Social Media Night

Baseball Summer 2013

This was another busy summer of baseball games! I can honestly say that we watched baseball in pretty much all kinds of weather, from many different vantage points, and in way more ballparks than I would have imagined at the beginning of the season. The Cards won six of the nine games we saw them play, which is a pretty good percentage for us, and the children enjoyed seeing Fredbird bring the Cardinals flag out at the end of the game so many times!

The first game we went to was “Stan Musial Harmonica Night” in April. We had to wear winter jackets to the game, which was definitely a new experience! The game was filled with wonderful, loving, tributes to Stan, and it was an honor to be there.

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Busch Stadium, Left Field Pavilion–Section 371

In May, to celebrate Moose’s first week of summer vacation, we traveled across the state to see the Cards play the Royals in Kansas City during the I-70 series. Our very first baseball road trip…how fun!

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Kauffman Stadium, Hyvee Infield–Section 411, Row GG

Turkey played in his fourth season of parks and rec baseball this summer, and he got to play on two different fields. One of them had a scoreboard and lights, which was very cool.

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The other was at Moose’s school, which was also very nice, even though it doesn’t have lights.

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In June, Ryan and I went with a friend to Beer Stein Night, which was also the game that brought Lance Berkman to town. Sadly, we didn’t get to see him play, but we did see him being his normally awesome self, and signing autographs for people.

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Busch Stadium, Infield Terrace–Section 450, Row 9

We went back to the see the Gateway Grizzlies play again this year, as part of Honor Roll Night for Moose’s school. You definitely don’t go to see good baseball, but it’s still a lot of fun! We spent a good portion of this game getting drizzled on, and it was surprisingly chilly.

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GCS Ballpark–Section 121, Row J

At the end of July, we sat on the Coca-Cola rooftop deck (an all-inclusive area), for the first time. We enjoyed the buffet, and the extra space for walking around with Chickadee!

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Busch Stadium, Coca-Cola Deck–Section CCD, Row C

At the beginning of August, Bunny and I had tickets to the Champions Club (another all-inclusive area), for Star Wars night, the first of two theme ticket events I attended, which was an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime baseball experience!

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Busch Stadium, UMB Champions Club–Section CH6, Row C

A little later in August, we drove out to Springfield, MO, to see the Cardinals Double-A team, the Springfield Cardinals, also known as the “Baby Birds,” play. Two baseball road trips in one summer!

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Hammons Field, Diamond Box–Section I, Row 9

The one game we try to go to every year is Build a Bear day. This year, they were giving away a stuffed Fredbird, as part of Fredbird’s birthday bash, so of course we had to be there!

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Busch Stadium, Right Field Pavilion–Section 328, Row 5

On September 10, I kicked off “baseball week” in our house when I went to the Cardinals Social Media Night by myself. My ticket was on the Left Field Porch, which was a new place for me. This was one of the hottest days of the summer, but I still managed to have a good time. This was only the first of three games we went to that week, though!

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Busch Stadium, Left Field Porch–Section LP3, Row 4

The following day, we all went back to Busch Stadium to see the Cards win again. For the last few summers, we’ve gotten seats in the Redbird Club with Ryan’s parents. Every year, I look forward to getting a cupcake while I’m there…yum!

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Busch Stadium, Infield Redbird Club–Section 244, Row 1

We thought we were done with baseball for the year after the Redbird Club game, and then Moose’s school sent home a letter about an opportunity to buy tickets for a school fundraiser night. It’s the first time they’ve ever convinced us to participate in a fundraiser (other than buying Moose a new t-shirt every other year), but it was the Cardinals, so how could we say no?!? We even got to enjoy field level seats at this game, which is a rare treat for us! We also saw one of the strangest endings to a game ever…a walk-off victory on a passed ball!

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Busch Stadium, Right Field Box–Section 130, Row 23

It seems like we have big “baseball summers” every other year, so I’m assuming next year will be lighter in the games attended department. We are hoping to make it to Memphis to see the Redbirds play, and I’m personally hoping to sit in the bleachers at Busch Stadium (the one area we’ve never been in, other than the elusive “green seats”), but other than that, I don’t have a lot in the way of expectations for next year. We’ll just have to see what the schedule (and ticket prices!), holds for us!

Social Media Night at Busch Stadium

Last night was Social Media Night at Busch Stadium. I really wanted to go, partly because they were doing a Q&A with the players, and partly because I really wanted to tweet and blog about it. So, I did something that I’ve never done before…I went to the baseball game by myself!

