The Cardinals win the WORLD SERIES!!!
Experience at the World Series
I wanted to tell you about my experience at the 2006 WORLD SERIES. As many of you may know, I live and die St. Louis Cardinal Red. My whole apartment is decked out in Cardinal red gear and memorabilia. I have close to 20 shirts that are St. Louis Cardinals(counting the new World Series gear). There is a reason I watched games in the middle of June with the team up 5 runs, and up 8 games in the standings. I go to Busch Stadium 5-10 times a year, and basically look at Busch Stadium as heaven on earth. It, to me is the greatest place to be. Most of you know I co-own http://www.albertpujolsclub.com/ and love to update/promote the site, for the greatest baseball player to ever play the game. It was a struggle this summer when I moved to Streator, IL and they did not have the Fox Sports Midwest channel to watch all of the games. I survived, by watching online, listening to Rooney and Shannon on radio, and my family and friends sending me messages letting me know what is going on. Once the postseason rolled around, I knew I would be able to see each and every game. The St. Louis Cardinals are one of the proudest franchises in all of professional sports. Their success is a constant, every year. But this 2006 season made all of my love for the St. Louis Cardinals WELL worth it. I won’t even go into my constant battles with Chicago Cub fans, and now I am very pleased to say Cub fans have absolutely NOTHING to say now. One might wonder…. Why do you care sooo much? Why do you get sooo into a professional sports team? Why do you get mad when they lose? It’s just professional sports. Everyone has their loves, obsessions, etc. Mine rests with the St. Louis Cardinals Baseball team. I live and die St. Louis Cardinals Baseball. There could be worse things to put so much into, right?
Now my experience to Busch Memorial Stadium on the night of Friday October 27, 2006. This experience all started Thursday night as the Cardinals were putting the final outs on the Detroit Tigers to go up 3 games to 1. God was looking out for me.. I know this for sure. That was the reason for the Wednesday night rainout which put the series back a night. Had it been Thursday night, there is no chance I could have attended, I had parent teacher conferences until 8pm. Friday worked out well, because I did not have to teach, I had conferences again until noon. So I knew I could leave in plenty of time to get to St. Louis. So why did my experience start a night early? This was when I knew I was going to Busch to see this game. I told myself “ I will NOT miss this opportunity”. There was so many uncertainties about the game. 1. We did not have Tickets to the game. 2. There was a 90% chance of rain. 3. Had the Cardinals lost, there would have been no celebration. I told a few of my Cardinal friends I was going. My friend Chris from U of I was considering going. My friends Tom and Terry from Peoria were going to go. Mika, from U of I was trying like heck to go, and finally went. I then told my brother Ryan, and convinced him to go. He was supposed to be babysitting duty for his three year old son. His wife Sarah told him he was stupid for going with no chance of Tickets(We were not able to pay $400+ for Tickets), but she allowed him to go. We then discussed our plans, and knew both of our cars were going to struggle to get down there. That’s when we wanted to ask our younger brother Randy, who is just a lukewarm sports fan to go. He loved the idea, but being in high school had to get permission. It was granted, and since his car is the nicest, and newest, we decided to take his car down to St. Louis. Plans were set. Still no Tickets. Still calling for rain, still unsure of any celebration plans. We had no idea where we were going to get once we got down there. We had heard of tons of bars having it on. We heard all sorts of things that MIGHT work.
I met my brothers in Lincoln, IL at 1:30pm, 5 and half hours before game time. We got to St. Louis around 3:30pm, and did our normal parking at the Casino Queen in East St. Louis, and walked the mile walk over the Eads bridge which took us no more than 10 minutes. It was very cold, and windy, but Cardinal Baseball was just around the corner. We walked down to the stadium and the place was buzzing. We walked around, checking out Pati O’s, and a few other local places, before deciding to get something to eat at TGI Friday’s and watch some of the local news covering the scene on T.V. After dinner, we walked around Kiener’s Plaza, where beads, buttons, and other free stuff was being handed out. People were selling World Series gear all over, and the whole city was Red. We walked all over the Plaza, and then back to the stadium around 5:30pm, in hopes of maybe finding Tickets, but finding nothing for under $500.00.. We saw some of the big screen TV’s outside the ballpark, along with other TV’s in the park, in hopes they would have those on for us to see during the game, but again uncertain what to expect. As 50,000 people filled the stadium, we continued to walk around looking at all the new World Series gear, figuring we could buy some stuff later, we didn’t feel like carrying it around all night. As the game neared, we talked to Cardinal fans all over the place, a lot like us, looking to find a way in, or wanting to be as near the stadium as possible. As Billy Ray Cyrus sang the National Anthem, the level of the stadium increased significantly, we were now just a few minutes away from the WORLD SERIES. As the game began, we decided to walk across the street from the stadium to a 10 story parking deck, where we went to level 7 and watched the first two innings from there. We could see home plate, and second base area, but nothing else. We were able to see the big screen inside the stadium from the deck. All of the top 7 levels of the deck were jammed pack with Cardinal fans trying to get glimpse of the game. The top level was like a scene from a college football game. Tailgaiting all over as people had radio’s, beverages, and other gear with them, ready to see what they could of Cardinal Baseball. From the start I knew my boy Jeff (Weavdog) Weaver was on. As he mowed the Tigers down in the first, the place was definitely jumping. The Cardinals then threatened but did not score in the bottom half. I was hoping this would not come back to haunt us. After our second inning run, I kept saying Weaver had it.
