Matt Holliday's home run on last at bat as a Cardinals in 2016. I was in the right field stands and the ball ended up under my seat after it bounced around. It was pandemonium but before I could get down to pick it, someone in the row behind me swoped in and got it. https://www.si.com/mlb/2016/10/01/st-louis-cardinals-matt-holliday-home-run-farewell
I can’t pick a favorite, but I super memorable one was being there for McGwire’s 60th. With every pitch to him the stadium lit up with camera flashes. You certainly won’t see that today with smartphones. It’s a fun memory.
I was there the night McGwire hit #62 which was amazing but I gotta go with Brian Jordan’s go-ahead homer in game 4 of the ‘96 NLCS in St. Louis. Eckersley came in and shut it down in the 9th. Busch II was ELECTRIC that night. Never forgot that feeling. #STLCards
June 22, 2000 vs the Giants and Barry Bonds. Me and three buddies went to see it a Busch. Hentgen started and got rocked, and we drank about a hundred beers to cope. Cards were down 8-1 mid innings but they started chipping away and clawing back into it.
The sun never got to the grass in deep right field at Busch 2
and so they have to replace this sliver of field most years with fresh sod. Well this year they trucked up this sod from Florida and it had approximately a zillion moth eggs in the sod. It was installed and the next night was our game.
So in about the 6th inning you start to notice a lot of bugs in the air. And then a few minutes later it's thicker and thicker until it starts to look like a blizzard. Never saw anything like it. Batters stepping out every pitch, fielders waving in front of their face every time theres a fly ball.
We get to the 8th with the cards down 9-7 and shawon dunston comes up and hits a moonshot to left and it's in the air FOR-E-VER for Barry Bonds as he drifts back and back to the wall, fighting off the moths. Bonds gets to the wall, jumps up, the ball goes in his glove, pops out...
..and goes over the wall for a 3 run homer and dunstons second homer of the game! We were losing our minds, the most chaotic thing I've ever seen at the ballpark.
Now of course Dave veres blew the save in the 9th but they walked it off thanks to a Craig Paquette single and won 11-10.
Every running catch I ever saw Jim Edmonds make in centerfield. If I have to say just one though, it’s the Pujols homer at Coors that hit off the green screen in center back before the trees and plants had overtaken it. I bet the dent is still there.
An Ozzie Smith home run at Wrigley field in April 1982 that ultimately proved to be the game winner. It was the same game some kid named Sandberg got the second hit of his career and his first hit as a Cub.
Rick Ankiel making his first home appearance after coming off the DL in September, 2004. He got a well deserved standing O that day. It was also the last game I ever saw in person.
Either Albert Pujols hitting a grand slam in Cincinnati in '09, or Abraham Nunez & the Cards walking off the Rockies in my last game at Busch II in July '05.
Late 70s, Cards getting blown out by the Big Red Machine, pre-teen me and my little brother alone in the left field bleachers among wasted frat guys from SIU, and one of them is so tanked, he walks down to the outfield wall and relieves himself onto the warning track. No consequences. Epic
Pagnozzi sliding sliding on his knees into the dugout before they had tails in like 88/89. Pujol’s last grand slam with my 2 oldest kids. Sneaking into game 7 and seeing last inning.
Game 7 of the ‘82 Series, Sutter on the mound in the 9th. I was 13 and there with my dad. Have never heard a roar quite like the 50k in old Busch on strike 3.
Vince Coleman in an astounding acrobatic move. But that was a long time ago, pre-strike. Also standing on the RR tracks in Kirkwood & looking all the way down. Did I really hear the national anthem from there, or am I only imagining it? Different times.
The second day of Albert returning to St. Louis, playing for the Angels. The sheer surrealness of, even if it was Albert, seeing fans cheer an opposing player hitting a home run and then cheering for a curtain call.
And the poor Cardinals pitcher getting booed when he threw a little too close.
Jose Jimenez throwing no-hitter against Randy Johnson in Arizona on June 25, 1999. Took my son to the game for his birthday. Johnson also was masterful that game.
I was there when Craig tripped over Middlebrooks in the World Series. With the crappy cell reception at Busch we didn't fully understand what had happened until like 45 minutes later.
Comments
https://www.si.com/mlb/2016/10/01/st-louis-cardinals-matt-holliday-home-run-farewell
First game I saw in person after moving to Seattle about 5 years earlier.
Rewind to the previous day.
and so they have to replace this sliver of field most years with fresh sod. Well this year they trucked up this sod from Florida and it had approximately a zillion moth eggs in the sod. It was installed and the next night was our game.
Now of course Dave veres blew the save in the 9th but they walked it off thanks to a Craig Paquette single and won 11-10.
Wild night.
It feels weird that those were both so long ago.
(It’s Dmitri Young.)
And the poor Cardinals pitcher getting booed when he threw a little too close.
It was incredible, I thought Busch 2 might collapse it was shaking so much