Target Field

So I landed in Minneapolis, Minnysoota yesterday pretty excited to take on Major League Baseball's newest stadium, Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins.  The Twinkies also have a childhood baseball movie made about them, Little Big League, which unfortunately has much fewer quotable lines than Rookie of the Year or Major League.  Still, I took away an important moral from that movie, even as a kid: unlike Henry Rowengartner's freak accident in Rookie of the Year, Billy Heywood was able to use his knowledge of baseball to become further ingrained in the game. I figured once my baseball talent ran out, I could try some of the same.

BIG thank you to Todd Krulewich of the Twins, a friend from Texas, and Andrew Solomon for getting me in touch with Todd.  Let me tell you, I took people on fantastic tours of Yankee Stadium, but Todd's tour-giving abilities blow mine out of the water.  I went all over the new field and saw the intricacies of the new floors, hallways, pictures, etc.,  and even made it down to left center field for a bit before the national anthem.  He gave me a laundry list of food to try, but unfortunately I was being a pretty big patsy and could only tackle the Murray's Steak Sandwich and some onion rings that reminded me of Sullivan's steakhouse.  I'm sure both he and Andrew can appreciate the intricacies of the water balloon (thanks, Keshav, for reminding me of that one).

Anyway, before I completely describe the food before the food section, let me begin my description of Target Field.  But I must do a math problem first.

"If Joe can paint a house in three hours and Sam can paint the same house in five hours, how long will it take to paint it together?"

"Wait a minute. You never said this was a word problem!"


Location: The Twinkies' new stadium is located in downtown Minneapolis, which Todd told me is kind of hard to get to if you're driving.  Lucky for Minnesotans, they have a pretty stellar light rail system that drops people off right at Target Field.  The one downside on game days is that the supply is a lot larger than the demand.  In my case, my hotel was only a 15-20 minute walk away, so I just strolled down the streets of downtown Minneapolis in my Astros hat on the way to the stadium.  It's an urban area with lots of corporate and commercial development in the area, which reminds me a little bit of Houston's own Minute Maid Park.

Also, I used Priceline.com for the first time this week to reserve my hotel here.  GREAT experience.  After getting hosed for $100 for a hotel on the outskirts of downtown San Diego, I decided to try to "name my price" on Priceline.  I figured if I could get a 4-star hotel for half of what I paid in San Diego, especially since I would be staying in Minneapolis for two nights, I would be happy.  So I made a bid in the "downtown Minneapolis" area for $50 a night, and they took it!  If you're unfamiliar with Priceline, you can just look at prices and reserve a hotel, or you can make a bid and if Priceline accepts it, they immediately charge your credit card and you're not bidding on a specific hotel. I might try bidding $1 for a four or five star in Cleveland.

Even though Priceline.com's commercials with William Shatner are pretty pathetic, my first experience was a great one.

Denny Crane

Ballpark: The park looks incredibly modern from the outside.  When you walk up to the gates they have this crazy sheet made of various metal pieces that block the wind into the garage but is also some kind of art.  I didn't take a picture last night, but maybe I'll go back today and grab one.

The stone on the outside reminds me a bit of PETCO Park, but Target pulls it off much better.  It also has some sleek glass and regular silver-looking metal railings. From the outside it looks like it could be a brand new museum rather than a stadium, and I mean that in a good way.  They should consider renaming it "Tarjet Field."

The field itself was very beautiful, and I think the total seating capacity is 39,504.  It's pretty expansive in the way US Cellular is, but still has a little bit of the small park feel.  Anyway, I really like the way Target Field turned out.  If Houston weren't so miserable in the summer, I would say we should build a field exactly like this in 2040, but I'm afraid we need the roof.  Maybe by then we can fly the roof over from some off-site location.

One cool thing that I haven't seen anywhere else is the outdoor concessions before the game.  The Twins open their gates kind of late, I think an hour and a half before the first pitch, but they have restrooms and concessions stands built into the stadium used for outside access before the game.  I thought that was pretty cool, so I had to buy a beer.

They also have a great Jumbotron, but I still prefer the ones in Yankee Stadium and DKR in Austin.

From a skydeck bar that is open to anyone

Before the national anthem

 Pretty cool old logo representing the Twin Cities. They shake hands after a home run.

Photo from Section 128, WC 3

 Behind the plate. Field Box level.

Behind the plate. Delta Level. Monochrome.

Behind the plate. Delta Level. Full color.

