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 On Wednesday night I had the distinct pleasure of taking part in the St. Louis Cardinals season ticket holders appreciation night. Exactly what does this mean? It meant that my Dad and I along with the rest of our season ticket crew headed over to St. Louis for the night. The entire event was basically a marketing ploy by management to show just how great the Cardinals were even though they had a mediocre year. I would actually like to know if managment would have done something like this if the Cardinals had been in first place all year. They started these events around July 31/August 1 right around the time where it initially became clear that the Cardinals were out of it.
Follow after the jump for the rest of the highlights.
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 The itinerary for the night went something like this: Gates open at 6PM,
free beer commences, speech from a team executive, QA with former
players, prizes, free dinner and finally tours all while the game
against the Brewers was playing on the Jumbo Tron and any other TV in the stadium.
From the looks of it, it was somewhat similar to what Capt. Morgan experienced in Boston earlier this summer.
Our group all lives about 4 to 4.5 hours from St. Louis so we all had
to take a half day off at work. Poor us, I know. Being the eager
Cardinals fans that we all are we arrived around 4PM Central time,
which was two hours before the gates opened. Come to find out,
Hrabosky's and Paddy-O's were both closed on our arrival so we had to
settle for the bar at The Westin. I had never been in The Westin and
let me tell you, that is one swanky joint. A little before 6 we made
our way to the gate and are admitted into the Cardinals Club. The
Cardinals Club is the area reserved for VIP's, companies, clients, rich people, the people who sit in
the green cushioned seats behind home plate. The Club was very nice,
much nicer than Wrigley's VIP Club. It's tough to compare a new stadium
to a very old one though. Upon entering we made our way to a 6-top and ordered
the first round of beer. Mmmmm, St. Louis, Cardinals, Anheuser Busch and Bud
Light. If you know me, you know I love me some Bud Light, especially
free Bud Light. What else could you ask for?
The next stop was the speech/QA session. Jay Randolph, a former and
once again Cardinals announcer emceed the event before handing the mic
to some season ticket executive guy. He talked about the season, injuries, past successes, blah blah blah. Then it was onto the QA with the
former players. Now, I was hoping for Ozzie Smith and maybe Bob Gibson.
I figured they would throw out all the stops for Player's like us.
However, that was not to be. Our guests for the evening were.......wait
for it.........big news.........it'll blow your
mind..........hoooooollllllllddddddd..........Alan Benes and Kerry
Robinson. Not the biggest of names or even the mediumest of names, but
I was a huge fan of Benes when he was starting out. He was on his way
to a pretty good career until injuries slowed him. Benes is now a
special assistant to Walt Jocketty and Robinson pimps hoes and jocks
bitches in Jackson, MS. Jay Randolph asked each some questions and of course they both
had rehearsed lines that praised the Cardinals organization. Us, the
fans then were allowed to ask questions. Of course the first had to do
with TLR staying or leaving the organization. Good question dumb ass.
If I were bold enough I would have asked Alan who would win a fight
between him and his brother Andy. That's the type of info we really
need.
 After the QA there was a prize give-away portion. First prize was a poster of some sort. I didn't win. Whatever. Second prize was a Rick Ankiel autographed baseball. The first two ticket numbers that were called were not in attendance. Lo and behold the third ticket number called was STH-127. Who was the beholder of this Golden ticket? That's right, Buck Rampage in full effect. I yelped out, collected my ball and protected it like a mama bear does her cubs. It was somewhat funny since earlier in the night I told our group that I really wasn't too enthralled by autographs, but at that moment I turned into a little kid and wouldn't have sold the damn thing for anything. While groping my ball and secretly calling it "my precious" the third prize was given away. I don't know what the prize was. I had already won, I didn't care. Then the fourth prize was a large framed picture with three or four photographs in it. A nice prize. I was still not paying much attention when STH-127 was called again. The others in my group had to tell me and I was really confused as I tried to say that I had already won. Jay said another number and someone else ended up winning it. Either way, I found the person who won the picture and told them that it was rightfully mine. He was not amused.
Back on our way to dinner I found Jay Randolph and spoke to him for about 5 minutes. I thanked him for calling my ticket twice and slipped him a $20 per our arrangement. Good guy.
 Dinner consisted of buffet style Brats/Sauerkraut, hot dogs, chicken breasts, nachos, fruit and desert. By no means a filet with au jus, but pretty good stuff nonetheless. After dinner, we made our way to where Benes and Robinson were signing autographs. Benes was signing cards with his likeness on them while Robinson was signing cards that had a picture of Busch Stadium on them. That's somewhat funny right there, I bet Kerry was a little displeased underneath it all. As you can see on the left, Alan is tall. I'm 6'0" - 6'1" and he is towering over me.