Then, when Chris Duncan dropped the ball, and Sean Casey hit the homerun, things changed a bit, and people were a little frustrated with Chris’ outfield play. But then like the Cardinals have done all year, they came back and got some runs, thanks to the shaky Tigers defense. As the Cardinals took the lead, the atmosphere in the place rose once again. The next 7 innings, we watched the game from just outside the center field gate where we could see the crowd inside, homeplate, and saw the game from a big screen inside. As the game moved on, the crowd outside the stadium went from a couple thousand to nearly 10,000 by the 7th inning on. In the 2nd inning John Kruk from ESPN pulled up and fans got to say hello and other things to him where we were. Inning after inning, I had my countdown of outs on. It got to the 7th inning, and the feeling of HOLY COW THE CARDINALS MAY WIN THE WORLD SERIES really creeped into my mind. Out after out, the countdown continued and the crowd outside the stadium increased. Continuous cheers and chants were being made by the faithful not inside the stadium while inside the stadium the place was electric. 8, 7, 6 to go. Jeff Weaver was freaking cruising. I liked Jeff Weaver before he even came to St. Louis. He is intense. One of my friends, a Cub fan not too long ago had this to say about Jeff Weaver. “ Man, Jeff Weaver is anti-good.”.. He has been pretty quiet since Friday night. 5, 4, 3 outs to go. WOW. The Cardinals were THREE OUTS from the WORLD SERIES TITLE.. As more and more people jammed there way into the crowd outside centerfield, we kept getting more crowded but no one seemed to care. People were taking pictures of the crowd, other fans, giving high fives to anyone in site, and taking priceless video’s of the scene. The Cardinals were quiet in the bottom of the 8th, and going to the 9th had a 2 run lead. Many people questioned taking Weaver out, while others wanted Wainwright in. Adam Wainwright who had been an absolute stud in the postseason came in to close the door.
After a double, and walk, the go ahead run was at the plate. OH NO. We weren’t going to choke this, were we… Brandon Inge stepped up to the plate, and just like Wainwright had done all year, got a huge strike out to win the game. The place went NUTS. I probably high fived 500 people I had never seen, I got a few hugs, I lost my voice, as did 75,000 other people that night. We then ran to a gate and got into the stadium, and actually pushed our way into having a pretty good view of the celebrating. THE CARDINALS HAD WON THE 2006 WORLD SERIES! Fans hugging fans, players hugging players, I was right near the huge jumbotron in the stadium and was able to get amazing pictures of the players getting the trophy, shirts, etc. The fireworks display was amazing, with confetti coming out ALL over the place. Music was blaring with celebrating music, as this was the moment I had waited for, since birth! The last World Series the Cardinals won, I was 2 months old. We stuck around until nearly 1am, in the stadium watching the players come and go from the clubhouse running around the field, nearly getting a pair of So Taguchi’s batting gloves, as he ran around the field throwing them in. Scott Rolen came by and gave high fives to the fans, as did Jeff Weaver, Adam Wainwright, Yadier Molina, etc.. Albert, the MVP was on the field with his family. Eckstein’s new yellow beast of a car for winning world series MVP was on the field, as people were celebrating all night. There was mass chaos trying to get the official newspaper stating the Cardinals were world series champs, as I was able to get a few along with the official shirts, hats, etc.. The lines were extremely long to get the gear but we were able to get in, in pretty good time. The celebrating went on and on. We finally decided to leave the place, giving more high fives to strangers, running around the place. As we hit the streets of St. Louis is was MASS pandemonium. People on cars, honking, jumping around, waving their Cardinal towels, shirts, papers, etc. Cars were lined up miles long, all in Cardinal red. Even in our mile walk back we were there was honking all the way up and down the Eads bridge.
All and all, I am sure I have much more than this to say about the experience of a lifetime. It was the most amazing experience of my life, bar none. I am sure once I marry, have children, etc, those experiences will top this, but this moment at “Baseball Heaven” was once in a lifetime. I hope you enjoyed, if you have stories on how you saw the Cardinals win the world series please share. If interested in any of my 90+ pictures, ask and I will be more than happy to share..
Posted by AlbertPujolsClub.com on Oct 29 2006 in Pujols News
Before tonights game media addressed Tony Larussa about the Albert Pujols situation. Larussa commented and hit the nail on the head.
