BASEBALL WEEKEND IN 1996

This is off track. In 1996, Adam and I went to three baseball games in three days. I had such a great time I wrote about it. There was never a venue to present it, so even though this is no Ask Jim, and it is dated, here it is.

Sunday Sept. 8, 1996

It was coming up on the weekend, my wife and daughter were going out of town on a Girl Scout field trip, and my 13 year old son and I were going to be weekend bachelors. How should the mice play while the cats were away?

I heard about the ceremonies planned for Enos Slaughter and the '46 Cards on Friday. We had stopped at Cooperstown several weeks before, while we were on vacation. My son had bought a baseball signed by Mr. Slaughter at one of the many memorabilia places there so I thought he'd like to see him in person. While we were talking about the game, we decided we hadn't been to enough of them, and with only nine home games left, there weren't many chances left. We decided to make it a baseball weekend and go to all three games against San Diego.


Friday night we got there early for the ceremonies. As always, I am well prepared. I have a day pack containing binoculars, radio, score sheets (my son just made a new score sheet design on the computer and we are going to give it a try tonight), pencils, "Sharpie" (pen for autographs), peanuts, sodas (in plastic bottles and a soft cooler), and sunflower seeds. We're planning on buying general admission tickets but as we are walking up to the stadium, people are selling tickets outside. The first guy has tickets in Loge Reserve, but we're not interested in those. They're along the baseline and I'd rather sit behind home plate. The next guy is selling two tickets to Saturday's game. They are field box seats right behind home plate. I'm usually too cheap to spring $16 per ticket but this is an offer I can't refuse. I'm so excited, I'm happy to pay face value. [Note: $16 for field box in 1996, in 2005, the same tickets were $43!] We cross the south bridge, pass the souvenir vender and my son picks up a baseball with a Cardinals logo. I've already warned him not to get too concerned about autographs because they are so hard to come by.

We go down behind the Cardinals dugout to watch the ceremonies. Jack Buck is there interviewing Enos Slaughter and Red Scheindienst. We're so close we could practically kiss them (but not close enough for autographs). Great ceremonies! They're over so we take our seats (well we take someone's seats. Fourth row behind the Cardinal's dugout, but no one comes to claim them). We saw a great game, the Cards win, and we're happy as clams.

After the game, we stop at the gate where the Cards exit. We are hoping to get some autographs for my son's new baseball. Because of the hour and 20 minute rain delay, there are only a half dozen people there. Players could get through the gauntlet and sign everyone's autograph in about two minutes. Great! I bet plenty of players will sign tonight. Wrong! Andy Benes is the only player kind enough to sign. My son is disappointed and I have thoughts about what a bunch of overpaid prima donnas they are. I read articles in the paper wondering why the crowds at the stadium are so small when the Cards are doing so well. All that I can think is "If these guys made more of an effort to endear themselves to the kids, maybe they would have more of them at the games".

Saturday we get there late. I lost track of time, plus there is a big traffic jam on highway 40 on the way in. We miss the national anthem, but we're in our seats before first pitch. It's another great game. The highlight is Donovan Osborne's grand slam home run. The seats were some of the best I've ever had (and I didn't even have to wonder if someone else was going to claim them). We were definitely in uncharted territory here. It's a different crowd down here. People come late, leave early, and don't cheer a lot. Some didn't even seem to know there was a game going on. It looked more like a social gathering. People were talking, visiting, gabbing, enjoying themselves. I'm sure most were as big or bigger fans that we are, but they enjoy the game in a different way than we do. Luckily, the lady sitting right in front of me was cheering every pitch and dancing to the tunes between innings, so my son and I didn't feel too out of place.

After the game, we hit that exit gate again so my son could get those autographs. There was a mob there and after only a half hour my son gave up. I can't blame the players for being afraid to tackle crowds like that. It would take them an hour to sign for everyone.


That night, we have pizza and watch the video "St. Louis Cardinals - The Movie". Life is great!

Sunday we are going to go down several hours before the game. My plan is to go out to the bleacher seats during batting practice and try to catch a ball that is hit out there (yeah right, and I'm the one telling my son not to get his hopes up for autographs). We get up early, my son does his homework and we clean up the house so my wife doesn't yell at me when she gets home. I know we'll be at the stadium for lunch so I go to Schnucks and pick up a couple of "King of the Hill" sandwiches for lunch.


