My third and final day in St. Louis. Sunday was a day game, so I slept in and got brunch at the hotel to save some money. I walked over to the ballpark and ended up sitting near the pitcher's ex-fiancee's parents again. I chatted with them through almost the entire game. Such nice people! It turned out that they had lived in Northern Virginia for about three years while the husband was stationed at the Pentagon with the Coast Guard. So, they knew all about DC and Northern Virginia. Talk about a small world.
There was another rain delay and we all cheered for the grounds crew, who managed to get the tarp over the infield in time to keep it dry this time. I had my nice, close, but under-the-overhang seat again, so I was totally happy sitting and chatting and waiting out the rain. The Nats came back to win the game, and I and my 10 fellow Nat fans cheered.
Mark and I walked to this cool steak joint for dinner on the waterfront that kind of reminded me of the waterfront in Baltimore (the neighborhood, not the restaurant). I ate St. Louis style ribs that were so tender that the meat just fell off the bone. I am going to become such a rib snob!
We went to bed early and took a 10:30am flight home on Monday morning.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Meet Me in St. Louis (Day Two)
Second Day (I'm dividing these up because there's a lot to say). Mark and I slept late since Sophie and her Mark were going on a brewery tour with a couple of the players.
We had lunch at this really cute deli-ish place. One thing I really liked about St. Louis is the small town feel. There's no hustle and bustle like there is in DC and the people there were so nice! I fully expected to get yelled at or heckled for wearing Nationals garb, but no one said anything. Our waiter at lunch teased me good-naturedly, but other than that and the guys at the game Friday night, no one said boo. I don't think you would find that in a lot of other cities. I don't think you would get heckled in DC, just because there are fans of so many different teams here, but elsewhere, who knows.
That was another thing: there were only Cardinal fans. Here, you see fans of all sorts of teams. There, only the local team. Mark says that's because no one moves to St. Louis from other places but lots of people move to DC from other places. I guess New York City would be similar to here, while somewhere like Kansas City would be like St. Louis. Interesting, demographically. Everyone wears garb to the games! Here, you find maybe a third of the people in hats or jerseys or t-shirts. There, I would says 95% of the fans in the stadium had something on that said Cardinals. This one older lady even had a visor with a stuffed cardinal pasted on it! Totally cool.
Sophie and I ended up napping through the afternoon and meeting up before the game. We signed up to be organ donors--well, agreed to sign up to be organ donors when we got home--and got little Cardinals' towels. We had awesome seats again and this time, there were no annoying boys. We actually ended up sitting next to a woman who had been engaged to one of the Nationals pitchers, so we talked to her and her parents during the game. They were cool.
It started raining towards the end of the game, but our seats were under an overhang, so we didn't mind. In the bottom of the ninth with 2 outs, the Cardinals leading 8-6, and a Nats runner on first--the tying run at the plate, which meant the game was now "in question"--it started pouring. The grounds crew came racing onto the field, but the rain was coming down so hard that they could't even get the tarp over the infield! We had a lake--very exciting. But there was no sign of the rain stopping, and they had to finish the game. We were going to be there awhile. Everyone was huddled under the overhangs and in the concourses trying to stay dry.
Sophie left after about an hour since she had to pack to go home on Sunday morning, but I knew there was no way I was going anywhere.
After about two hours, the rain lets up enough for the groundscrew to start putting down this stuff called Diamond Dust, which is like super absorbant dirt, to try and dry out the infield so they can finish the game. It takes them maybe another hour to get the stuff all shoveled out and raked and smoothed, and then they pull the tarp back out to let the stuff soak up the huge puddles and not get MORE wet.
Finally, around 1 am, the players came back onto the field and everyone who was left in the stadium made a mad dash for the front row. What was incredible was that there was probably about 20,000 people left by this point. These fans take their baseball seriously.
Jesus Flores came to bat for the Nats. He ended up with a full count (3 balls, two strikes) and flied out to the first baseman to end the game. It was over in about three minutes. But I got to watch the last out from about two feet from the field.
I took a cab back to the hotel and then Mark arrived about an hour later. And that was Saturday.
We had lunch at this really cute deli-ish place. One thing I really liked about St. Louis is the small town feel. There's no hustle and bustle like there is in DC and the people there were so nice! I fully expected to get yelled at or heckled for wearing Nationals garb, but no one said anything. Our waiter at lunch teased me good-naturedly, but other than that and the guys at the game Friday night, no one said boo. I don't think you would find that in a lot of other cities. I don't think you would get heckled in DC, just because there are fans of so many different teams here, but elsewhere, who knows.