View from bar for any season ticket holder

Food:  Todd directed me to a lot of food options: the steak sandwich, Cuban, meatball sub, hamburger with a funny name in Hrbek's, onion rings, and the local fried fish called Walleye fingers.  Again, I was a patsy, so I only indulged myself in the steak sandwich, which was much better than the one I had at US Cellular.  It slipped my mind to take a picture to compare it to the one I had in Chicago, but it wouldn't have mattered anyways.  It was gone in 5 minutes.  The onion rings were great, and the walleye fish finger I had was good, but I'm not the biggest fan of fried fish, unless it's from Luby's.

The draft was $7 and the jumbo dog was $5, so the SCPI was $12 at Target Field. Not too shabby.

One of the bars on one of the many club levels.  You might recognize the floors from the old Minneapolis Lakers' court.

Another bar. They definitely did these well.

Game: The game was a matchup of two of my starting pitchers from my fantasy team, Dontrelle Willis and Nick Blackburn.  Before you say: "Damn, Joe. You certainly have a lot of fantasy players on your team.  How do you have one everywhere you go?", you should know that I have three fantasy teams and one is in a twenty-team league with 29 roster spots.  That's pretty much the entire MLB.  Chances are I have every good player on at least one of my teams.

Anyway, the game was rainy, but luckily the only ticket I could get was a bleachers seat in the wheelchair section so I was covered from the rain.  It was kind of a boring game, but got real interesting in the later innings.  J.J. Hardy, a regular Lou Collins, made a Web Gem stop at shortstop and picked off a Detroit Tiger rounding third after Blackburn had given up his 3-2 lead, and then came up in the bottom of the 9th and hit a triple.  He soon scored the winning run on a wild pitch.  Always humiliating for that to happen to the losing team and an ugly win for the Twins, but as the dessert stand at US Cellular says, "Winning Ugly is Sweet."  Now that I think about it, it's kind of ironic that my first game after seeing that dessert stand was a sweet, ugly win.

Since it's a new stadium, it was packed.  I am in my hotel room now and tried but was unable to get a ticket for today's afternoon game.  As long as the Twins keep playing good ball, the park should be at capacity for the next few years.  Last night was windy and rainy and got pretty cold after a warm afternoon, but the Twinkies' fans are gonna have to get used to the elements now that they've made an outdoor stadium.  I'm all for it, though.  Baseball was meant to be played outdoors, as Todd said, and it shouldn't be THAT bad in early November.  Here's to a Yankees-Twins ALCS in late October.

Nick Blackburn, complete game winner

D-Train

D-Train vs. Morneau. Right before Morneau gives the Twins the lead with a double.

Summary:  Beautiful new stadium.  I think Todd said the total cost was roughly $450mm.  To put that in perspective, the new Yankee Stadium was built using $1.3B of muni bonds.  I don't know if the real estate held by the city was that much more expensive in the Bronx, but I feel like the Twins were able to do more with their cash than the Yankees.  No disrespect to my former employer at all, because Yankee Stadium is definitely other-worldly, but Target Field was simply awesome.  The game was great and the weather tolerable...all in all a great experience.  It's probably tied with Safeco as my favorite modern stadium.  Wrigley Field is just another animal and it's kind of difficult to compare the experience. Wouldn't have been the same, though, had I not had the behind-the-scenes tour.  Thanks a million, Todd.

Off to the Mall of the Americas! Anyone need anything?

Location: 8

Ballpark: 10

Food: 8

Game: 8

Overall: 9.0

Record: 8-4

Giveaways: Still the same.

Little Big League references: 3

US Cellular

 IS IT POSSIBLE? IS HE REALLY DOING THREE STADIUM POSTS IN ONE DAY?!!?

Yes, ladies and gents, with some help from my good ol' friend procrastination, I am actually making three stadium posts today.  Unfortunately, there's not a movie I want to quote here, so you're just gonna have to deal with a real solid stadium review.

I went to US Cellular on the south side of Chicago today with Keshav Rajagopalan, his great fiancee Chelsea Fosse, and my father.  A BIG thank you to Keshav and Chelsea for coming out.  Most of my friends reading this blog know Kesh and/or Chelsea, who will be living in Chicago together once Keshav graduates from UT.  5 years to graduate, Kesh, seriously? Who does that?

