichs to feature Temperence Brennan, was released in 2006.  After a long absence, I returned to the series last year and found that, years removed from the television adaptation Bones, I was able to enjoy the books for what they were and not worry about the differences between the show and its source material.  With 23 books in the series, I have plenty of catching up to do,

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Which Way To Sacramento

As the 2024 baseball season draws to a close, so too does the era of Major League Baseball in Oakland.  The A’s, who first moved to Oakland prior to the 1968 season, will be spending the next three (or four) years based out of Sacramento while waiting for a stadium to be built in Las Vegas.  I’ve seen the A’s at least 35 times over the years, first at some unknown date at old Comiskey Park and most recently at Guaranteed Rate Field in mid-September.  In between, I saw them at two other ballparks, including trips to their home ballpark in 1999 and 2008.

 

Team Name Won Loss Winning Pctg
Chicago Cubs 3 0 1.000
Detroit Tigers 1 0 1.000
Chicago White Sox 16 14 0.533
Oakland Athletics 15 20 0.429
Baltimore Orioles 0 1 0.000

The A’s, who are going location-less name-wise while they are based in Sacramento, will make their first visit to Chicago in April.  They will open their stay in Sacramento against the Cubs on March 31, while the White Sox make their first visit at the end of April.

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2024 Final Pitching Leaders

Last week, we looked at the leaders in the 27 games I attended this year on the offensive side of the ball.  With the Division Series in full swing, it’s time to finish up our look back at the wasted 2024 season with the pitching leaders, starting with everyone’s favorite pitching statistic:

Wins

Name Total
Erick Fedde 2
25 tied with  1

Losses

Name Total
Garrett Crochet 4
Michael Kopech 2
Michael Soroka 2
Steven Wilson 2
Jake Woodford 2

ERA (> 6 IP)

Name Total
Erick Fedde 2.45
Tanner Houck 2.57
Chris Flexen 2.65
Justin Anderson 2.92
Jared Shuster 3.68

Strikeouts

Name Total
Garrett Crochet 43
Erick Fedde 31
Michael Soroka 16
Continue reading →
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Fifty Years Of Music – 2010

Fifty years ago, I made my first appeared on the Earth.  In celebration, we are going to take a look at the year-end Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for each year of my life and see what songs resonated with me at the time and if they continue to do so to this day.

We continue our look back at the music of my lifetime with 2010, the year I celebrated my 36th birthday.  A mere seven of these songs remain familiar to me today, with four of them appearing in my collection in one way or another.

#87: Kings of Leon – Use Somebody
iTunes stats: 28 plays

The group’s first US hit, it peaked at #4 and remains their lone top ten hit.

#67: Miley Cyrus – Party in the U.S.A.
iTunes stats: N/A

Debuting at #2, it was the highest debut by a female artist since 2005.

#57: Taylor Swift – You Belong with Me
iTunes stats: 2 plays

Debuting at #12, it gave Swift her Top 20 debut of the year, a record she shares with the Jonas Brothers.

#29: Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling
iTunes stats: 33 plays

The group’s longest charting single, it spent 56 weeks on the Hot 100, 17 of which topped the chart.

#21: Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys – Empire State of Mind
iTunes stats: N/A

The final #1 single of the 2000s, it was the first chart-topper to reference New York in the title.

#7: Eminem featuring Rihanna – Love the Way You Lie
iTunes stats: 31 plays

Spending seven weeks at #1, it was Eminem’s fourth chart topping hit and Rihanna’s seventh.

#3: Train – Hey, Soul Sister
iTunes stats: N/A

The group’s second top then hit, it peaked at #3 in April.

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2024 Final Batting Leaders

Another season of baseball season is in the books, with the White Sox disappointing their fans with one of the worst seasons in baseball history while the Cubs failed to live up to expectations.  Let’s take a look back at the offensive leaders for the 27 games that I attended this season.

