Just one game to report this week, game #14 in St. Louis. Our ballpark tour was interrupted by a quick flight home from Kansas City for our daughter’s high school graduation.

Game #14: Royals versus Cardinals at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, June 3

The Cardinals are one of the most successful franchises in MLB history with 11 World Series titles, second only to the Yankees. The Cards have had multiple great eras and some of the greatest players in baseball history, such as Rogers Hornsby, Stan Musial and Albert Pujols. Busch Stadium, the third ballpark iteration by that name, was completed in 2006 and holds its past in high esteem throughout the stadium. Concession areas include “Gashouse Grill” and “Dizzy’s Diner.” The Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum has seven galleries.

Sportsman’s Park became the first Busch Stadium in 1953 after Anheuser-Busch bought the Cardinals and renamed the stadium. The next Busch Stadium was completed in 1966. Even though Anheuser-Busch sold controlling interest in the Cardinals in 1996, the new stadium kept the Busch moniker.

They call it a “retro-style” downtown ballpark which really means “no more shared space with football teams – just baseball”! Most of the ballparks built in the last 25 years have similar traits. They are asymmetrical and built in the downtown area, sometimes with an adjacent dedicated shopping plaza. Parking can be a bit tricky at most of them, although plenty of entrepreneurs in the surrounding areas give parking options.

Busch Stadium has its dedicated shopping plaza outside with several of the businesses sporting their own unofficial stadium seating area towering over the left and centerfield walls. For instance, the Cardinals Nation store has 338 rooftop seats. To be clear, this is outside the stadium itself in the dedicated shopping plaza. Can’t get one of those limited rooftop seats near Wrigley Field in Chicago? Come here where there are hundreds of them!

Game atmosphere: Positive

When Bobby Witt Jr. hit a two-run homer for the Royals in the top of the first, I was surprised at how loud the cheering was. Then I noticed all the royal blue jerseys around the very red stadium. There were about 5,000 Royals fans at the game which made up about half the fans at that time. By the bottom of the third, when the Cardinals scored five times for a short-lived 7-2 lead, the number of St. Louis fans had grown to outnumber the Kansas City fans by about a 4-to-1 margin, and they made their presence known with long and loud ovations during the rally.

The reason many Royals fans made the four-hour drive from Kansas City was to watch the debut of highly touted Jac Caglianone. The left-handed slugger was drafted less than a year ago by the Royals but has been tearing up Double-A and Triple-A. He got five at-bats in this game. In his first at-bat he hit a shot into the gap where Cardinals centerfielder Victor Scott II ran it down, needing to take a short leap at the fence to catch it. In his second at-bat, Caglianone hit a sharp , 112.1 mph grounder to the left side that was back-handed on the run by third baseman Nolan Arenado who threw a dart to first. At triple-A Caglianone would be two-for-two at this point with a double. Tonight he was oh-for-two. He wound up oh-for-five. Welcome to the Big Leagues, kid.

By the ninth inning the crowd ratio is back to 50-50. Cardinal fans left after the eighth with the team trailing 10-7. Royals fans all stuck around because they are spending the night in town anyway after having already driven four hours to get here.

Like Kansas City, the Cardinals take more of a no-frills approach than many teams – relying mostly on the roving cameras in-between innings for entertainment. What, no mascot race? … There is a Family Pavilion in the right center concourse with pregame piped-in music that helps create a festival atmosphere. Activities include a build-a-bear workshop, a batting cage and a baseball virtual reality game. … This is the second game on the trip that lasts more than three hours. … A 200-piece youth orchestra with two conductors performed the national anthem. Keeping with the youth theme, “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” was sung by the Gardner Elementary Choir, the first time on the trip that the seventh-inning tradition was a performance.

Ballpark cuisine: Neutral

Nacho cheese ruined what promised to be a good ballpark dish. “Broadway BBQ Nachos” consists of house-smoked pulled pork tossed in barbecue sauce on top of corn tortilla chips with banana peppers and barbecue spice added. Sounds good, except for the addition of nacho cheese. I don’t think this is proven scientifically, but I believe there is only one molecule of difference between nacho cheese and plastic. I understand why they use it – it never goes bad!

The bacon-wrapped hot dog has been getting good reviews. After his purchase, one fan said he had to see what all the hype was about. It can be purchased already doused in sauteed onions, peppers, sauerkraut and mustard, or you can build your own. Cardinal fan Mike Fernandez explained why he was a repeat customer for this concoction. “The crispy bacon tastes really good with the hot dog,” he said. Does crispy bacon taste bad with anything? Maybe they should cut to the chase and offer bacon wrapped in bacon.