Location:  US Cellular, formerly New Comiskey, is located on the south side of Chicago and a short subway ride from downtown.  My dad and I walked to the Red Line for about 20 minutes (should have been ten, but we got lost), and took a seven-stop or 15/20-minute subway ride to the Sox/35th stop.  Real easy and eerily similar to a ride from Times Square on Manhattan to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.  You are even underground for most of the ride and come above ground right before you get to the stadium (if you're taking the 4/6 in NYC).

Anyway, we only walked from the subway stop to the stadium and back, so I didn't have a chance to check out the neighborhood.  From what I gather, it isn't Wrigleyville.  I could be wrong, though. It was easy to get there and you don't have to dabble in the surrounding area.  Would have been cool to have had a similar experience to Wrigley, but it isn't necessary.

The sign. I like it because if you wanted to get really picky, you can't see any sort of logo and you can pretty much have been a world champion at anything in 2005. If you aren't an Astros fan, then I should tell you the White Sox beat the Astros in the 2005 World Series.

Comiskey Park namesake. Must have been a pretty cool dude. In the Hall of Fame as an exec, even amidst the Black Sox Scandal described below.

Ballpark: The park is really a good ballpark, especially for one built in 1991.  New Comiskey replaced the old Comiskey park then, but US Cellular bought the naming rights to the stadium for $68mm over a twenty-year period starting in 2003.  This brought on an interesting discussion on naming rights.  If you want to prorate it simply, it's roughly $3.4mm per year out of US Cellular's advertising budget.  I wonder if it's worth it, but by the time I finish this post it will probably have been mentioned 25 times and I will have a brand new US Cellular mobile phone.

The park is pretty standard, and it reminds me a lot of Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.  It seats 47,000+, and after having gone to Wrigley yesterday, looks expansive and massive.  It looks pretty cool from the outside, minus the huge sign hanging outside of it that is in the picture I showed above.

Its dimensions are pretty standard as far as I'm concerned, and they have some ivy out in centerfield but not on the walls.  They also have some statues of ChiSox greats out on centerfield, but none of "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, who was an amazing player but forbidden from the Hall of Fame for his role in the Black Sox gambling scandal during the 1919 World Series.  Eight members from the White Sox team that season were given baseball's version of the death penalty and banned from the game for life.

Actually, when I made the name of this website "Joltin' Joe" I must have still been in some sort of Yankee haze because "Shoeless Joe" really would have been a much cooler name for this blog.  I'm pretty disappointed in myself.

View from the seats

Cool scoreboard that showed the scores from other games

Regular scoreboard, center field ivy in the bottom right

Great behind-the-plate shot

Great view from center

Food: Food was pretty standard - hamburgers hot dogs, brats, polish sausage, italian sausage, garden burgers, turkey burgers, Sauza Cantina, an Asian stand that sold "Asian buns" that looked like large dumplings, and a dessert place called "Winning Ugly is Sweet."  I thought that was kind of funny.  I had a sliced steak sandwich that was essentially unseasoned flank steak + cheese + grilled onions on a hoagie.  It was good but a dressed Chicago dog probably would have been better.  My dad tried some local fare, which was some spiced corn OFF the cob.  It had some butter, red pepper, I wanna say some sort of shredded parmesan, and was off the cob because they don't want people throwing the cobs onto the field.  I don't understand why MLB is worried about a cornless cob when some drunk idiot could throw a full bottle of beer at someone.  Regardless of whether the bottle is plastic or glass, a full  bottle of beer is going to hurt some sunofagun real badly.

The SCPI at US Cellular was $12.50 ($5 for the dog and $7.50 for the beer).  I'm beginning to think this is kind of average, maybe a little above average.  Once I hit my 15th park I'll try to get you a mean, median, max, min, and maybe even a standard deviation for you super nerds.

Sliced steak sandwich. Needed some Salt Lick BBQ sauce, if you ask me.

Game: The game was pretty stellar.  I didn't want to tell anyone, but Jake Peavy had a no-hitter through the 5th inning.  He was pitching a gem and I was really excited to see him because he is on two of my three fantasy teams this season.  To say I was high on him to start the season would be an understatement.  I would have bet a lot of money on his winning the AL Cy Young.  The ChiSox ended up winning 5-1 against the Royals, whom I have now seen lose twice. Suckers.

Our seats were on the back row of the left field bleachers.  It was a pretty good seat in my opinion, but you'd have to ask Kesh, Chelsea, and my dad what they thought about them.  Since Kesh is engaged and my dad is obviously happily married, I had the good fortune of being around a group of college-aged females that seemed to be enjoying themselves. It helped the game atmosphere for sure, even though it was already a good game to begin with.