Home Runs

Name Total
Paul DeJong 4
Andrew Vaughn 4
Andrew Benintendi 3
Gavin Sheets 3
5 tied with 2

Hits

Name Total
Andrew Vaughn 22
Gavin Sheets 22
Andrew Benintendi 17
Paul DeJong 16
Luis Robert 16

Runs

Name Total
Andrew Vaughn 11
Gavin Sheets 11
Continue reading →
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Ballpark Tour: Marlins

As we prepare to enter the long offseason after a hugely disappointing 2024, it is time to take another tour of all of the baseball stadiums I’ve been to over the years.  We start with an odd occurrence: the Miami Marlins.  While I have never been to Miami, I have managed to see one of their home games, thanks to Hurricane Ivan.  So, without further ado, let’s take a deeper look at my history with the Marlins at, of all places, US Cellular Field in Chicago.

Stadium Name: US Cellular Field

Years in Service: 2004

Visits: 1 (with the Marlins as the home team)

In September of 2004, Hurricane Ivan bore down on the east coast of Florida, just weeks after Hurricane Frances had made landfall.  The Marlins, having already cancelled a full series against the Cubs, decided to move 2 games of their series against the Montreal Expos to Chicago.  So, on September 14, 2014, I went to US Cellular Field, home of the White Sox, to see the Marlins battle the Expos.

With general admission ticket prices set at $15, $5 of which went to a fund for victims of the hurricane, I headed down to the second of the two games the teams played in town.  The Marlins, playing the part of the home team, brought their own public address announcer, their own mascot, and their own graphics to be used on the center field scoreboard.  Southpaw, the mascot of the White Sox, palled around with Billy Marlin.

The games marked the first time that a National League game was played in an American League stadium since 1946, when the Braves had to play the Phillies at Fenway Park due to painted seats that hadn’t yet dried.  It was also the first time that the defending World Series champions played a home game in Chicago since 1918.

For the Expos, it was just another strange trip in a season full of them.  This was their last season in existence, when they played a portion of their home schedule in Puerto Rico.  The travel for this series should have been nothing, since the team was already in town to play the Cubs the weekend before.  However, a previously booked convention kicked them out of their hotel downtown, forcing them to move out to Arlington Heights, which is not exactly a convenient locale when trekking to the south side of Chicago.

The Marlins managed to win both games of the series before they were able to head back to Florida and continue the season as planned.  The Expos played out the last 20 or so games of their existence before moving to Washington and becoming the Nationals in 2005.

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2024 Final Standings

A hugely disappointing season came to an end this weekend, once again leaving both Chicago teams home for October.  The Cubs planned on being a playoff contender this year after poaching manager Craig Counsell from the Brewers but failed to put it all together.  The White Sox, on the other hand, put together an absolutely horrific performance, setting the modern MLB record for most losses in a season and notching the sixth time in franchise history that they’ve lost 100 or more games.  Because of this, I ended up attending just 27 games, my lowest total since becoming a season ticket holder in 2002.  All told, I managed to see 20 of the 30 teams.

2024 Team Records

Team Name Won Loss Winning Pctg
Detroit Tigers 4 0 1.000
Baltimore Orioles 1 0 1.000
Cincinnati Reds 1 0 1.000
Cleveland Guardians 1 0 1.000
Houston Astros 1 0 1.000
Toronto Blue Jays 1 0 1.000
Los Angeles Dodgers 1 0 1.000
New York Mets 1 0 1.000
Pittsburgh Pirates 1 0 1.000
San Diego Padres 1 0 1.000
Seattle Mariners 1 0 1.000
Boston Red Sox 2 1 0.667
Chicago Cubs 3 2 0.600
Oakland Athletics 1 1 0.500
Kansas City Royals 1 1 0.500
Chicago White Sox 6 18 0.250
Los Angeles Angels 0 1 0.000
Atlanta Braves 0 1 0.000
Colorado Rockies 0 1 0.000
Tampa Bay Rays 0 1 0.000
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FB10: Week 36

Another week where I kept trending in the wrong direction.  The week got off to a slow start, falling 14 steps shy of 3300.  Monday fell 37 steps short of Sunday’s total.  A big drop on Tuesday left me 35 steps away from 2200 steps.  My final baseball game of the season led to my best day of the week on Wednesday, coming 15 steps short of 4100.  Thursday fell back down again to 3500 steps.  Friday saw a slight improvement, going up to 3800 steps.   Another improvement left me 27 steps away from, 4000 on Saturday.

Total steps: 24,112

Daily average: 3444.6