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.

Game 6

NLCS Game 6...Astros 5, Cardinals 1
Alright so this one has been a bit delayed, mostly due to the fact that we barely have one functioning laptop in our house, but also because this has been a bit of a sore subject for me. My boys lost. I cannot say that I am pleased with the way they played in the NLCS, but I can say that we deserved to go to the World Series more than the Astros. We had an amazing year. The Astros had a decent second half, just like last year, and they still finished 11 games behind us. Alright back to Game 6...it was storming in CoMO and our cable definitely went out about 10 minutes before the game started. Luckily Jason was at the game and gave me a couple score updates. I missed the first four innings and that's when I gave up on MediaCom and went over to Katie's to catch the game. It wasn't the most welcoming environment seeing that there were Royals, Cubs, and White Sox fans screaming every time they passed by her room. I seriously wanted to punch them out. After the game was over I couldn't bare to sit there and watch them give the trophy and congratulations to the Astros in our house, so I left. I would be a liar if I said I didn't shed a tear that night. What got to me the most was that it was the last game at Busch. It finally hit me that night after we lost. Not a good feeling, it made me very sad. So aaaaanyway, I guess all I have left to say is, Go White Sox. And, no, I am not just rooting for them because Houston beat us. I'm cheering for the White Sox because they hate the Cubs just as much as we do.
Thank you Cardinals for another excellent year.

Game 5

NLCS Game 5...Cardinals 5, Astros 4
Holy Shit. I can't believe that game. I'm still in awe and disbelief. I'm almost at a lost for words. Almost. Wow, I don't even know where to start. OK. Houston took the lead in the 2nd inning, a bit discouraging, but we answered with 2 runs in 3rd. The main problem the whole game, and this series if you think about it, is that we still weren't banking on opportunities with runners in scoring position. Then the bottom of the 7th Berkman came to bat with two men on and homered...4-2 ballgame. Hopes and confidence increasingly started to fade as the game reached the top of the 9th. Oh shit, Rodriguez and the Mabry are the first two up. They both strike out. At this point I can feel the tears forming in my eyes. I don't even have the heart to watch the rest of the game, instead I just stare at the beautiful poster of Busch we have on the wall right above the TV and think about how Busch has seen its last game. Then a little hope in me returns because Eckstein is up and he is sure to make some contact with the ball and get on base. The Astros are one out away from their first World Series berth and bam, Eckstein singles into left field. That's my boy. Jimmy is up. Eckstein steals, and then Jimmy walks. Oh man, here comes Pujols. If there was anybody I would want to be at bat at that exact moment, it was him. He's been known to come through in the clutch many a time. Rejuvenated hope, despair, disappointment, and faith were all competing inside me. Then POW. And at that moment I heard the most beautiful noise ever, silence. The crowd was dead. No annoying bee buzzing, no train whistle, no cheering, nothing. Disbelief and celebration followed. I was shaking so bad. I knew it right off the crack of the bat, that ball was gone. Not just gone, demolished. I can only imagine how far it would have gone if the roof was open. Apparently the ball got lost in the train tracks in there. And that homerun is the motivation we need to go to the World Series. Jimmy's homer from Game 6 last year got us there. Pujols' monster of a shot this year can definitely get us there. Busch has not seen its last game.

Mom sent this to me.

My Mommy also sent me these amazing pictures from Game 5, there's too many otherwise I would put them in here. Make special note of the graphics on the screen.

"There were 45,000 people, and when I hit that ball, it was like when you press mute on the TV. Nobody could say anything. That felt great." -Pujols

Games 3 and 4

Oy. I really don't wanna talk about it, but I will anyway, just because I've talked about the first two games I feel the need to talk about them all.

NLCS Game 3... Cardinals 3, Astros 4
Honestly, I kept falling asleep during the game. I saw the first few innings then I kept dozing off. Oops. I did wake up to see Nunez get hurt, but then I was out again. I woke up and the first thing Mom told me was that we lost, but almost came back thanks in part to Johnny Mabes.

