Top 10 St. Louis Cardinal memories

     I had someone recently reply to one of my blogs last week.  I had blogged about the St. Louis Cardinals being in the playoffs, and I was pretty excited.  The person who replied to the blog, didn't understand the passion I had for the sport, or team for that matter.  And, to be fair....her lack of understanding on this issue, is shared by my wife, and some other family members, coworkers, etc.  So, I thought I would take the time and blog about my 10 favorite Cardinal memories.  I want to preface this by saying, that some of the memories are from games I went to, some are from games I watched with friends in a bar.  So, without further delay...here are my top 10 St. Louis Cardinal memories.  From last to first.

10.  Now, the more I thought about this.....the harder of a time, I had trying to put these memories in order of significance.  I'm going to lead off the countdown, with the memory I have of going to a Cardinal game for the first time in my life.  I was 7 years old.  It was July in 1988.  They were playing at the old Busch Stadium.  The team they were playing that night was the Houston Astros.  I have no idea if they won or not, what was really cool about this hot summer night, was just the ambiance of being at a major league stadium.  My favorite teams stadium at that.  Our seats were upper deck outfield seats, and I couldn't even really see the field.  We stayed until about the 6th inning, then it got too hot and I think my parents were worried that I might be getting dehydrated, so we left.  I'll never forget this night though.  It was also the first real vacation we went on as a family.  The next day, we went to the Arch, which was really cool too.

9.  This memory is kind of interesting in the fact, that it doesn't really have anything good to do with the Cardinals.  In fact, it was actually bad as far as the Cardinals go.  In late August of 2003, a couple of friends and I went to St. Louis to see a couple of games.  The Cardinals were playing a weekend series against the Atlanta Braves.  The two friends I went up there with, were Braves fans.  The Cardinals weren't really good this year, they were kind of having a hangover from the year before.  The Braves however, were in prime form.  They played a night game that Friday, and actually moved the game back on Saturday to a 6:00 o'clock start time.  Which was nice, because we had a late night Friday....so we could sleep in on Saturday.  Anyway, late in the game on Saturday...about the 6th inning.  The Cardinals were actually winning by a few runs.  They had runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out.  Jim Edmonds hits a screaming line drive to the shortstop (Rafael Furcal), who promptly catches the ball.  1 out.  He was close enough to the bag at second, that he stepped on 2nd for the force out.  The runner that was on 1st had strayed too far away from the base, Furcal threw it to the first baseman for the 3rd out.  It was an unassisted triple play!  Only a few other people in the history of baseball had performed such a feat.  It was pretty cool.  More from this game later...

8.  In 2004 the Cardinals played the Astros in the NLCS.  It was a great series, that went 7 games.  The Cardinals had won the division, so they had home field advantage in the series.  Now, I'm not going to go into too many specifics with this memory, but ultimately I watched the end of game 7 at the bar Champs, here in town.  It was during the week, either a Wednesday, or a Thursday.....the bar wasn't very busy.  They had the game on one of the big screens and the few other people in the bar, other than my friends were joining us in cheering for the Cards.  A few of the big highlights of the game were a diving catch by Jim Edmonds, who hit a big homerun earlier in the game.  It was the first time, since I could remember that the Cardinals were going to the World Series. 

7.  In 1996, the Cardinals were playing the Braves in the NLCS.  The Braves had the better record that year, so they had home field advantage in the series.  The Cardinals actually were leading in the series, when game 4 took place 2 games to 1.  I was still living at home, at the time.  My dad and I had worked with the antenna on the tv in the front room enough, to where we could slightly see the game.  In the bottom of the 9th inning, the Cardinals were down by a run.  Brian Jordan comes up to bat with a runner on 1st.  He promptly delivers a homerun into the bleachers in left field, for a walkoff 2 run homerun.  It was the first and only, playoff game I ever watched with my dad.  

6.  Remember Mark McGwire?  In the summer of 1998, he was in the process of breaking every homerun record baseball had.  It was so crazy, that with every at bat, all the big networks would cut to the game when he came up, and hold their breath that, this was the at bat he hits number 62.  He broke the record against the Chicago Cubs.  My dad and I actually got the game to come in on the tv that night.  I wasn't even aware they were playing, until my dad yelled at me to run into the living room.  I don't know what inning it was, or if they even won the game.  The only thing I really remember was it was a homerun to left, and it was probably the shortest run he ever hit that whole year.  It didn't even make it into the bleachers.

I will post the next 5 memories next week, have a good weekend everybody...and go Cards!