We're at the stadium so early, the same day ticket offices are not open yet so we head down to the main ticket office. On the way down the steps, we see Mike Shannon who happily signs my son's baseball. We get our tickets and on the way back up, we see Walt Jockity, who happily signs my son's baseball. Hey! This is a great day!

We get to the west gate a few minutes before it opens. When we go in, we have to go down into the box seats ( I'm not sure why ). Some Cardinals are out throwing the ball around and doing their warm-ups. We go over to the wall along the first base line to watch. Tony Fossas comes over and signs autographs. Later, Tony LaRussa is signing autographs. After a while, a dozen players are working the crowd, signing autographs. All totaled, my son gets 14, and we are thrilled. All that I can think is what a nice bunch of guys they are to be out there, taking time to get close to the fans and sign autographs (see Friday night's thought). I talk to a lady who has season tickets for seats down there, she tells me the players often they do that. I tell her that I wish they could make some kind of a rule that small people automatically cut in front of big people. It's the little guys who get a big thrill out of getting a professional player's autograph on their baseball, then want to take it out and play baseball with it as soon as they get it home. The guys my age who get autographs, turn around and sell these things for a tidy profit. When my son shows me his baseball and says "This is great, I'm going to keep it forever!" (which I take to mean he realizes it may have monetary value, but has even more sentimental value), I'm proud of him.

Well, we take our seats (see Friday' note about taking seats), have our sandwiches, drink our sodas, eat our peanuts, and keep score on our scorecards. The Cardinals lose the game, I complain about a couple of player's lack of performance and second guess LaRussa, all is right with the world, and we don't even need to stay around to try to get autographs. After all, if we go right home we can catch the second half of the Rams game! (Turns out not to be the highlight of the weekend.)


As we drive home, I give my son a question to ponder. Gary Gaetti makes an error, which (if I scored properly) eventually leads to a unearned fifth run (the goat!). Then he gets up and hits a two run homer (the hero), which would have tied the game if that unearned run hadn't scored. Is Gaetti a hero or a goat? It takes greater minds than ours to decide that. We do, however, know that baseball is a great game, and Gaetti, along with his teammates and new ownership, sure make it interesting.



Addendum 1: My boss once made a comment about how he doesn't go to professional sports games because they are too expensive. When I told him baseball wasn't, bleacher seats are $5 each, he said they used to be $2. I said, bread used to be a nickel too. It started me thinking though so I thought I would figure out what three games cost me.
Before Friday's game, I bought two bags of peanuts and a 12 pack of sodas (in plastic bottles of course). That came to about $7.50. I paid $3 for parking (though I could have parked a few blocks away and parked for free), and spent $7.50 for tickets (one adult and one child general admission). At the game, we shared a large nachos, with extra cheese and extra jalapenos, that was around $4. My son bought the baseball for $6 so that totals around $28.
Saturday I splurged on the box seats at $16 each. Parking was still $3 and nachos were still $4, (I still had peanuts and soda left), totaling around $39.
Sunday I bought sandwiches and more soda at Schnucks for less than $10. We got there so early, we beat the parking lot attendant so that was a freebie, and it was back in the cheap seats for $7.50. (The sandwiches were so big, we had no room left for nachos.) That totals around $17.50. For the entire weekend, we get a grand total of $84.50. For a working class slob like me that is not a super cheap weekend but I did splurge one day plus I could have easily cut a couple more corners. Let's see now, $84.50 could have bought two cheap seats to the Blues, can it buy two cheap seats to the Rams?


Addendum 2. My philosophy on buying cheap seats, and then moving down to the better sections. First of all, you have to go to a couple of games to see where the open seats are. When you sit in someone else's seat, consider yourself a guest of theirs. Assume they will be there so don't make a mess (peanut shells and all). Keep belongings packed so you can move at a moments notice. Watch for the rightful owner. If you see someone looking at their ticket and looking at you, ask them if that seat belongs to them, promptly vacate and apologize for any inconvenience. After the end of the third inning, you can usually assume the seat is yours and you can start spreading out your stuff and throw the peanut shells on the ground.

Addendum 3: Why am I writing this? I don't know, I've never done this before. I guess I just had a real good time and wanted to record it.