What was your first ballpark experience

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Melville
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Re: What was your first ballpark experience

Post by Melville »

OldRed wrote: 14 Dec 2025 16:22 pm Just for hot stove discussion:

Mine was going to a Browns game sitting in the left field bleachers with my dad who was a Browns fan. But my main experience was seeing Stan Musial hitting.

What was yours?
2 triples in my first game - one down the LF line and the other a clone down the RF line.
Oh wait....
Did you mean a major league ballpark?
Different answer.
Gibson vs. Jenkins at Wrigley.
Melville
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Re: What was your first ballpark experience

Post by Melville »

sikeston bulldog2 wrote: 15 Dec 2025 07:11 am This thread was cleverly disguised as an age poll. There are some old dudes here. Seeing another WS for you dudes will be a challenge.
That was funny.
60 year Cardinal fan
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Re: What was your first ballpark experience

Post by 60 year Cardinal fan »

I believe August 1958 at Busch 1 (Old Sportsman Park). Cards vs Dodgers. Musial lined out to left as a pinch hitter and Gene Greene hit, what I thought, a monstrous home run to left. Gil Hodges played 3rd base that day.
sikeston bulldog2
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Re: What was your first ballpark experience

Post by sikeston bulldog2 »

Melville wrote: 15 Dec 2025 22:50 pm
sikeston bulldog2 wrote: 15 Dec 2025 07:11 am This thread was cleverly disguised as an age poll. There are some old dudes here. Seeing another WS for you dudes will be a challenge.
That was funny.
It’s true.
Melville
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Re: What was your first ballpark experience

Post by Melville »

sikeston bulldog2 wrote: 16 Dec 2025 06:46 am
Melville wrote: 15 Dec 2025 22:50 pm
sikeston bulldog2 wrote: 15 Dec 2025 07:11 am This thread was cleverly disguised as an age poll. There are some old dudes here. Seeing another WS for you dudes will be a challenge.
That was funny.
It’s true.
The funniest lines always contain a kernel of truth.
Adam2
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Re: What was your first ballpark experience

Post by Adam2 »

cards game as a little kid. Gregg Jefferies hit 2 HR
OldRed
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Re: What was your first ballpark experience

Post by OldRed »

This topic had nothing to do with age. It was about your first great experience at a Major League park and the game you saw and remember. Most were either with their father or grandfather.
sikeston bulldog2
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Re: What was your first ballpark experience

Post by sikeston bulldog2 »

OldRed wrote: 16 Dec 2025 12:03 pm This topic had nothing to do with age. It was about your first great experience at a Major League park and the game you saw and remember. Most were either with their father or grandfather.
Calm down. It was an attempt at comedy. Parody. I know it’s cold where to are.
OregonRedbird
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Re: What was your first ballpark experience

Post by OregonRedbird »

Late 50's Sportsman's Park (Busch I) watching my hero Stan the Man.
Rojo Johnson
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Re: What was your first ballpark experience

Post by Rojo Johnson »

Sometime in the late 50s in Busch I. Sat next to this guy they called Cranny. He kept telling everyone who would listen about his young neighbor boy named Moe, saying what a great Cardinal GM the kid was going to grow up to be. Even at my young age I thought he was nuts.
Stlcardsblues
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Re: What was your first ballpark experience

Post by Stlcardsblues »

OldRed wrote: 14 Dec 2025 16:22 pm Just for hot stove discussion:

Mine was going to a Browns game sitting in the left field bleachers with my dad who was a Browns fan. But my main experience was seeing Stan Musial hitting.

What was yours?
It was either Royals vs Yankees or Angels vs Yankees. Saw them in back to back years. Think the Royals game was first.

