Arrived in St. Louis

Flew to St. Louis this morning and touched down around noontime, it's my annual visit for baseball games. I have a ritual when going there, like eating at the Subway sandwich shop near the hotel. I'm staying at a different one this time, as the Motel 6 near the airport was unavailable. I found out why on arrival, it has a new owner and name- the Airport Inn. I made a reservation online for the America's Best Value Inn across the street, I think I had stayed there once before when it was a Days Inn. Saw them changing the sign while town for last year's visit.

    In the early afternoon I called my dad, returning his call, as I like doing so on the next day if possible. He talked more about my sister's dog that is poorly behaved, unsure why. He will be visiting me soon and he wanted to get me his flight information. I did so after finding a Salvation Army as I wanted to make a donation of Cardinal items that will sell better in St. Louis. Some were shirts I had from previous visits, they were the giveaway promotion. But these spoke of Albert Pujols, a fine player but I am a fan of teams so I figured someone else could use it more than me. I kept one that celebrated the 1982 World Series win, but that was a team thing and not an individual thing.

   Also made it over to Grand and Dodier, to the Herbert Hoover Boys Club, the site of Sportsman's Park which closed in 1966. The front desk clerks were very helpful to point out the field for me and I thanked them both with a handshake, then went on to get pictures and get a closer look. The scoreboard does say 'former site of the park', as well as a wall on a nearby building which spoke of the notable players who had played there over the years. I found a baseball on the field and threw it underhand into home plate, then decided to put it in my picture of home plate. I put the ball next to home plate and my flat-billed blue Cardinal hat on one corner of the plate. I had read about the site in a Sporting News article back in 1990, thankful I finally made it over there. On the way back to I-70 and my hotel I spotted a big pillar in the middle of the road, had to drive around it. Found out later on from the desk clerk it's a former water tower, and on the National Register of Historic Places.

    At tonight's game there was a giveaway, a team banner sponsored by Walmart. The Cardinals beat the Rockies 6-1, playing little ball was fine with me, just find a way to drive in runs. The Rockies got a solo home run and that was all, which reinforces what I've said before about home runs- not impressed unless there's one or two on. Because then it's a game changer, otherwise it's just nice to look at.