Day 44: St. Louis

Today was our last day of the trip, as we got to see the St. Louis Cardinals host the Atlanta Braves at the new Busch Stadium. It was Ben's turn to pick, so he obviously went with the Cardinals and with the help of a Jim Edmonds 3-run homer, he takes the win. This means that after all the games we went to, Ben and I are officially tied at 15-15.

The game did not exactly go off without a hitch tonight, as a massive storm unexpectantly rolled through St. Louis just before the 7:10pm scheduled starting time. Extremely dark clouds came in quickly, and before too long we were unable to even see the other side of the stadium. Debris was being lifted straight up into the sky, rain was coming down very hard from all directions, and the tarp was even lifted off the infield despite being held down by the maintenence vehicles. After it was finished, the tarp had been torn almost the full length of the infield.



However, after 2 hours and 15 minutes, the game was finally underway. Our tickets were excellent, located in between home plate and 1st base, 17 rows back from the field. Thanks to Tim Sant for the tickets for tonight's game. Ben's parents joined us for the game, and as we have always said it is much more fun going to the game with other people we know, so thanks to them as well.



We left Oklahoma City at 7:30am, and despite a great deal of construction, we pulled into Ben's house in St. Louis at 3:10pm. Then after grabbing a quick bite to eat, and updating some statistical information, we made our way down to the ballpark, arriving at about 5:45.



Our journey is now complete, and while we certainly put a lot of time and energy into ourselves, we certainly could not have done any of this without the help of everyone who chipped in along the way. From providing housing, to tickets, to food, or just time on the phone to help pass the miles on the road, anyone who is reading this had a hand in helping us out during the last month and a half, and for that, WE THANK YOU! Most importanly though, we would like to thank our families, and especially our parents, who have had to hear more about this trip over the last 2 years than I'm sure they wanted to, and helped us out in so many more way than we could ever list in this blog. So, a VERY SPECIAL THANKS to you as well!

Over the course of the trip, we tried to keep track of as many stats and intersting information as possible, so here are the numbers we have compiled.

1-end of day odometer: 34,962
2-miles traveled today: 537
3-miles traveled total: 18,319
4-states traveled in today: Oklahoma, Missouri
bonus stat: teams are 30-0 when they score more runs than their opponent

misc. stats:
home team was 20-10
team that scored 1st was 19-11
team that scored last was 15-15
team that committed fewer errors was 12-7 (11 ties)
team that hit more home runs was 14-8 (8 ties)
team that had more hits was 25-2 (3 ties)
team that allowed fewer walks was 19-6 (5 ties)
team that struck out more batters was 14-14 (2 ties)
team that used fewer pitchers was 13-8 (9 ties)

cheapest beer (16 oz.): Phillies, Cubs = $5.75
most expensive beer (16 oz.): Yankees = $7.75
cheapest parking: Devil Rays = $0
most expensive parking: Yankees = $20
cheapest ticket: Rockies = $4
most expensive ticket: Yankees = $91

total gallons of gas purchased: 510.333
average price / gallon of gas: $2.93
miles / gallon of gas overall: 35.89

*we would rather not share the total amount that we spent on the trip, but we would like to brag a little bit about the following stat:
overall, we were 37% under our alloted budget, which did not include the money we spent in Las Vegas, and even with that we were still 21% under our alloted budget

Here are each of our respective lists of the baseball stadium. We made these without any knowledge of the other's list:
Scott - My list does not reflect how much fun I had at the stadium, but merely my impression of the stadium itself
1-Wrigley Field (Cubs)
2-Angel Stadium (Angels)
3-Fenway Park (Red Sox)
4-Ameriquest Field (Rangers)
5-PNC Park (Pirates)
6-Busch Stadium (Cardinals)
7-Safeco Field (Mariners)
8-AT&T Park (Giants)
9-Yankee Stadium (Yankees)
10-Citizen's Bank Park (Phillies)
11-Jacob's Field (Indians)
12-Comerica Park (Tigers)
13-Turner Field (Braves)
14-Miller Park (Brewers)
15-Camden Yards (Orioles)
16-Rogers CEntre (Blue Jays)
17-Dodgers Stadium (Dodgers)
18-Coors Field (Rockies)
19-Petco Park (Padres)
20-HHH Metrodome (Twins)
21-US Cellular Field (White Sox)
22-Chase Field (Diamondbacks)
23-Kauffman Stadium (Royals)
24-Dolphin Stadium (Marlins)
25-Shea Stadium (Mets)
26-RFK Stadium (Nationals)
27-Great American Ballpark (Reds)
28-Minute Maid Park (Astros)
29-McAfee Coliseum (Athletics)
30-Tropicana Field (Devil Rays)

Ben - Obviously, a lot of this is arbitrary but the important ones are the first six and the last seven. A great deal of this also depends on the experience I had at each park and could change if I went back there again.

1-Ameriquest Field in The Ballpark at Arlington
2-Busch Stadium (Bias opinion of course)
3-Wrigley Field
4-Yankee Stadium
5-Fenway Park
6-Oriole Park at Camden Yards
7-Angel Stadium
8-Coors Field
9-Miller Park
10-Safeco Field
11-Citizens Bank Park
12-The Metrodome
13-Chase Field
14-AT&T Park
15-Jacobs Field
16-PNC Park
17-U.S. Cellular Field
18-Comerica Park
19-PETCO Park
20-Turner Field
21-Kauffman Stadium
22-Dodger Stadium
23-Skydome
24-The Great American Ballpark
25-Minute Maid Park
26-McAfee Coliseum
27-Shea Stadium
28-RFK Stadium
29-Dolphin Stadium
30-Tropicana Field

***also note that we now have the MP3 file of our on-air radio broadcast in Baltimore. You can access it by clicking on the "Map and Itinerary" link, then clicking "Listen here to an MP3" on the right side of the screen. Hope you enjoy!