 

 Mr. Peavy, pitching ace

Summary: Good seats, good friends and family, and WONDERFUL weather made for a great experience at my second baseball stadium in Chicago.  It was great to see Keshav and Chelsea again.  The jersey shirt I walked away with tonight was a white one of MLB home-run leader Paul Konerko.  We'll see if he can keep up his insane pace.  I had a great time in Chicago and will definitely think about attending graduate school here in the future. Let's just hope Northwestern will take me!

Kesh, me, Chelsea

My dad and me!

This HAS to be a pretty good restaurant. I mean, c'mon.

This is probably where Richard Kimble made his first appearance in Chicago in "The Fugitive."

Cool view of the river and some of the skyline from a restaurant patio at our hotel

Location: 7.5
Ballpark: 8.0
Food: 7
Game: 7.5
Overall: 7.5


Record: 7-4 (3-game winning streak)
Giveaways: Hasn't changed. The A's Snuggie still wins. Someone would have to give me a bar of solid gold to change places with the Snuggie.

Wrigley Field

"Funky buttlovin'!"

"Did he just say 'funky buttlovin'?"

Sorry for the crudity of my opening line, but I am finally ready to tackle the write-up of Wrigley Field.  If you've been keeping up with my blog at all, I pre-ranked ten of the stadiums I thought would be at the top of my list when all is said and done.  Wrigley Field was #2 on that list behind Fenway in Boston. Not only is Wrigley supposed to be one of the last "pure" baseball experiences, but it enables me to throw in a plethora of quotes from the movie Rookie of the Year.  I'm so excited about quoting that movie that this post could be finished in five minutes.

I left Houston Sunday morning at 7:45 with my dad, who went to Northwestern for journalism school.  He said he hasn't been back to Chicago in 30 years, so this was a great opportunity to make a father-son weekend trip out of my stadium tour. As an added bonus my mom's brother, uncle "Wogo," is up in Chicago on business and was gracious enough to buy tickets to Wrigley for the three of us last night.  If you were wondering, my uncle's name is Carl Webber, but since his father is also Carl Webber, my family calls him Webber and he goes by Carl professionally.  "Wogo" is something you get when my older sister Katherine gets naming rights as a two or three-year-old. Pathetic, I know.

By leaving early Sunday morning, I missed the opportunity to celebrate James Timmins and Belen Barrow's engagement Sunday evening.  The newly engaged couple went to West Alabama Ice House where friends and family were waiting to celebrate.  Even with all of these weddings and engagements happening around me, James is only my second pledge brother to drop the hammer.  Congratulations to both of you and I wish you the best!

ON TO WRIGLEY!  "GARDENHOSER! You're in..."

 Picture from http://www.premiere.com/Feature/The-Best-And-Worst-Baseball-Moments-In-Movies/The-Best-and-Worst-Baseball-Moments-In-Movies

Famous baseball cross streets

Location: One of the unique things about Wrigley is that it is located in a residential area appropriately dubbed Wrigleyville.  This is actually the first stadium I've been to located in a residential area, and it really changes the feel and anticipation of the game as you approach the stadium.  My dad and I are staying in downtown Chicago, and it was a short cab ride to Wrigley even with some game day traffic.  The neighborhood around Wrigley really is pretty cool - cool apartments, bars, and walkups.  A few of these buildings on Waveland and Sheffield have rooftop seating on top of the buildings.  Anyway, the location of Wrigley should have been a tip-off that the entire game day experience was going to be completely unique.

A couple of knocks on our hotel, which is supposed to be a nice 4-star...

1. Internet connection isn't free
2. Internet connection is LOUSY
3. Gym isn't free

But it's right next to the river and Lake Shore drive, which provides for an incredible view of Lake Michigan.

Ballpark:  Wrigley was originally built in 1914 and is the only remaining Federal League park.  It's the second-oldest stadium (Fenway is the oldest, 1912), and besides two or three very small electronic scoreboards, watching a game there is probably incredibly similar to watching a Cubbies game in the 1940s, 50s, or 60s.  The comparison is pretty accurate because the Cubbies are still terrible, much like they were then...ZING!  The team is dubbed the "Lovable Losers" by the press because they haven't won a World Series since 1908, but I find the team particularly despicable.  They're easily my least favorite team in baseball.  I hate it when the Cubs come to Houston because they are so much louder than our own fans, and 100% more obnoxious. Whoa, looks like I'm digressing from the park description.

