--Don Mattingly, Yankees first baseman on meeting Dwight Gooden
Stadiums
Busch Stadium
By Wikipedia
Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri was the home of the St.
Louis baseball Cardinals from May 12, 1966 to October 19, 2005. It opened
four days after the last game was played in their old home, Sportsman's
Park (which itself had also been known since 1953 as Busch Stadium).
The Cardinals closed out their final season there by losing the 2005
National League Championship Series to the Houston Astros.
Sverdrup
& Parcel and Associates;
Edward Durell Stone;
Schwarz & Van Hoefen
Tenants
St.
Louis Cardinals (MLB, 1966-2005)
St. Louis Cardinals (NFL, 1966-1987)
St. Louis Rams (NFL, 1995)
Seating
capacity
49,676
(Baseball)
Dimensions
Left
Field - 330 ft
Left-Center - 372 ft
Center Field - 402 ft
Right-Center - 372 ft
Right Field - 330 ft
Backstop - 64 ft
It was one of the first multipurpose facilities built in the United
States in the 1960s and early 1970s, along with those in Atlanta (Atlanta-Fulton
County Stadium), Washington, DC (RFK),
Pittsburgh (Three Rivers),
Philadelphia (Veterans), and
Cincinnati (Riverfront). Having
hosted its last game, it leaves Washington's RFK Stadium and Toronto's Sky
Dome as baseball's last "cookie-cutter"
multipurpose facilities.
Demolition of the stadium began at 3:07 Central Standard Time on
November 7, 2005, as the current location for Busch Stadium will become
part of the outfield and ballpark village area for the new Busch Stadium.
Unlike recent stadium demolitions, which have been triggered implosions,
the ballpark is being torn down with a wrecking ball piece-by-piece over a
period of a few months, with parts of the north portion of the stadium
remaining until the 2006 All-Star Break.
Fly
to Busch Stadium!
If you have Google
Earth installed, click here
to be "flown" to the site of Busch Stadium. (If you do not
have it installed, get
it from Google. It allows you to view virtually anywhere on
Earth in 3D using satellite imagery.)
Football
Busch Stadium was also the home of the St. Louis football Cardinals
beginning with that team's 1966 season. They remained there through the
1987 season, and then relocated to Tempe, Arizona after owner Bill Bidwell
failed to convince the city to pay for a new football-only stadium.
Busch Stadium was also briefly the home of St. Louis Rams, who
relocated from Los Angeles to move into the new and nearby Trans World
Dome (currently Edward Jones Dome after TWA filed for bankruptcy). Since
construction on their new home was delayed, the Rams played their first
two 1995 games at Busch Stadium.
Background
When it opened it was known as Civic Center Busch Memorial Stadium.
The stadium's name comes from the Busch family of Anheuser-Busch, who
owned the baseball team until March 1996 and championed the stadium's
construction.
The stadium was designed by architect Edward Durrell Stone. Its arched
design echoes the nearby Gateway Arch, which was completed the year before
Busch Stadium opened. The grounds are home to bronze statues of Stan
Musial, Enos Slaughter, Red Schoendienst, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson and most
recently, Jack Buck. The stadium's playing surface, originally natural
grass, was re-covered in Astroturf
in 1970; grass returned in 1996.
Busch Stadium!
Busch Stadium was
easily the most attractive of the
Astroturfed "cookie-cutter"
stadiums.
Primary
research by Jim Herdman & David Vincent
Courtesy of Retrosheet.
Busch Stadium hosted World Series games in six different seasons: 1967,
1968, 1982, 1985, 1987, and 2004. The stadium was also the site of Mark
McGwire's historic 62nd home run of the 1998 season that broke Roger Maris'
single-season record, and also of McGwire's 70th of that season, for a
record which lasted until Barry Bonds surpassed it in 2001.
The dimensions in center and the power alleys have been altered from
time to time over the years. Initially the park was very conducive to the
Bob Gibson and Lou Brock style of play, lots of room for pitchers to make
mistakes, and for extra-base hits and not so many home runs. Later changes
attempted to make the outfield better balanced between pitching and power
hitting.
By the early 1990s, the stadium appeared to be falling into disrepair.
However, remodeling in 1995 improved the park's sense of intimacy and
converted the multi-purpose facility into a baseball-only park.
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Stadiums
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