The event was held in the Bowtie Bar, a place I had never been. Apparently, it’s the only place at Busch Stadium that serves beer through the entire game, and is open after the game, as well. It was a fun, busy place, and they had a “bottoms up” counter, where there “pour” the beer from the bottom up, thanks to a magnet system in the bottom of the cup. It was fascinating to watch, although I can’t quite figure out why it’s a better method than the more traditional pour!

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It was an amazing night. The Q&A session was great. There was a pretty good crowd, although there were fewer people than I was expecting.

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There were three rookies answering questions: Joe Kelly, Michael Wacha, and Kolten Wong. It was really interesting to hear them talk about their experiences. I learned that Joe Kelly grew up skateboarding in California, Michael Wacha is an Iowa native who was a Cubs fan growing up, and Kolten Wong, being from Hawaii, could only watch ball games on TBS as a child.

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The most exciting part, though, was that they chose the question I submitted via Facebook, and asked Michael Wacha how he handled moving between the minor and major leagues, and how the players on the team made him feel at home in St. Louis. I learned that being sent back down is a great motivator for him to try harder, and, unsurprisingly, the team is very welcoming, and tries to make the new guys feel welcome.

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The seats that came with the Social Media Night ticket were on the Left Field Porch, another place I had never been. The view was decent…not my favorite seats at Busch, but then again, there are no bad seats in Baseball Heaven!

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While I was there, I stopped at the Kohn’s food cart, to buy a “killer pastrami sandwich,” something I’ve been wanting to try for a few months. It was pretty delicious (although the ballpark price was painful to pay!).

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During the game, the Cardinals were also retweeting fans’ Tweets about the game and Social Media Night. I tweeted up a storm, of course, because that’s why I was there. I wasn’t really expecting the Cardinals to notice any of my Tweets, but they did!

Because I was retweeted by the Cardinals, I was entered into a drawing for the night. I wasn’t expecting to win anything…I already hadn’t won any of the give-aways at the Q&A session (one of which was throwing out the first pitch…I was relieved not to win that one!). You can imagine my surprise, then, when I saw a tweet from the Cards on my way home on the train, announcing me as a winner of an autographed photo! The evening had already been so great, but that totally put it over the top for me!

This is the second Social Media Night event I’ve been to now, and I hope it won’t be the last!

Tweet Me in St. Louis

I’d like to say that the reason I went to tonight’s Cardinals game was because I’m such a generous wife, and went with Ryan to support him at a kind of work event–Social Media Night. The truth is, however, that I really wanted to get a t-shirt that says “Tweet Me in St. Louis” on it–plus, who doesn’t love a baseball game?

Social Media night at Busch stadium consisted of three things: 1.) $20 tickets in the Lower Left Field Box; 2.) The previously mentioned free t-shirt; 3.) A pre-game “mixer” with cash bar.

The seats were good. We got really close to a foul ball at one point (and I freaked out!), and it was nice to sit on the lower level for a change. The angle of the seats was a little strange, but once I got used to it, it was good, and we could see all the action on the field just fine. I could have done without the idiots sitting behind us, however–they were clearly not interested in the baseball game at all.

I love the shirt. Yes, I know it’s totally dorky, but I think it’s cute. It was also nice to be able to throw on an extra layer, as by the end of the game, the temperature was in the low 50s (it is still May, right?). Plus, I love a good play on words, and the shirt accomplishes that nicely.

The mixer was lame. For something geared toward people using various forms of “social media,” it didn’t appear that anyone there was interested in being social at all. We pretty much just got our shirts, walked around the area in which the mixer was set up, and left to wander the ballpark.

Which brings me to one of my favorite parts of the evening: We finally got to see one of the All-Star arches from a few years back up close! I’ve wanted to get a look at one, and take a picture, ever since the summer the All-Star game was here…so, since 2009, I guess. We saw them all over town, then, but we either weren’t able to stop, or I didn’t have the camera on me, so I couldn’t get a photo, but while we wandering around a part of Busch Stadium that I don’t think we’ve ever been through before, we found two of them. Mission accomplished!

The other awesome part of the evening? The game’s end. Not that the game was over, but the way it ended–and RBI single to win it in the ninth. Perfect. Fireworks, players celebrating on the field, fans celebrating in the stands, the requisite drum line outside the stadium–just what you hope for at a baseball game.

And the scene outside the stadium was something else. Throngs of happy Cardinals fans, making their way back to cars, train stops, buses, bars…wherever. And the line of buses waiting for passengers! Amazing. Street musicians. Rickshaws. All of the typical post-game sights and sounds you’d expect after a baseball game, with a festive air following a really close couple of innings.

Tonight was the perfect baseball game. But, just like we had a rehearsal the night before our wedding day, this was just the trial-run for tomorrow’s baseball-related events. Details to follow…