Well, I promised an update on our World Champion St. Louis Cardinals Opening Day trip so here it is. Rodney (my brother) and I took off for STL around 9:00 AM on Sunday morning. As some of you know, we run the Albert Pujols Club and get several questions a day related to the Pujols5 restaurant. So, we decided it is probably a good time to make an appearance at Pujols5 so we can better answer some fan questions. We got to Westport Plaza around 11:30 or so and got seated quickly. Very few people there this time of day – and with the festivities going on downtown – few were at Pujols5. Our food and service were great. Rodney had the Pujols Burger which he said was excellent and I went with the grilled chicken. The restaurant is kind of like an upscale sports bar. Very classy – lots of tv’s. The manager gave us a complete tour of the place since we ran the Albert Pujols Club. We saw the private rooms that Albert brings groups to and even got a shortcut through the kitchen. LOL. All in all it was a great time at the Pujols Grill. I’d recommend it to anyone in the area or anyone that loves the Cardinals.

After that we drove towards downtown to start enjoying the pep rally. We parked at the Casino Queen in East St. Louis like we always do. Then rode the train to Busch Stadium. The streets were already hoppin with Cardinal fans at 1:00 PM! They had giveaways and promotional items out the wazoo. I think at the end of the day we got 7 t-shirts I think. Most of these had a small something to do with the Cardinals and then a big promotional ad on them – but oh well. Work out shirts!

So we got into the stadium about 4:15 and enjoyed some batting practice from the 1st row in the left field bleachers. I kid you not – EVERY SINGLE PERSON AROUND ME got a ball – except for me. For some of these guys (Rodney) this is a real talent. Homerun balls were flying in our area left and right and everyone was snatching one up. I had one go right out of my reach over my head. I had one caught on EACH side of me. Unbelievable. Oh well – Rodney got one at least.

Starting about 5:30 or so they began all of the pre-game hoopla. They marched the Clydesdale’s out onto the field and shortly after had the players escorted around the field in red and white corvettes. It was quite a party celebrating last years World Series championship. We snuck down very close to the field to get some nice shots of the ceremony. I will post some of those pictures a bit later. The Cardinals then did a tribute to the former World Series teams such as 1967 and 1982 and had guys like Bob Gibson, Stan Musial, Whitey Herzog out on the field. Quite a moment!

Ok, so now finally the game gets started around 7:10 PM. And this is when I should have just went home. The fun ENDED once the game started. Carpenter was sharp for an inning but it didn’t take long for the Mets to put up 5 runs. The Redbirds just had no offense and really there was maybe only 1 time the entire game I was actually excited and cheering. That’s ok – it’s only one game out of 162 and I’m sure it’s tough to play on your banner raising day

All in all we had a great time and if you ever get a chance – head down to STL on opening day. Especially the opening day AFTER they win the World Series. It’s going to be a fun year constantly referring to the Cardinals as the “Reigning World Series Champions”.

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