The park just looks really old school.  I've always wanted to see the ivy-clad walls in the outfield, one of its main trademarks, and the park just seems incredibly cozy. In a good way.  The field box portion of the stadium is probably the largest in the majors.  Wrigley seats 41,160, which is more than Minute Maid Park.  I was pretty stunned when I looked that up at the stadium.  I don't know how there are possibly 41,000 seats there because it feels so small.

Anyway, the stadium and the field are really pretty. Very little corporate advertisement, a small upper deck, bleachers across the entire outfield, an old school scoreboard, and pennants for each team in the National League positioned according to the division standings. 

 View from behind the plate

View of the outfield from our seats

A view of the standings pennants.  The Astros may or may not be on the bottom of the middle column.

The scoreboard. The electronic board in the middle on the bottom is one of three or four electronic boards in the entire park.

You can see the rooftop bleachers behind the actual Wrigley bleachers

Some Harry Caray love

Food:  While I dock teams for lacking in variety elsewhere, I guess I went into Wrigley expecting to only get traditional fare, but expecting it to be good.  I was pretty accurate with my expectations.  They had chicken breast sandwiches, dogs, burgers, pretzel bites, HUGE nachos in a full-size baseball helmet, cheesy beef sandwiches, and veggie burgers.  They have smaller stands around the concourse that serve brats, Italian sausage, and polish sausage with all the trimmings.  They were awesome.  Once I started walking around the concourse a little more, I ran into a stand with a foot-long buffalo bison dog that I ABSOLUTELY had to try.  I didn't walk away disappointed. It was AWESOME.  The bison dog tasted pretty much like a regular hot dog and was topped with some buffalo sauce and some bleu cheese slaw.

The local brew is Old Style, so I had a few Old Style Lights instead of some of your more typical brews.  The SCPI at Wrigley was $11 ($6.75 draft and $4.25 dog).  Certainly not like it would have been in the 50s, but definitely cheaper than every stadium I've been to so far.  The beer might have been a couple of ounces smaller than most large drafts, but not by much.

 He got lucky. I have a much more embarrassing picture.  The dog looks good though (see below).

Obligatory dog close-up.

Game:  The game experience was fantastic.  For some reason my dad and Wogo were rooting for the Cubs, but I didn't budge from my loyalty to the Astros.  One of the first things you notice about the stadium is the legitimate organ music - it doesn't sound polyphonic in any way, just real true organ music.

The game I attended was the third Diamondbacks game I've seen so far on my tour.  I'm getting pretty sick of watching them lose, but it was OK today because Alfonso Soriano went OFF and he's on two of my fantasy teams.  2 HR, a double, and 4 RBI.  I also got some good pictures of him rounding the bases, except when this huge Chicagoan stood right in my viewing angle.

The game never was in doubt after the first inning, when the Cubbies piled on 4 runs.  Edwin Jackson, newly acquired from Detroit, just didn't look good at all. You knew it was going to be a long day for him.  He should have just tried the floater pitch or had Henry Rowengartner's mom come on and pitch.

Mark Grace sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," and he performed pretty well.  I think he does play-by-play for the Diamondbacks and used to play for the Cubs, so it made sense for him to get the nod.

I just knew Soriano was gonna have a good day. He's the only Cub I took pictures of before the game.

Dad?!

This is what Alfonso Soriano looks like HITTING A HOME RUN.

Marlon Byrd taking a trot...

Soriano's second trot.

Soriano's 2nd trot with obnoxious Chicagoan in the way. IS HE EVEN WATCHING THE GAME?!?

This is what 4 IP, 11 H, 8 ER, 1 BB, 2 HR, and 88 pitches looks like.
"Pitcher's got a big butt, pitcher's got a big butt!!!"
"I haven't seen the floater pitch since Scuffy McGee!!!!"

Summary:  I was really glad my dad and uncle could tag along as I attended one of the coolest stadiums in the world.  The whole experience was phenomenal.  The fans were obviously in the game the entire time, the park was crowded, the dogs were hot and dressed and the beer was fresh.  You could just smell baseball everywhere.

I continued my jersey shirt purchase by getting a Ryne Sandberg (Hall of Fame second baseman) jersey across the street.  Everything they sold in the stadium was this awful navy blue color.  Plus I couldn't bring myself to buy the jersey of any current player.  Wrigley Field is everything good about baseball.  Except for the home team.  Even if you don't like the game of baseball, it's something everyone should do, as long as you root against the Cubbies.

