The Cardinals had got to me by accident. The first two games I ever saw both involved them. I knew nothing about baseball at all but it had really caught my interest and wanted to find out more. To do that I needed a team, I chose the Cards purely on that basis. The months that followed saw me start learning the rules and what all the abbreviations meant. I listened to games via the Internet from a local station and caught the two games a week shown very late on Channel 5. This was my initiation.
Listening to those games, and later watching them on MLB TV, I always got a sense of what it meant to be Cardinals fan. To be regarded as some of the best fans in baseball, to be a baseball City! I had images in my mind about the stadium and its surrounds, about having a beer in a bar with other Cards fans before a game, listening to them chat about the players and team the same way I do about my football club back home. I wanted to be there, be part of it, experience it all for myself.
I was doing that now, finally. I had purchased tickets to three games prior to leaving home. I'm not a big fan of having such firm dates where I have to be somewhere but there was no way I was coming here and missing out! The first of the three games was against the Cardinals biggest rivals. The Chicago Cubs were in town and not only was I getting to see a Cardinals game. This was a famed Cubs v Cards match.
The game would also give my first chance to see St Louis' most famous current star, Albert Pujols. In a way Pujols' story has been so much fun to watch. Him coming up to the majors around the same time I got into being a Cardinals fan. So as one legend (in Mark McGwire) was finishing his career in St Louis, another star was there to begin his. Pujols is essentially the man who has shaped the sport for me. My worst fear before I left home was that he would be injured when I was in town, or taken out of the team for a rest at the games I was at but nope, he was in the team, ready to belt some more home runs to add to his record breaking tally (he was on course to break the single season home run record at this point).
I arrived early to the game. I wanted time to soak it all up, to take in the stadium, the atmosphere, to look around and to capture it all! I got to see more of the stadium than I had actually planned by walking in through the entrance at the opposite end to where my ticket was. I was able to stop off near the field itself to take a look and some photos of the two teams practising before heading on to find my seat. I travelled up escalator after escalator each time feeling the field get further and further away, wondering just how high up me "good seats" were. When I finally reached the right section I found myself about two thirds of the way up along the first base line. I felt slightly disappointed in these being $40 tickets. For the same price at Wrigley I was in the Field box behind home plate.
I may have been a tad disappointed with how much these seats were but it certainly gave a good overview of the field and the stadium as a whole. I wanted to take in these moments and could feel the atmosphere build as the ground filled to become a sea of red. This was what I had wanted!! I sense of achievement passed through me. This was after all one of those things that had been just a dream a few years back and was now a reality!
My joy was short lived however when whilst fielding at first, after just 1 at bat, Albert Pujols was withdrawn from the game with an injury. I couldn't believe it. I'd travelled all this way, done all this planning and I'd seen him have one at bat. It wasn't a home run or even a hit. The man struck out! For a guy with more homers than strikeouts this was a rarity. That was it for Albert. He wouldn't be back in the other games I was here to see, but I'm probably the only person on the planet who can say he's seen Pujols strikeout every time he's seen him have an at bat! You have to look on the bright side of it all somehow!
My dreams of watching him belt a home run now shattered I would have to accept it and cheer on the rest of the Redbirds. It is, after all, a team game and there's more than one man on this team! Unfortunately they couldn't pull it together for themselves or me and lost the game.
The Cardinals would go on to lose all three of the games I went to see. I'm still yet to see them win a game live in my 4 attempts. I'm guessing if people knew that was my record, they'd be advising me to keep away from Cardinals game for the sake of the team!
That they lost all three was hugely disappointing. That I saw Albert Pujols have just one at bat was far from the perfect scenario. Despite those two key things I still had an incredible time and the memories from the three days at Busch Stadium will always stay with me. Maybe next time Mr Pujols will knock in a grand slam or 2 to make up for it. Well, you can always dream!
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