We then headed over to the World Series trophy area to get our picture taken with what I refer to as the "Holy Grail". While waiting in line I decided I just had to have my picture taken with a beautiful 21 year old Cardinals girl. While posing she either a) grabbed my ass or 2) tried to steal my wallet. Either way I was a big winner. I have visual evidence of this also. The picture was not taken on my camera and I haven't received those photos as of yet. Onto the "Holy Grail". I had decided while waiting in line that this was my best opportunity to pull off the shooter. Name a better place than doing the shooter on the "Holy Grail". I'm sure there are better places, but I could think of none at that time. I must admit that I still have a bit to learn about performing the shooter as evidenced by the main picture to this post, but I am willing to learn and this one is much better than my last attempt. I do have somewhat of a crazy look to my eyes in the picture so that could either be a positive or a negative. You be the judge.....
  The final stop of the night was a tour of the clubhouse and the dugouts. This was actually what I was mostly looking forward too. Kerry Robinson joined us on our tour as he had not seen the new clubhouse. His comment while I was speaking to him was that it was smaller than the clubhouse at Busch II. He was just jealous. Of course the clubhouse was very nice. Loungers, couches, probably anything you could want. Scott Rolen's jersey was mysteriously absent in the locker room. The tour guide said it was removed to make room for September call-ups. Yet, Chris Carpenter's and Juan Encarnacion's jersey's were still hanging by their lockers. Hmmmm. BTW, Izzy had by far the locker with the most disorder. If you can't tell to the right, he actually has a bow in his locker. That means don't mess with Izzy or you could an arrow in your ass.
 On the way to the dugout we saw the indoor batting cage. The bat boy and some girl were in there doing the nasty and by nasty I mean the bat boy was feeding baseball's through the pitching machine and the girl was smashing the ball. The dugout was cool, the field was cool, the grass was nice, the whole deal was cool. The pictures are not very good due to the darkness, but you still get the idea. One sour note, they would not let me run the bases, a question they assured me gets asked on every tour. I told them I would slide head first into home if they would let me. I thought that would cinch the deal since home was covered by a water logged tarp as it had rained earlier in the day. I was convinced they would want to see some idiot get filthy. Still no dice.
 Overall, it was a great experience. I didn't get home until around 3AM and had to work on Thursday, but I'd do it again. Also, I have a Rick Ankiel autograph ball that I will be selling in 5-6 years. By which time I'm sure he'll be the greatest player that ever lived! I'll end with this. I learned one of two possible things about Scott Rolen while on the field talking to the bat boy. He is either an asshole or he likes......ummmm. If the story ever actually comes out, I'll tell you that I knew much earlier than you. Let's leave it at that.
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This very well may have been the best thing you've written ever:
Who was the beholder of this Golden ticket? That's right, Buck Rampage in full effect. I yelped out, collected my ball and protected it like a mama bear does her cubs. It was somewhat funny since earlier in the night I told our group that I really wasn't too enthralled by autographs, but at that moment I turned into a little kid and wouldn't have sold the damn thing for anything. While groping my ball and secretly calling it "my precious" the third prize was given away.
Living 4 hours away, how many games do you get to in a year?
The group picks out what weekends they'd like to go to and sell the weekday games to locals that we know or on Ebay or Prime seat club.
I made it to 2 spring training games and 5 regular season Cardinals games this year. I went to 4 other games while on travel for work. My parents probably went to 12 or so games. They go at least one weekend a month.
The drive isn't too bad. I64 from Evansville to St. Louis is somewhat unbearable though.
If they would have made the playoffs, I would have made it to at least one game in each series.
only chance for me living in PA to see a possible cub playoff game is either the Mets or Phils.
Don't know who could potentially play who in the divisional.
Did get the see world series game 1 in 2003 at Yankee stadium but something happened to the cubs along the way.
I saw Game 3 last year of the World Series. It was quite awesome. Completely different atmosphere.
Did get the see world series game 1 in 2003 at Yankee stadium but something happened to the cubs along the way.
I was in the city the night the Marlins won the World Series.
Buck...are you doing the Rod Beck there?
thats phenominal.
Klompus.
It is officially called "The Shooter" and yes Beck inspired it. Jack can tell you the whole tale. There's a post from a few months back that also explains it.
Very nice Buck.
There was no need to ask Alan about the fight. We all know Andy would win that fight.
That is a much improved shooter Buck, you look like a champ.
You're right about the Westin being swanky. I stayed there on my last trip to see the boys back in 2004, and I can't recommend it enough. Not only are the accommodations top drawer, but the staff was beyond courteous. If I ever get back to St. Louis again(a big if), I'm definitely going to try and stay there again.
Congrats on getting to the Holy Grail. While my baseball team has produced a few championships in my life (4 in the last 10 years), my basketball and football teams have left me with that burning, that emptiness.
And for that reason you should enjoy these moments, because they are what being a fan is about.
Damn, but you boys do keep me entertained on a daily basis. Nice work, ad infinitum, to all of you.
Buck, cool shit there...excellent way to work in the shooter...that one and Jack's are as of yet the only entries...I must admit though, Cobra's will be tough to top. I will leave all of the judging up to Professor Paine.
On a side note, I have a date set up with the patient's daughter this evening...she picked the restaurant...a brewhouse...nuff said.