NLCS Game 4...Cardinals 1, Astros 2

It's really killing me to see my Cards lose by one run...soooo close! It's frustrating. I feel like I'm watching another team out on that field for some reason. It just doesn't feel like they are playing like they did in the regular season, or even last week during the NLDS. Tony and Edmonds got kicked out of the game. Tony put up a hell of a fight and gave those umps a piece of his mind before he went down. The umpires did a horrible job of calling the game.

Tony telling the umps what's up.

I Wanna Rock

Alright, so I've had a lot going on in my head lately, mostly dealing with school. I've seriously been considering changing my major the last 2 weeks. Not just, omg my classes are hard I wanna change majors, like I'm seriously considering getting out of the J-school. I looked into the Communication department in the College of Arts and Sciences and a lot of the classes seem pretty cool. They have classes like Audio Production and Television Studio Production. So basically, it's like the J-school without the news aspect of it. Perfect! The only thing is if I actually do this, I don't know how long it will set me back. I was talking to Angelique the other day and I think she said she just got into the Communications school and she is graduating in May, so I don't know about that. But, I'm not even sure if I'm going to do this. All signs are pointing to yes right now. I've got so much stuff going on with other classes right now. I don't have time to meet up with professors and talk about what all it entails to switch majors. That, and registration is coming up really soon. I found out my day today, October 25. So, I'm thinking I need to have this all figured out by then. Grr! I don't know what to do. The worst thing is that since I have these thoughts going around in my head that I might be changing majors, I have this fuck it all attitude in the back of my mind about my broadcast class, and that's not good at all.

NLCS Game 1...Astros 3, Cardinals 5
I am slightly disappointed in myself because I did not pay nearly as much attention to the game as I should have. I was kinda distracted by the guys because they were finding ridiculous people on Facebook and adding them as their friends for pretty much the whole game. From what I saw Reggie had another stellar game, and my boy Eckstein had a pretty good game as well.

Reggie's pretty much been a stud since coming off the DL.

NLCS Game 2...Astros 4, Cardinals 1
This time I wasn't disappointed in myself, but rather my Cards. From the 1st inning on they just didn't seem to have it together. They were bobbling the ball all over the field and we just couldn't manufacture those runs like we did yesterday (our only run today came from a solo shot by Pujols). The 'stros did have pretty good pitching today, so I think that really helped their cause. I think that's the only way they have a chance to get to the World Series is through their pitching. But I think our pitching can be just as good, and we have a great offense. But, that's just what I think.

I think this picture sums up Game 2.

League Championship Series Predictions:
Chicago White Sox over the Angels (whatever the hell their name is) in 6
St. Louis Cardinals over the Houston Astros in 6 (If my prediction is right, Jason, you are a lucky, lucky man.)

I get to go home this weekend! I've only been home for one day since school has started and I wasn't really around then because that was when we went to the Cards game and took the tour of the new Busch. So I'm excited to say the least. I get to feel the play-off atmosphere, and hopefully go to a bar or something downtown with Mommy Saturday afternoon while the game is on. Of course, the Rams are on Monday Night Football this weekend, so I can't enjoy the football game at home with Mom and Roger :(

Oh yeah! I've started learning to play guitar! It's exciting, I'm pretty bad, but oh well. Jason taught me "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream and a little bit of "Wipe Out", but that one was kinda confusing. So next time you see me, ask me to jam for ya and I will, but don't expect too much of me.

And, the next couple of weekends are gonna rock.

Mood: relaxed
Music: "I Wanna Rock" -Twisted Sister

Oooh yeah...Chhheeese...

