redbirdbrain

You know, when I started this site, I figured I’d, you know, update this blog every once in a while. Sigh. My excuse for not doing so lately is a week of being sick, and then a week of sheer panic about my lack of job.

(OK, those are boring excuses. But they’re mostly - if not entirely - true. If I’m being honest, I’ll also have to admit that I’ve just discovered the TV show House and have been obsessively catching up on the past 1.5 seasons. People! Why didn’t anyone ever tell me about this show? I’d never even HEARD of it before (how I missed the promos during the playoffs, I have no idea). Hugh Laurie has overtaken Bill James as My Favorite Person who has a First Name as a Last Name. Man, what an amazing performance he gives on a weekly basis.)

Another reason why I haven’t updated? It Didn’t Happen during November or December, but it was bound to eventually. I think I’ve gotten used to the lack of baseball around. The other night, I watched the awesome, exciting MU-KU basketball game with some fellow alums. And for once I didn’t spend the entire evening whining and saying things like “Any sport that Isn’t baseball is laaaaaaaaaaaame!” Truth is that I highly enjoyed it - despite the fact I’d never actually sat through an entire basketball game until Monday night. Of course, there was one hitch… Just as the game went into overtime, ESPN cut away to show the first quarter of a Syracuse game. For shame!

Before you update your bookmarks to tigressbrain or whatever, though, I assure you that I’ll be back in form in a hurry (Or to quote Dr. House: “‘Stat’ is the word you doctors use, right?”). If by “in form” you mean “embarrassing myself, as usual.”

Whoa… Loads of visitors to that photos post. Hi, new people! Nice to meet you! Now: Go away. Don’t waste your time. Seriously. This site is really lame.

To those of you who insist on staying: So Bet and I watched the McDonalds “Millions of Memories” DVD last night. (Yes, we actually paid $19 for this. Don’t give me a hard time, I TOLD you that I’m going through baseball withdrawal.) Easily the most hilarious moment was the the orchestra playing bah-dum-BUM on the soundtrack when Pujols hit that Game Five homer (which was not exactly a Busch moment, but close enough). Both of us burst out in condescending giggles. And then we promptly rewound it twice, of course.

Which was pretty much how the whole thing went. It was interesting, and we loved seeing it, but we found ourselves embarrassed by the overdramatics a little too often. Lots of fun clips, though. Which was why I bought it in the first place.

More nitpicks: There were some missing moments we’d liked to have seen, like Tommy Herr’s Holy Saturday grand slam in 1987, and some non-McGwire 1990’s moments, and the possibly fictional Mike Laga foul ball, and maybe a bit more of the 1970’s altogether. But the early bits were great, and it was so nice to hear Jack Buck’s voice again.

After we watched the show, there were some extra features also on the DVD: a few more moments not included in the movie, and several Busch era HOF acceptance speeches. Some of these extras were fantastic. For instance, they showed the ENTIRE Ozzie “Go Crazy Folks” at-bat, with Buck’s radio call playing during the video. Aaah, context. I’ve seen the homer clip so many times that I thought I was practically immune to it, but Jack Buck, of course, made it come alive again by saying things like “This has extra innings written all over it”. I’d love a whole DVD of clips like this. Instead we got a 5-minute clip of the Anheuser-Busch clydesdales prancing around instead of actual baseball. Geez.

As for Hall of Fame speeches: we loved Gibby and Red’s speeches (but then, I love pretty much everything about Gibby and Red), and fast-forwarded through most of Ozzie and Lou. I know, I know. But look. They were really boring, and it was getting late.

We took a little trip to New Busch today - here are some photos of the occasion. The next time I see it, construction will be completed!

There’s some neat detail below the sign. Those little squares are baseballs alternated with the STL logo. On the bottom of this entrace are identical little boxes, but those ones have the Cardinal logos through the years - the skinny bird on the bat from the 40’s and the bird holding the bat from the 70’s-80’s are the ones we noticed. Oh heck, I’ll just post a picture.

See what I mean?

Looks like they’re in the process of painting the Eads Bridge black…

The Cardinals team store is currently a trailer. Is it going to move to the new stadium, or will it be in ballpark village? Anyone know?

View from the sea of parking lots south of Hwy 40…

The scoreboard and jumbotron (or as I called it today, the video-screen thingy)

We went up to the ugly parking structure next door to get a better view - boy, what a great idea! The infield is in progress and it seems like you’ll be able to see games from here.

Old Busch footprint here. Looks like there are still some staircases, etc, that haven’t come down.