Had a program from the game. Wish I kept it as it had a prospects section and John Elway was one of the featured prospects.
82birds
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Re: What was your first ballpark experience

Post by 82birds »

sikeston bulldog2 wrote: 15 Dec 2025 07:11 am This thread was cleverly disguised as an age poll. There are some old dudes here. Seeing another WS for you dudes will be a challenge.
you mean with the Cardinals in it?
yes, serious challenge
cbcloud
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Re: What was your first ballpark experience

Post by cbcloud »

...It was a DH against the NY Giants in June 1950. I was 10 years old, and my uncle and another neighbor took me and my brother and a cousin to the game. (had to look the date up...was June 11th). My hero was Stan Musial, but I liked Red Schoendienst also. I lived in Lake Ozark, MO, about 140 miles from STL and my uncle always went to DH's, as you got "more ballgame for your money." DH's were fairly common back then (according to B-R.com the Cards played 15 DH'ers in 1950). We left home about 8 a.m., and stopped in Warrenton to go to church, and then on to Sportsman's Park. We parked on a street, quite a walk from the ball park. My uncle paid a black guy 5 dollars to "watch the car" while we were at the game. (My uncle said the battery was stolen from his car the previous season while he was at the ballgame. He always bought "protection" after that. DH's cost more than single games also...).

I thought Sportsman's Park was HUGE...and every seat looked full to me.(I checked the attendance, and it was 33853. The ballpark capacity was 34,000). I had never seen that many people in one place in all my life! I hoped Stan would hit a HR in at least ONE of the games, and hopefully, BOTH games, but no luck... In the 1st game he didn't even get a chance to hit. (I looked these stats up, don't remember anything except no HR's by Stan.) In the 1st game he was intentionally walked 4 times, and HBP 2 times, so he did get on base 6 times that game. In the 2nd game he got a hit, a triple with 2 RBI's. Cards won both games, so we went home happy.
ClassicO
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Re: What was your first ballpark experience

Post by ClassicO »

Melville wrote: 15 Dec 2025 22:45 pm
OldRed wrote: 14 Dec 2025 16:22 pm Just for hot stove discussion:

Mine was going to a Browns game sitting in the left field bleachers with my dad who was a Browns fan. But my main experience was seeing Stan Musial hitting.

What was yours?
2 triples in my first game - one down the LF line and the other a clone down the RF line.
Oh wait....
Did you mean a major league ballpark?
Different answer.
Gibson vs. Jenkins at Wrigley.
How was that co-ed softball game when you were 45 years old? Because we all know from your lack of acumen about anything that requires someone to have "played the game," you never did.
And as usual, you lie about the first MLB game. Gibby only faced Jenkins once in Wrigley Field, and it was a school day game.
Melville
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Re: What was your first ballpark experience

Post by Melville »

ClassicO wrote: 17 Dec 2025 08:13 am
Melville wrote: 15 Dec 2025 22:45 pm
OldRed wrote: 14 Dec 2025 16:22 pm Just for hot stove discussion:

Mine was going to a Browns game sitting in the left field bleachers with my dad who was a Browns fan. But my main experience was seeing Stan Musial hitting.

What was yours?
2 triples in my first game - one down the LF line and the other a clone down the RF line.
Oh wait....
Did you mean a major league ballpark?
Different answer.
Gibson vs. Jenkins at Wrigley.
How was that co-ed softball game when you were 45 years old? Because we all know from your lack of acumen about anything that requires someone to have "played the game," you never did.
And as usual, you lie about the first MLB game. Gibby only faced Jenkins once in Wrigley Field, and it was a school day game.
Never about me.
And it grieves me when others needlessly and foolishly attempt to make it so.
But, such is the frailty of human character.
For my part, I am only and always about the game.
In this case, a Sunday afternoon day game at Wrigley Field in the summer of 1969 - the game that made me a fan of the Cardinals and the beginning of my lifelong affection for the game of baseball itself.
Bob39
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Re: What was your first ballpark experience

Post by Bob39 »

I don't know the first game I attended, but the first one I remember was Cardinals vs. Pirates in June of 1993. I think Bob Tewksbury started (hence the screen name). Gilkey hit a double and the Cardinals won the game. The last out was a pop out to short that seemed (to a seven year old) like it was hit five miles in the air only to have Ozzie Smith catch the harmless blow.
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