That was another thing: there were only Cardinal fans. Here, you see fans of all sorts of teams. There, only the local team. Mark says that's because no one moves to St. Louis from other places but lots of people move to DC from other places. I guess New York City would be similar to here, while somewhere like Kansas City would be like St. Louis. Interesting, demographically. Everyone wears garb to the games! Here, you find maybe a third of the people in hats or jerseys or t-shirts. There, I would says 95% of the fans in the stadium had something on that said Cardinals. This one older lady even had a visor with a stuffed cardinal pasted on it! Totally cool.
Sophie and I ended up napping through the afternoon and meeting up before the game. We signed up to be organ donors--well, agreed to sign up to be organ donors when we got home--and got little Cardinals' towels. We had awesome seats again and this time, there were no annoying boys. We actually ended up sitting next to a woman who had been engaged to one of the Nationals pitchers, so we talked to her and her parents during the game. They were cool.
It started raining towards the end of the game, but our seats were under an overhang, so we didn't mind. In the bottom of the ninth with 2 outs, the Cardinals leading 8-6, and a Nats runner on first--the tying run at the plate, which meant the game was now "in question"--it started pouring. The grounds crew came racing onto the field, but the rain was coming down so hard that they could't even get the tarp over the infield! We had a lake--very exciting. But there was no sign of the rain stopping, and they had to finish the game. We were going to be there awhile. Everyone was huddled under the overhangs and in the concourses trying to stay dry.
Sophie left after about an hour since she had to pack to go home on Sunday morning, but I knew there was no way I was going anywhere.
After about two hours, the rain lets up enough for the groundscrew to start putting down this stuff called Diamond Dust, which is like super absorbant dirt, to try and dry out the infield so they can finish the game. It takes them maybe another hour to get the stuff all shoveled out and raked and smoothed, and then they pull the tarp back out to let the stuff soak up the huge puddles and not get MORE wet.
Finally, around 1 am, the players came back onto the field and everyone who was left in the stadium made a mad dash for the front row. What was incredible was that there was probably about 20,000 people left by this point. These fans take their baseball seriously.
Jesus Flores came to bat for the Nats. He ended up with a full count (3 balls, two strikes) and flied out to the first baseman to end the game. It was over in about three minutes. But I got to watch the last out from about two feet from the field.
I took a cab back to the hotel and then Mark arrived about an hour later. And that was Saturday.
Meet Me in St. Louis
is what the boyfriend said...hah hah...musical theater humor!
As some of you may know, I spent this past weekend in St. Louis. Boyfriend was there with the Nationals, so I got to go to three (count 'em THREE) Nationals-Cardinals games. I had the time of my life! SOOO much fun, even if there were two huge rain delays. But we won 2 out of 3 and took the series! Go Nats!
We arrived Friday morning and met up with another guy named Mark (the Nationals' media relations guy) and his girlfriend Sophie who I met at Spring Training. The Marks wnet off to work and Sophie and I headed down to The Arch. It's a very cool monument if you have never been. It is 660 feet tall and to get to the top you have to ride this elevator-ferris wheel-laundry dryer-contraption which was neat, but definitely not for the claustrophobic. Many cool views were seen from the top.
We tooled around the city for a while after that (stopped by the International Bowling Hall of Fame and Museum) and changed clothes for the ballgame. We had such a good time! We totally hit it off and found out we have a lot in common, which was really great since we were basically stuck with each other for the next two days and it would have stunk to find out we had nothing to discuss.
Friday night's game was very cool with excellent comp seats. We sat next to these guys who were Cards fans, so we, of course, we heckled them the entire game and left quite happily when the Nationals won! I ate a snow cone and nachos. We did the customary lap around the stadium in the middle of the game to check things out. I must say, Busch Stadium is really nice! The first thing that impressed me was how FULL it was! They had an attendance of 44,000. That's, like, two and a half Nats games. We have pathetic attendance at RFK. The stadium is also only a year old so everything looks new and clean, again unlike at RFK, which is about 100 years old. They have a Build-a-Bear Workshop where you can make your own stuffed Cardinal. How cute. They also have vending machines to buy sodas for, get this, $4.75! I thought the $1.25 at work was bad...RFK has better snow cones, though. The ice is shaved finer.
It's funny, I realized that I have never been to a ball game and cheered for the visiting team. Cheering for the Yankees (anywhere) doesn't count, because no matter where you are, with the exception of maybe Boston, the Yankee fans will outnumber the home team fans, so you still get those loud cheers. It was SO weird to be one of, maybe, 10 people clapping and cheering when the Nats scored or got a good hit. Definitely a different experience. I feel like I've been to an "away" hockey game, but I can't think of where, when or why I would have gone.
