One more link

Holy crap, I just finished going through all these photos, and they are truly amazing. They really hurt to look at, but still worth it. The one that really got to me was "A Crushing End" on 10/26. I know I just did that long ass entry about all the Busch stuff, but here's one more link, and this one is really worth looking at. The photos are really close up to the demolition. Don't say I didn't warn you...

http://jgardnerphotography.com/projects.htm

Let the boredom begin

Home sweet home. Yay for Thanksgiving break! Not that I can really say that I'm burnt out from school seeing that I hardly go to class or do any work, but it's still very nice to be able to spend an extended amount of time at home and just be home period. I was starting to get homesick that last week or so at school. So far being home hasn't been that great, though. The first time I see my mom and closest family they are crying (even my Uncle Tom, for those of you who know him you understand) at a funeral ceremony. Fun. At these types of things I like to stay the strong one and not cry. But I've learned that if I see or hear other people crying I start to tear up myself. I didn't cry today, but I was holding back tears pretty hard. I hate crying, it's not fun. After the thing my aunt, uncle, and cousins came over to our place for lunch so that was cool because I haven't seen them in a while. I got to hear funny drunken stories about my Uncle Tom, and those are always good. If there is one adult family member that I want to get drunk with it's him without a doubt.
On a sidenote...There was this flag football game with a bunch of little kids going on in a park in the not-so-nice part of the city today and one of the teams had cheerleaders. They had like actual cheers and uniforms. I thought that was odd.

My tribute to Busch.

"Life starts when the season starts." I don't know where Jason got that, but he puts it in his away message a lot, and I like it.

The beginning of the end started October 19, Game 6. Houston advanced to the World Series and sent the Cards packing. Literally. Everything had to go. The lockers, the seats, the bases, the bleachers, the...everything. Busch had seen its last game. It wasn't exactly the last game most Cardinals fans had pictured, but that was how it was, and we all had to deal with it and let reality sink in. It wasn't easy, and still isn't as I am now finding out. Last Monday at 3 p.m. the wrecking ball fell on Busch. Luckily for some reason Columbia picks up KSDK during the day so I got to witness the horrible event first hand. I figured it would help reality sink in that it was actually happening. I still don't fully believe it. KSDK has a webcam set on Busch and I check it daily, just to see how it's doing. It's looking grimmer and grimmer every day. It hurts to see it. I hate to say it, but I almost wish they would have just imploded it, just to get it over with, like ripping off a band-aid. I have decided that when I go home over break I am driving downtown to see it in person. I need to. I was talking to Mommy and she said she refuses to see any pictures of Busch any less than whole and intact. She doesn't want to have her last memories of Busch be that of nothing but a pile of ruble. I fully understand where she is coming from, but I feel differently.

Speaking of memories, I've been trying to figure out what my favorite memory of Busch is. I've been thinking about it for a few weeks now and I think I've figured it out. The thing is that I barely even remember this memory, but I know that at the time it was pretty awesome. OK, it's 1996 and the Cards are in the NLCS with the Braves. I was lucky enough to be able to go to two of the home games in that series; we won one of them and lost the other one. So, obviously, my favorite memory was from the game that we won. I remember before the game started I got a pressed penny that has the Cards logo on it with "Cards Fever 1996" on it. I also remember that the guy that pressed the penny for me only had a thumb and a forefinger. I was really impressed at the ease that he could press the penny and put it on this necklace thing for me, and all with such great speed. I still have that penny; it hangs from my Cardinal hat that's covered with pins. When the game was over and we won they played that song "Na na na na na na na...HEY! (for you Mizzou kids the one that goes HEY...you suck!), and everyone was going CRAZY. I'm almost wondering if it was the third game that we won, but I seriously have no clue. The Cardinals later went on to go from having a 3-1 advantage in the series to losing in Game 7...and thus my hatred for the Braves begins. So I think that is probably one of my most exciting memories there, even though I can barely remember it. I think the Cards game I got together this summer was pretty sweet though, too, and is definitely up there on my list. All my friends were there just hanging out at the Cards game having a good time. And not to mention a great finish- a 13th inning walk-off homerun by Pujols to end the game with a score of 4-3 against the Astros.

I've been working on this blog entry for a few weeks now and I've put a lot of time and thought into it. In the mean time, I've collected a bunch of websites and pictures that have tributes to Busch. I figured I would compile them all on here to share with everyone else because I know I'm not the only one that will miss Busch Stadium. I hope you all enjoy the websites and photos because they are all really good.

My pictures from the tour of the new Busch Stadium and my last game there.

Pictures from the last game at Busch.

Everyone else's memories of Busch...something Post-Dispatch put together where anyone can send in their favorite memory of the stadium. There are stories from people all over the country in here. It's very impressive.

St. Louis Post Dispatch...who better to put together a tribute to the stadium than the Post? They have a lot articles and photos, including some pretty historic articles.