I have discovered the one thing that pisses me off more than anything else in the world. Or at least I'm pretty sure I have, but please don't test me. I hate it more than anything when someone talks shit about my friends. I think it's pretty obvious by previous posts that I've had on here that my friends are extremely important people in my life. Anyone that halfway knows me should be able to tell that I treasure my friendships. I had a recent conversation with someone who completely dissed my friends and accused them for the way I am today, like that's a bad thing, like I'm a horrible person. Apparently I'm not a nice person anymore or something. I haven't had that much frustration built up inside of me for a good month or so. I just wanted to beat the shit out of something I was so pissed. Yes, I know some of my guy friends can be assholes, but I'm pretty sure it's safe to assume that all guys can be assholes at times. I've heard a lot of guys say that themselves. I don't exactly agree with some of the things that they do, nor do I have control over them, but I still love them anyway. And yes, I will back up my friends up and down; they are my friends, and that's what you do for each other. I would expect my friends to stand up for me if they were in the same situation. I still just can't believe some of the things this person said about the friends that I have. This person knows how important my friendships are to me, and yet they still said all kinds of shitty things about some of the closest people in my life. I WILL NOT put up with any shit from anyone who talks shit about my friends. Grr. I'm getting frustrated just thinking about this. Yes, I am the person I am today partly because of my friends, but I am my own person, too. I have a mind and personality of my own. I'm not going to deny that my friends have rubbed off on me some; I know they have, but it goes both ways. I see most of my friends as more like brothers and sisters to me, and for someone who knows how important they are to me to put them down really makes me TO'ed and slightly disappointed in them.

Ok, now that I got that off my chest let's move on...

Laura and I built our own fire and BBQ'ed all by ourselves for the first time yesterday. Ok, ok, Jason fanned the fire to help make it bigger, but that was my idea to begin with. We still did it on our own though, and man, those Hunter hot dogs were delicious!

Random observation of the day: We don't have a lot of food in our fridge, however, we do have 6 different kinds of cheeses in there.

Other than that, I am rather excited about the argyle socks I bought to match my slip on brown suede house-slipper looking shoes that I have.

Mood: Extremely exhausted
Music: "Movin' On" -Bad Company

Ahhh, I love October

The seasons are changing from hot and humid Summer heat to a cool and stormy Fall breeze. There's nothing quite as nice as sitting out on our front "porch" in our newly acquired rocking chair. To be able to wear hoodies and fall asleep with my bedroom window open is also great. Halloween is on the horizon along with the excitements of picking a costume that can give me an excuse to be crazy and ridiculous without being thought of as weird. But, most importantly of all October means playoffs, and, of course, my boys made it into post-season play without a problem. First round is against the Padres and seeing as that they finished the regular season just over .500, we shouldn't have too much of a problem with them. Game 2 is today at 3 and I'll probably have to miss a good portion of it due to my over-demanding Broadcast 2 class. I have confidence in my Cards though. With all the hype of the playoffs, reminiscing of last year's playoffs, and then reading Jason's most recent blog, I'm starting to get homesick. And that ceremony they did after the last regular season game at Busch didn't help me much either. I would have given almost anything to be at that game. I can't imagine how I'm gonna feel when it actually comes down to the day they blow it up, oh god, it hurts me just to say such harsh words. But anyway, I got so homesick last year during the playoffs. I wanted so badly just to go downtown and feel that excitement in the air. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go this year, especially if we make it all the way again. I don't think I can go another year of just sitting around in Columbia while everyone is going crazy in the Lou. And as I've noticed a lot recently, Columbia is biased towards Kansas City sports. There's a Chiefs billboard right by our highway exit and all the sporting stores just seem to promote them more. So therefore, it seems like the people here are more favorable to the Royals (which also means Red Sox) and the Chiefs. However, last year back in the dorms I was lucky enough to find some of the most die-hard Cardinals fans I know. When I wasn't working the desk, you could find me in our suite-ies room watching the games and going absolutely crazy. Me, Katie, Maggie, Emily, Andrew, Abby, and Steve was the usual crowd. I could not have asked for better suitemates...girls that are just as into the Cardinals, if not more, than I am! So having them around kinda helped the homesickness go away because they made me feel like I was home; we created our own awesome October atmosphere and shared it with our floor (we got pretty loud) and with campus (after we won Game 7 me, Maggie, and Abby ran around campus screaming at everyone that walked and drove by that we won). This year, we plan on watching what games we can together and making t-shirts. I'm so very excited! :) And I also have Jason and Steve around and they are hardcore Cardinals fans, too. It just makes such a big difference when you are surrounded by people who are as passionate about a team as you are. So, basically, I would like to thank all my kickass Cardinals friends for being so amazing awesome. You guys rock.