Game #20-Busch Stadium-St. Louis Cardinals vs. Kansas City Royals

It was a very warm and humid day in St. Louis on Tuesday, May 30 therefore, we were very happy to be attending an evening game. We began our visit to Busch Stadium at the Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum a few hours before game time. The museum opened in 2014 and is right across the street from the stadium in an area called St. Louis Ballpark Village. The Ballpark Village was built on the site of the demolished Busch Memorial Stadium. As we entered the Ballpark Village it was bursting with Cardinals fans all gathering to eat, drink and play the many games available, such as cornhole. The museum is located on the third floor of the Cardinal Nation Restaurant. Interestingly, on the top of this restaurant is a rooftop with more than 300 ticketed bleacher seats for fans to watch the game. We made our way to the third floor with a planned hour to go through the museum, which we determined was not near enough time. The Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum contains over 15,000 artifacts and over 80,000 photographs, second only to the National Baseball Hall of Fame as the largest collection of baseball memorabilia. It was fascinating to see the replicas of the former Busch Ballparks. The current Busch stadium is number three and opened in 2006. We also appreciated the many baseball jerseys displayed from the 140 year history of Cardinals baseball. When the Cardinals first began in 1882 they were known as the Browns and were renamed the Cardinals in 1900. One feature within the museum was interactive and allowed Jim and I to hold an actual bat used by Stan "The Man" Musial. See our Instagram for photos @ourfieldofdreams2023. Seeing the old baseball equipment made me really appreciate the legends that played baseball back in the day with this antique equipment. It was just so mind boggling to see the old baseball gloves, bats and baseball cleats and to think of what the players were able to accomplish with this equipment. I think the area of the museum that showed this best was the room that housed display cases from each of the 11 World Series Championships. Each display case held a scorecard, program, jersey, a bat, baseball, glove and a photo of the team from that year. The St. Louis Cardinals are the second winningest baseball team next to the Yankees who have 27 World Series Champion titles. The Cardinals won titles in 1926, 1931, 1934, 1942, 1944, 1946, 1964, 1967, 1982, 2006 and 2011. In addition to these winning years, the Cardinals have only once this century had a record under .500. One of my favorite things I saw was the pocket watch given to the 1944 World Series Championship Cardinals. Years ago instead of rings players were given pocket watches for championships. These are just a few highlights from our short experience in the museum. If you are ever in St. Louis I strongly recommend a visit to this treasure. After our visit to the museum we walked to view the many statues just outside the ballpark. There are eleven statues of former St. Louis Cardinals that appear to be in action in various poses. The statues are smaller than other statues I have seen at other ballparks but then again there are so many! The statues are of #45 Bob Gibson, #6 Stan Musial, #9 Enos Slaughter, #20 Lou Brock, #2 Red Schoendienst, #17 Dizzy Dean, #1 Ozzie Smith, #23 Ted Simmons, Rogers Hornsby, Cool Papa Bell, George Sisler. Baseball players did not have numbers in the early years of baseball so some players do not have numbers. In addition to having a statue most of these players have retired numbers. Players in addition to those mentioned above who have retired numbers are: #10 Tony LaRussa, #14 Ken Boyer, #24 Whitey Herzog, #42 Jackie Robinson, and #42 Bruce Sutter. Additionally in 1984, on the 85th birthday of August Busch, President of the Cardinals they retired #85 in his honor. After several pictures we entered security and of course had to answer questions about the hot dog hat. Once we got inside the ballpark we did a walk around to see the stadium which has a capacity of 44,494. The attendance for this Tuesday evening game was an impressive 38,406. The stadium is built in a "retro-classic" style with a view of the downtown St. Louis skyline and the famous Gateway Arch. As we walked the concourse area we were overwhelmed by the number of food and drink options available. Jim had asked several people along our path for recommendations on a hot dog. Hands down everyone told Jim he must get the Bacon Wrapped Hot Dog. We found the hot dog stand and met the great people behind the stand, Kawanda and Percy. We told them about Jim's reviews and asked them if they would be a part of the review to which they agreed. It was great to have them as part of the review even having Percy describe the ingredients which were spicy mayo, french fried onions, dill pickles, a cured bacon-wrapped beef hot dog all on a french roll. Is your mouth watering yet? Jim gave it one of his highest ratings, an 8.5. As for me, I had a bratwurst because I am still dreaming about that delicious one in Milwaukee. I have to admit the Cardinals bratwurst was not as good as the Milwaukee bratwurst. It was close to game time so we went to our seats in time for the lineup and National Anthem. We met our usher Jan and asked her to take our picture which is the one on this blog. Thank you Jan! It was wonderful to see the stands filled with so many enthusiastic fans all being led by the Cardinal Mascot Freebird. That mascot has some energy! First pitch was at 6:45pm and after the previous nights shellacking by the Royals, the Cardinals came out in full force. Tonight's game was definitely a pitchers game as Cardinals starting pitcher Miles Mikolas held onto a shutout for 8 innings. The Royals starting pitcher was Zack Greinke and he pitched 5 scoreless innings. It wasn't until the 6th inning when the Royals replaced Greinke with Carlos Hernandez that the Cardinals would see a score. Paul Goldschmidt hit a single and then Nolan Arenado hit a double bringing home Goldschmidt. Score Royals 0 - Cardinals 1. Then in the bottom of the 8th inning a pitching change by the Royals led to another score for the Cardinals. Tommy Edman walked followed by a line drive single by Brendan Donavan. With runners on the corners and one out, Nolan Gorman would hit a sacrifice fly to bring Tommy Edman in to score. Score Royals 0 - Cardinals 2. Top on the 9th inning brought in the Cardinals closer Giovanny Gallegos to replace Miles Mikolas who pitched an amazing scoreless 8 innings with 102 pitches thrown. Gallegos gave up a double to Vinnie Pasquantino to start the inning. Next to the plate was Salvador Perez who hit a single. Now with no outs and runners on the corners and the go ahead run at the plate it became a little tense in the stands for the Cardinals fans. Bobby Witt Jr. came to the plate and grounded into a force out scoring Vinnie Pasquantino. Score Royals 1 - Cardinals 2. MJ Melendez would fly out making it two outs. Michael Massey came to the plate with 2 outs and struck out swinging. GAME OVER with a score of Royals 1 - Cardinals 2. The game was over in just 2 hours and 19 minutes. That is what happens when you have great talent on the mound. I do like to see more hits and runs but it is certainly amazing to see pitchers throw a great game. I wondered if Greinke stayed in a little longer if things would have been different. Great pitching from both ball clubs! We are off to Kansas City where we will see the Royals again as they take on the Colorado Rockies on Friday night. Until next time PLAY BALL!