minor league baseball

Baby Birds

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you might be thinking that we’ve had new visitors in the nest in our tree. On the other hand, if you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you also know how much we love baseball! That’s the kind of baby birds I’m talking about today!

P1300539

On my summer to-do list was taking in a minor league baseball game. Not just a Grizzlies game, but one of the Cardinals affiliates. Our choices were the Triple-A team, the Memphis Redbirds, or the Double-A team, the Springfield Cardinals. Springfield is a considerably shorter drive, so yesterday, we took a road-trip out to Hammons Field to see the baby birds play!

P1300499

P1300514

It was a nice, albeit small, ballpark. Since we were at a minor league game, we got to sit a lot closer to the field than we usually do!

P1300566

The ushers were very helpful in pointing us to our seats, and they were also easy to find, given their Hawaiian print shirts!

P1300569

One of my favorite things about visiting a new park is seeing who the sponsors are, what kind of shops they have, and what kind of food they serve.

There were some things, though, that were very familiar (including seeing Shane Robinson, who was on a rehab assignment, and Chickadee being mad at me for putting her down so I could get a picture of her with her siblings)!

I also love seeing the mascots. In Springfield, they have Louie (a cardinal, who looks kind of like Fredbird-lite), and Fetch, Louie’s canine friend.

They were giving away Shelby Miller bobbleheads (who was a Springfield Cardinal quite recently), and the children were very excited, because there was no age limit on the giveaway, so they each got one!

P1300525

P1300755

We saw a home run (and heard the home run siren!):

P1300671

And we watched the between inning antics, including my favorite of the night, musical chairs, where, if there was a tie involving a lady, the lady always won!

P1300698

We also saw evidence of the Springfield Cardinals 2012 Texas League championship:

P1300652

P1300743

It was definitely another fun day at the ballpark…maybe next summer, we’ll make it to Memphis to see the Redbirds!

P1300742

My Cardinals Bucket List

I got this idea over at Diamond Diaries…a list of Cardinals-related activities I hope to do before I die (even though I really hate the term “bucket list!”).

  1. Go back to the Commissioner’s box…with the children. We had such a good time sitting in those seats on our anniversary that we’d really like to share the experience as a family. Plus, it would be really fun for the children to go to a game where they could get as much food as they wanted, (within reason, of course), and not worry about how much it costs. And the seats are six across, which works out well for us!
  2. Attend Social Media Night. OK, this one is kind of cheating to list, because I already did it this year. Up until last month, though, it was still something I wanted to do “someday.” Since it’s still fresh in my mind, I’ll include it anyway–I really wanted that “Tweet me in St. Louis” t-shirt!
  3. Go to Opening Day. This is another hopeful family event. Ryan has been to Opening Day once, and he told us all just how cool it was, so of course, we all want to go. Busch Stadium is awesome any day, but I can’t even imagine the atmosphere on Opening Day. I especially want to see the Clydesdales in action!
  4. Visit all of the minor league ballparks. I’d like to take road trips to Memphis, Springfield, Palm Beach, and the Quad Cities to see the “baby birds” in action.
  5. Get tickets to the Redbird Club. Again, cheating a little, because we have Redbird Club tickets for later this summer. But I didn’t even realize until last week that that’s where our seats are located, and I haven’t even technically been there yet, so it’s still on the list.
  6. Attend Spring Training. I think it would be so much fun to escape the lovely St. Louis winter weather and go to spring training one year.
  7. Get something autographed. If it was a Lance Berkman autograph, that would be fantastic. But really, I’m not choosy…I’d just like a Cardinal autograph. Maybe even Red Schoendienst, since he’s one of the coolest Cardinals ever, and he’s still on the field for batting practice on a regular basis.
  8. Go to a playoff game. Just to say I’d been, even if it was the wild card round.
  9. Be a season-ticket holder. This is a way in the future dream. But someday, when the children are out of the house, I’d love for Ryan and I to have season tickets. I don’t even care where in the stadium–I’d just love to have the option of going to all of the home games.
  10. Meet Fredbird. The children and I technically did meet Fredbird a few years ago at a Qdoba grand opening. But it was really more the children than me. And I didn’t even get “beaked,” so it doesn’t really count.