Me and Wogo

Me and Dad

Artsy "50s" photo of Wrigley

Artsy photo #2. Or was this from the Chicago Tribune in January 1965? I can't even remember it's SO good.

Location: 9
Ballpark: 10
Food: 9
Game: 9
Overall: 9.5


Record: 6-4 (thanks, D-backs)
Giveaways: A's Snuggie and Padres sticky calendar, plus a Dunkin' Donuts coupon for a free iced coffee since the Cubbies scored in the 4th inning.

Fantastic "Rookie of the Year" references: 4

Busch Stadium

I apologize it has taken me a few days to detail you on my trip to Busch Stadium, but I had spotty internet connection in St. Louis and took my first wedding and engagement hiatus on Friday and Saturday.  Congrats to Ernst and Elise on their engagement and Bailey and Simon on their beautiful wedding.

Also, big big thank you to Ryan Giggs, who hosted me in St. Louis amidst two looming law school finals.  The games really have proven to be much better with company.

Now to Busch...


Location:  The new Busch Stadium is located downtown (I think), right next to the Gateway Arch and the Dred Scott courthouse that I thought I had shown in a previous post.  The internet connection must have been REALLY bad.  Anyway, it was really easy to get there from Clayton, MO, where Wash U is located.  Ryan and I drove to campus, hopped on their light rail, and were across from the stadium in 15 minutes.  Since it's downtown, most of the surrounding location is business.  It's not a bad area at all.

The Gateway Arch and the courthouse where the Dred Scott case was tried

Behind-the-plate shot

Ballpark:  Solid park.  Nothing too flashy, just a solid game experience.  The building itself is dark red brick, and since it's pretty much solely red brick, it actually looks pretty dark.  Weirdly enough, the actual field inside the stadium was absolutely FILTHY.  Maybe it's because it was a windy day, but there was a lot of trash all over the field the entire game.  Even the grass looked cut kind of poorly.  It's got a pretty simple layout - I don't think there are too many nooks and crannies like Tal's Hill at The Juice Box, but I could be wrong.  I was in the right field bleachers keeping a pretty good eye on Jason Heyward.  He's gonna be good. Real good.

Always loved Ozzie and Barry Larkin

View from my bleachers seat

Food: Their food didn't have too much variety - your typical pizza, dogs, hamburgers, chicken strips, nachos bar - and it was only OK.  My chicken strips were average and expensive.  The SCPI was pretty steep at $13.50 ($8.75 for the beer and $4.75 for the dog).  Now that I think about it, Busch's Stadium's food was pretty lame and overpriced.  I'd like to say the beer tasted better because we were in Busch Stadium, but I'm just not so sure anymore...

Game: It really helps to have a winning ball club.  Those Cards sure are a good team.  This is the second time I've seen them play, and they were dominant both times.  On Thursday at Busch I saw Jair Jurrjens of the Braves take on Adam Wainwright of the Cardinals.  Wainwright had a REALLY impressive season last year and kind of flies under the radar as one of the game's premier pitchers because he's their #2 behind Chris Carpenter.  Jurrjens is highly touted, and a good pitcher.  Anyway, Jair got the hook after the 1st inning, a three-run home run to David Freese, and some sort of oblique injury.  Hopefully he gets better soon because my fantasy team really needs it.

The stadium was really crowded, especially for a day game on a weekday.  Continuing what I started at Milwaukee, I picked up a t-shirt jersey, this one of Albert Pujols.

Dave Duncan (pitching coach), Wainwright, and Yadier Molina walking from the 'pen

Future Hall of Famer? I wish I had his rookie card...

Summary: I admire the Cardinals team, but the stadium was pretty much as bland as Miller Park was.  I am beginning to notice that the more average the stadium, the more average my review.  This whole write-up is really poor.  Maybe it's something about NL Central teams or the central United States in general.  I don't know.  Or maybe it's because Pujols didn't even play. The view was pretty cool, the beer was overpriced for it being in a stadium named after a brewing company, and the food was average.  The Cardinals are damn good, and the team has some great history, but that's about it.

Let's hope I have a better experience at Wrigley.

Location: 7
Ballpark: 7
Food: 6
Game: 6
Overall: 6.5


Record: 5-4
Giveaways: Still one A's Snuggie and Padres sticky calendar