But we won Friday night, so that was cool. I got to explain baseball stuff to Sophie, which was also fun. Usually I'm the one who doesn't know stuff, so I felt very smart and informed.
Afterwards we went to this bar called Shannon's which is famous for being a Cardinals hang out. We didn't see any players, but our waiter looked like Jason Veritek. Sophie left around midnight and I waited for Mark and then he and I walked back to the hotel. The weather was beautiful after a quick afternoon sprinkle.
As some of you may know, I spent this past weekend in St. Louis. Boyfriend was there with the Nationals, so I got to go to three (count 'em THREE) Nationals-Cardinals games. I had the time of my life! SOOO much fun, even if there were two huge rain delays. But we won 2 out of 3 and took the series! Go Nats!
We arrived Friday morning and met up with another guy named Mark (the Nationals' media relations guy) and his girlfriend Sophie who I met at Spring Training. The Marks wnet off to work and Sophie and I headed down to The Arch. It's a very cool monument if you have never been. It is 660 feet tall and to get to the top you have to ride this elevator-ferris wheel-laundry dryer-contraption which was neat, but definitely not for the claustrophobic. Many cool views were seen from the top.
We tooled around the city for a while after that (stopped by the International Bowling Hall of Fame and Museum) and changed clothes for the ballgame. We had such a good time! We totally hit it off and found out we have a lot in common, which was really great since we were basically stuck with each other for the next two days and it would have stunk to find out we had nothing to discuss.
Friday night's game was very cool with excellent comp seats. We sat next to these guys who were Cards fans, so we, of course, we heckled them the entire game and left quite happily when the Nationals won! I ate a snow cone and nachos. We did the customary lap around the stadium in the middle of the game to check things out. I must say, Busch Stadium is really nice! The first thing that impressed me was how FULL it was! They had an attendance of 44,000. That's, like, two and a half Nats games. We have pathetic attendance at RFK. The stadium is also only a year old so everything looks new and clean, again unlike at RFK, which is about 100 years old. They have a Build-a-Bear Workshop where you can make your own stuffed Cardinal. How cute. They also have vending machines to buy sodas for, get this, $4.75! I thought the $1.25 at work was bad...RFK has better snow cones, though. The ice is shaved finer.
It's funny, I realized that I have never been to a ball game and cheered for the visiting team. Cheering for the Yankees (anywhere) doesn't count, because no matter where you are, with the exception of maybe Boston, the Yankee fans will outnumber the home team fans, so you still get those loud cheers. It was SO weird to be one of, maybe, 10 people clapping and cheering when the Nats scored or got a good hit. Definitely a different experience. I feel like I've been to an "away" hockey game, but I can't think of where, when or why I would have gone.
But we won Friday night, so that was cool. I got to explain baseball stuff to Sophie, which was also fun. Usually I'm the one who doesn't know stuff, so I felt very smart and informed.
Afterwards we went to this bar called Shannon's which is famous for being a Cardinals hang out. We didn't see any players, but our waiter looked like Jason Veritek. Sophie left around midnight and I waited for Mark and then he and I walked back to the hotel. The weather was beautiful after a quick afternoon sprinkle.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Rachel & Ryan Save the Nats
As some of you may know, the Nationals' starting pitcher John Patterson is a big techno fan. He listens to the music before he pitches. As some of you may also know, he's been in a huge slump of late, his last win being April 15, 2006. I had a chance to chat with him at Spring Training and took it upon myself to provide him with some new and awesome techno, knowing that I have friends who create such things. This past weekend, I gave Mark a bunch of CD that my friend Ryan mixed and Mark passed them along to Patterson. JP was very impressed with the music and was excited to get some new stuff before he pitched in San Diego.
Before last night's game, Mark saw Patterson listening to an iPod and said he suspected JP was listening to Ryan's music. Well, lo and behold, the Nats won and Patterson got the win!! After the game, JP told Mark that he did, indeed, listen to Ryan's music before the game.
So I think it's safe to say that Ryan and I have saved the Nats' season, or at least John Patterson's season.
Before last night's game, Mark saw Patterson listening to an iPod and said he suspected JP was listening to Ryan's music. Well, lo and behold, the Nats won and Patterson got the win!! After the game, JP told Mark that he did, indeed, listen to Ryan's music before the game.
So I think it's safe to say that Ryan and I have saved the Nats' season, or at least John Patterson's season.
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