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.
