welcome to baseball purgatory

Yesterday I celebrated Easter by checking out the St. Louis Cardinals' new home, Busch Stadium 2. The stadium has been widely applauded, so I guess it should come as no surprise that I didn't really like it.

Don't get me wrong, it's a very nice facility. The access to amenities and bathrooms are all top notch. The seats are fairly comfortable. There are almost too many places to stand and watch the game. The building is very pretty and they've done a nice job of incorporating pieces of the old Busch stadium. And it's done wonders for the neighborhood already; there are condos for sale in every old dumpy (but now ready for redevelopment!) warehouse within the 3 block area.

The Cardinals organization has every reason to be proud. They got the stadium up in no time, may have helped save downtown St. Louis (it was already starting to come around from it's previous dangerous ghost town reputation), and gave fans a place they can be proud to call home.

But...

Most Cardinal fans are aware that the building isn't quite done yet. If you saw the highlights from yesterday's game, you probably noticed that Albert Pujhols' three home runs landed in empty seats; those seats aren't open yet.

That's not really a big deal. What is a big deal is that if you're sitting in the 430 section seats, you can't see a scoreboard. Well, you can see part of the big scoreboard; you can see the lineups and everyone's batting averages, as well as who's up. But that's it.

It appears that there will eventually be a scoreboard hanging on the third base side fourth balcony; there's an open section there that is obviously missing something. So that's a forgivable error. In St. Louis someone is always keeping a scorecard, so all you have to do is peek at the guy next to you.

While the scoreboard issue is forgivable, what isn't is the fact that you can't see the whole field from 430. You can see most of the field, but balls hit down the right field line get lost under the 300 sections. And I'm willing to be they couldn't see them either.

To be honest, I don't recall ever sitting so high in the old Busch, but I did walk around a bit up there, and I'm pretty sure you could always see the field. But even if you couldn't see the whole field in Busch I, I would have thought that clear sight lines would a an obvious priority in a new baseball stadium. Maybe not if you're not paying more than $20 for your ticket.

The fan bricks outside the stadium are a nice touch, but something about them seems shoddy... they're hard to read and look rushed, especially the bricks in the straight sections of the sidewalk. Luckily my brick is in a curved section (although my brick isn't placed yet; they haven't finished that corner of the stadium). I've seen the brick idea executed better in Pittsburgh at PNC, and I think it basically comes down to how well placement and mortar.

Of course the Arch in the view of center field is great, it's a strong reinforcement of the idea that you're in St. Louis. But I guess my biggest complaint is that the park doesn't feel like home, though I'm sure that'll come.

And then they'll tear it down and build a new one.