Busch as Canvas...a huge list of many of the things that people began to write on the stadium as the end of the season approached.

New York Times...an article that appeared in the NYT. You might need to register to see this one, but I think it's worth it.

KSDK...Newschannel 5's "Goodbye to Busch." This page includes the webcam of Busch plus a TON of videos.

St. Louis Cardinals...and finally the Cardinals' actual website tribute to Busch Stadium. It has a lot of videos, facts, figures, and is an overall good source for all Cardinals history.


Here's a little thing I saw on a Facebook group message board:

Not Today

Busch Stadium is not our house.

So I will not waste your time this morning talking about the importance of the Cardinals protecting our house in Game 6 of the NLCS.

I will not broach the obscenity of seeing Houston players spilling champagne on our living-room carpet.

Busch Stadium is not our house.

It's much more important than that.

It's where many of us watched our first game, caught our first foul ball, begged for our first autograph.

It's where Gibby ruled the mound, where Brock ran like the wind, and where Ozzie made all the folks go crazy.

It's where the El Birdos dominated, where Sutter struck out the last batter of 1982, where Mike Shannon has worked since the joint opened in 1966.

The Ol' Redhead managed there. Stan the Man played his harmonica there. The White Rat led us back to glory there.

This is where Gussie drove the Clydesdales, where Willie McGee tracked down fly balls, where Joaquin Andujar summed up his philosophy of life in one simple word: Youneverknow.

This is where Big Mac smacked No. 70, where Tommy Lawless flipped his bat, where GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY...BRUMMER'S STEALING HOME!!!!!!!

This is where the greatest St. Louis team in Busch Stadium's history performed. That's right, the 2004 Cardinals.

They had the best home-record, the best record in baseball. Right on that field. Not far behind them, the 2005 version.

Ted Simmons played there. Kenny Boyer managed there.

And a beloved old man in a bright red jacket told a mournful nation why it was good and right to play baseball after Sept. 11.

My friends, Jack Buck's coffin rested on that field.

Daryl Kile pitched his last game there.

And many of us cannot walk into that stadium without thinking of loved ones who are no longer with us.

Not today.

We don't lose today.

Not against the Houston Astros.

Not even against Roy Oswalt and Roger Clemens.

Not against a wild-card team.

Not in Busch Stadium.

No, it's not our house.

It's simply the place where our memories congregate, where our baseball dreams are stored, where the voices of millions of fans and the ghosts of seasons past await their call to arms.

Folks, it's time to wake 'em up.

LETS GO CARDINALS!

Thanks for the memories Busch.

Broadcast 2 or Grade 2?

So I think I just went to the most interesting yet ridiculous class I've ever had. For the most part Broadcast 2 lecture is pretty boring. He talks about how to interview or write and then shows some old news clips as examples for the rest of the class. But not today. We started off with the usual news quiz, which wasn't too bad. After that we all stood up and stretched. Then we had to repeat whatever word he would say...exact, water, duck, ect. Then he walked around the room showing us flashcards with words on them that we had to say out loud...whine, wine; dew, do; pen, pin; ect. He even complimented the class and said that we must have been taught well when we were in elementary school. After that he had the 25 of us get in a huge circle around the desks. We thought we were going to be doing some sort of musical chair thing, which wasn't too out of the question given the preceding exercises. He turned on some hippity hop music and had us walk around in the circle. Whenever we passed by him we had to walk in an interesting way (I did some twirls) and then make various faces like surprised, angry, and sad. After that we went back to our desks and he handed out the poem "The Unicorn" by Shel Silverstein...one of my favorite poems! (Flashback to 1st Grade when each of us in our class had one or two lines from the poem to memorize and we said it for our parents on some Parents Day thing). So we went around the classroom and each person read a line, but we didn't just read it like normal, we had to be overzealous about it. At the end of class we had to partner up and share a funny or interesting story about our childhood with each other. After that 3 volunteers went to the front of the class to tell us their story. But, there was a catch. The rest of us had to pretend we were overexcited, easily distracted 4 and 5 year olds. Man, it was ridiculous and funny. So basically our classmates telling their stories had to talk very slow, repeat everything they said, answer stupid questions and tell us to "shush". I seriously felt like I was back in 2nd Grade, but that wasn't such a bad thing. He had reasons to do all of the exercises he did (sounding conversational while reading a script, knowing the difference between words and pronouncing them correctly, talking slowly and clearly to a TV audience, which is like talking to unattentive 5 year olds). I know y'all are jealous and wanna be Broadcast majors now, right? haha...

Here's the Picture of the Week for this week. Yeah, I know I'm late on this one, too.
We went to our friend Vince's duplex down the road for a Halloween party and this guy dressed up as Michael Flatley, aka Lord of the Dance. This is a still-shot of the video we have of him doing an Irish jig.