Baseball DIY

Jill and I are part of a Cardinals partial season-ticket plan with another couple. Due to my schedule, we were unable to make the unveiling of Busch Stadium III (some people will try to tell you it's Busch II, but they're wrong). Our first trip to Busch took place last night.

It is beautiful.

It's not completely done; there are some nosebleed seats in left and along the third-base line that have yet to be installed. There's still a massive crater where the old Busch used to be, which at some point in the future will house some vague notion currently known as "Ballpark Village."

What I saw of the new ballpark, though, pleased me greatly. Lots of brick. A nice view of the Arch and some of the St. Louis skyline (although, as it is now, part of that skyline consists of a five-story parking garage ... I believe Ballpark Village will block that out eventually). Lots of little touches to remind you where you are, like Cardinals painted onto the end of seat rows and "StL" logos in even the most trivial locations.

My top 5 features of the new Busch:

1. Germ-X in the bathrooms. Do other ballparks have this? Maybe we were just a little behind the times. It made me feel a whole lot more comfortable using the bathrooms to know that I could disinfect myself. Also, the bathrooms didn't feel quite so cavernous and depressing as the old ones. And there was no waiting for urinals. That's right, I said "urinals." This ain't 1952.

2. The scoreboards. You could find out what the batter's fielding stats were (assists, putouts, etc), what his OBP and SLG were, as well as the usual AVG/HR/RBI information. Underneath the upper deck in right, there was a skinny scoreboard that showed how many pitches a pitcher had thrown, how many were balls and strikes, and what the velocity was for his last offering.

3. Circulation. Busch II allowed for minimal breeze, unless you were sitting at the very top, due to its bowlish design. The superstructure of the new ballpark is open from power alley to power alley, which makes a big difference in terms of air movement and perceived atmosphere. I felt more "outside" at the new stadium than I did at the old one.

4. The Stan Musial statue. Had the Cardinals, for some incomprehensible reason, chosen not to move the statue from Busch II to III, I would never have gone to a Cardinals home game again. They're not that stupid. Stan the Man will continue to be the preferred rendezvous point for fans meeting up at the game. With so many people meeting there, of course, people would be better off meeting elsewhere. But then they wouldn't be meeting at the statue. I understand completely.

5. The scoreboard from Busch II. It stands in the main concourse somewhere between right field and home plate, like the giant penny in Batman's cave.

Busch III isn't a revolutionary ballpark. HOK built it, along with most of the other stadiums that have opened within the last decade, so you might justifiably call it a new kind of cookie-cutter ballpark. Bricks and steel? Check. View of the skyline beyond the outfield? Check. Seats perched more "on top" of the action? Check.

Complaining about that is like complaining about a rock band composed of guitar, bass, and drums. Would you prefer an accordion, harmonica, and triangle?

Busch III has all the right ingredients to become "Baseball Heaven," as the Cardinals marketing department has decided to prematurely promote it. Given time and repeat visits, I'm convinced that I will be sad when the next Cardinals ownership group inevitably knocks it down in favor of Busch IV.