Goodbye, old friend...

I'm gonna miss you, old buddy. We've had a lot of good times together. I've frozen my ass off with you, sweat all of the liquid out of my body, and everything in between. I've visited you with friends, family, and co-workers. I've been in the second row from the field, and all the way up top. I've been both sober and totally drunk (and many, many dollars poorer).

I love going to baseball games, and I'm pretty sure that every one I see from here on out will feel alien. I'll always think of old Busch when I think of baseball games. When we were girls, my dad would take my sister and I to the games (and mom, too, sometimes). We'd complain the entire time about being hot, but secretly loved going and eating the stadium dogs (somehow they always taste better over those nasty grills), and people watching. Next to shows, the stadium is prime people watching terrain. Just last week in fact, I saw the best rat tail ever. You gotta have fun when there's a rat tail around.

And how about all of those football games? In the closing ceremonies everyone seemed to have forgotten about those. Dad would take us to these, too. Lots of them. We'd bundle up in an ugly old flannel blanket, and drink hot cocoa out of our thermos. Thinking about my childhood will always include those games. I've been to the dome, and it isn't nearly as cool as old Busch.

I thought about how kids today will have no memory of the old Busch, and will never know what it was like to watch a pro football game outdoors (unless they leave the city). That dome is such crap. The sound is stifling, the air is stale. There's nothing like watching football in the cold. Now we have to go to Mizzou to do that.

Thankfully the new stadium will still be Busch Stadium, not Cinergy Field or Minute Maid Park. At least there's some history behind our corporate whore name.

I know you're old and rickety, and that it's your time to go, but that doesn't mean I won't miss the hell outta you. Everyone says that the minute I step into the new stadium I'll forget all about you. I might be impressed, but never will I forget.

GO CARDS!