For the third year in a row, I attended Opening Day of the St. Louis Cardinals. As a city that lives and breathes baseball, Opening Day is almost a public holiday with tens of thousands of people flocking down to Busch Stadium to watch the Redbirds play. Tickets to this game are between 10-20 times as expensive as a normal game, which means that a lot of people around the stadium are just there for the atmosphere and the bar-scene.
The game is preceded by a parade through the stadium including all the Cardinal greats still alive, the current team, and St. Louis’ own Budweiser Clydesdales. This year was especially emotional because of the passing of #6 Stan “The Man” Musial, the greatest Cardinal to ever live. A special tribute video was played and the stadium unveiled a 6 logo as part of the new home-run wall.
My seat was considered the nosebleed section, but nobody really cares because getting into Opening Day is the important goal. I was seated next to a young preacher from Ferguson who was drinking with his congregation at the game.
The Cardinals ended up losing badly with the visiting Reds scoring 9 runs in the ninth inning. However, the game result did not matter to most people in the stands; what mattered what that the Cardinals are back in business.