May 23 2020 07:36 AM
Busch Memorial Stadium (aka Busch II) was the home of the Cardinals from 1966 to 2005. Part of the family of "Cookie Cutter Parks" (the designation is confusing, because it's not so much that the parks resemble cookie cutters, but their shapes resemble forms made by cookie cutters), Busch came into existence a few years after Shea Stadium, with it's arched overhang matching the Gateway arch beyond left center field, and becoming the park's defining architectural feature.
Busch was a rare park in that it started it's life with a grass surface before transitioning to to a rug just in time for the 1970s. It then went back to natural grass in 1996 in order to live its final decade with a little class. Our previous visit to Fulton-County reminds me that it was an accepted fact that Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium was supposed to be the hottest ballpark of it's time, but I never saw players baking like they did in a mid-summer day game at Busch. Curiously enough, the two parks came into service in the same season.
The home of Steve Carlton and Bob Gibson, Lou Brock and Albert Pujols, few parks ever worked in conjunction with the tenant's organizational philosophy like Busch worked with the 1980s Cardinals, as the hard surface and deep power alleys complimented the Cardinals' team speed day in and day out. The eighties was cool like that — all the good teams seemed to have different philosophies. It was a decade of biodiversity.
The park has also had a diversity of tenants, having also hosted the NFL's St. Louis Cardinals before they fled to Phoenix, as well as the St. Louis Rams after they emigrated out of Los Angeles. Soccer's St. Louis Stars called the building home while playing in two different leagues — the NPSL as well as the NASL.
Yes, the Beatles played there, and McCartney returned in 1993. The venue has also hosted the Stones, New Kids on the Fucking Block, Billy Juckets and Elton John together, and U2. But for my money, it's peak concert day was Super Jam 1976, featuring Ted Nugent, Jefferson Starship, Jeff Beck, and Fleetwood Mac. Rumours was still in the recording stage, but the band debuted "You Make Loving Fun" in the middle of the set. Amazing to think what they would pull out for an encore before the introduction of "Don't Stop," but this day, it was Buckingham/Nicks leftover "Don't Let Me Down Again," and strangely, "Hypnotized," the jazzy make-out song left over from Bob Welch's tenure. It had been a minor hit in the band's Nixon era, but that's sort of an anti-climactic way to end a show if I'm springing for the tickets.
The Mets history in the park is ... extensive — featuring an all-time winning (154-151) record at the park Keith Hernandez once called home. But surely one or two games stand out. My first thought is Ron Darling's big start at the end of 1985, won by Darryl Strawberry in the 10th with a long drive ricocheting off the stadium clock, allowing the team to live for one more day. There was also an early-season win in 1986 where a ninth-inning Howard Johnson two-run homer off of Todd Worrell tied the game and the Mets won it in the 11th. The Mets had been a legendary juggernaut out of the gate that year, and while it's hard to think of such a thing happening on April 24, the team's lore says that this was the win that made it clear that the Cardinals would not be catching them that year, and if not the Cardinals, then nobody. The team would go on to finish 8-1 at Busch that year, and Johnson, who had lost his 2/3 of a starting job at third base to a red-hot Ray Knight, would take pride in this game being his big contribution to 1986.
The Mets took both of the games at Busch in the 2000 playoffs, the second being the start that effectively ended Rick Ankiel's pitching career. He would return to the mound for a handful of starts the next season but the yips would never disappear. The two teams would match up in the post-season again in 2006, but that would be in the Cardinals' new digs.
Those are big days, but surely there are more.
