Old Busch
As soon as I started talking of my plans to paint all the ballparks in the country, my friends who are St. Louis Cardinals fans started telling me that I had better get on the stick and get my tickets for Busch Stadium. It was the final year for the stadium and it would be torn down at the end of the season to make way for the New Busch. I got on-line and quickly got my seats, April 23rd, second row from the top a great game against the Astros - pretty sure it was Carpenter vs. Clemens. Learning my lesson from Wrigley Field, I took our wool top coats and other winter apparel to the game. Good thing , let me tell you any game in April you better be ready for cold weather when sitting in the stands. My wife, Tina, and I had a great time , got my photos and little did I know at the time how many more opportunities I would have to get more.
Later that summer got a chance to attend another game and after go on a tour of the facility, got photos for future paintings of things like looking out of the dugout, camera sitting on home plate,camera on outfield grass looking in, camera on right field foul line. I actually stole some dirt from the dugout area, I have it in a souvenir cup in my studio- it has sunflower seed husks in it - who knows they could be from La Russa or Pujols. I though that maybe I could include small containers in some print orders. All in all, we attended the final year of Busch three times, not bad for scrabbling for those April tickets.