The Busch connection is very much alive in concessions. They feature 30 different beers available in cans, bottles and by draft. Beer is suggested as a pairing with almost every menu item. Hot dogs and beer. Sausages and beer. Barbecue and beer. Even pretzels and beer. You can only get away from the beer-pairing suggestion by ordering something frozen such as Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, Dip N Dots or Freddy’s Frozen Custard. One vendor’s sales pitch: “Ice cold beer. Ice cold. Not too cold. Turn regrets into forgets.” Same vendor, after the Royals scored six runs in the top of the fifth: “Drink all my beers and forget that last inning ever happened.” It reminded me of the Mad Magazine parody from the 1960s titled “Sadder, but wiser.”

Club hospitality: Positive

Two tickets were provided in the 200 Club Level with access to the Redbird Club. While they were 200-level tickets, they were higher than the 300-level tickets we had in Kansas City. The club doesn’t own any of the parking around the stadium, so it couldn’t provide parking. The one thing that pushed club hospitality into a positive ranking is that the communications contact responded to my query for LoCo in 21 minutes. While many clubs respond within a day, others take a week or longer. I think 21 minutes is going to stand as the record. There will be bonus points awarded when we tally the final points at the end of the trip!

Access to the Redbird Club was a bit of a yawner. “Elevated” food was promised but the only difference between the rest of the park was one vendor who offered shrimp sandwiches. I can understand how this air-conditioned area would be a big bonus when it’s a blistering hot summer day. There are many elevated countertops overlooking the stadium where you can finish your bacon-wrapped hot dog while watching the game.

Game details: Royals win 10-7. Attendance 26,656. Time of game: 3:04.

Helpful tips: Prepare yourself for slow, snarling traffic before and after the game. Breathe deep – you can do it! Since it’s downtown, you get downtown traffic for weekday games. Buy parking in advance to save five bucks. Otherwise, it’s $30 to $40. There are parking lots at $10 and $15 with a bit of a walk as part of the deal. The Cardinals allow purses, bags (even non-see through) and small, soft-sided coolers. Factory sealed non-alcoholic drinks are okay. This is the first park so far that has allowed sealed drinks other than water.

You don’t see that every day: Centerfielder Kyle Isbel leapt over the fence and got a glove on Nolan Gorman’s deep fly in the bottom of the second, but when his glove came down, it jarred the ball loose so that it fell for a 2-run home run to tie the game. What makes this non-catch home run worthy of “you don’t see that every day” is it was the inning picked out for the Big Mac Land promotion. Every game an inning is picked and one fan is chosen from the Big Mac Land section in left field to participate in the promotion. If the Cardinals hit a home run that inning, the fan wins a year’s supply of Big Macs. This begs the question – how many Big Macs is a one-year supply? Personally, even at no cost I don’t think I would want to eat more than two a week. Others who have not watched the movie “Super Size Me” might want one a day. 104? 365? What would your one-year supply look like? The actual prize given out in St. Louis on Tuesday? I asked, but apparently it’s a closely guarded secret. McDonald’s used to give out a Big Mac to every fan in Big Mac Land if a home run was hit into that section. Two thousand Big Macs, stat!

Past Noteworthy Items

Since there was only one game to review this week, we are supplementing the story with a few noteworthy things that didn’t make the previous stories. (They were long enough already, right?)

A Taste of Home in SoCal

Early in the trip we were in Southern California and some friends took us to a park in Brea in Orange County. On the other side of the park, we took a short hike that took us to a 3-acre redwood grove. Are you kidding me? More than 200 redwood trees, some reaching 100-feet tall, gave us a miniature taste of Humboldt County. Fifty years ago a local bank gave away redwood seedlings as a promotion. The leftover seeds were planted in 1975. A drip watering system was installed, and the result is a smashing success. The redwoods survived, grew and, while quite a bit smaller than their northern cousins, emanate the peace and majesty that we are used to on the North Coast. It is the only known surviving redwood grove in SoCal.

Watch out in Anaheim!

I had asked an usher before the game if there was a particular season ticket holder she would recommend I talk to regarding being an Angels fan. She recommended Peggy, and the usher said she would come get me when Peggy had arrived and was ready to talk to me. Before the game started, I found another season ticket holder who gave me some good insight. I had almost forgotten about Peggy when the usher came to get me in the top of the eighth inning. I walked up about a dozen steps to get to Peggy’s seat. While speaking with her a foul ball was hit into our section. I glanced behind me as it fell among the crowd. After my talk with Peggy was over, I returned to my seat only to find a woman two seats from mine being attended to by medical personnel. She was hit in the head by that foul ball – the same foul ball that I would have leaned over to catch for a souvenir if I had still been in my seat. A disappointing result for both of us – but more for her since the paramedic on site determined she had a concussion and escorted her out of the section.

Problem in Zion?

It’s important to me, and likely more interesting to you as a reader, to get insight from people who are at the baseball games or national parks. At Zion National Park I approached a young couple who were with a group of people near the bus shuttle to Zion Canyon Scenic Drive. I asked the young man, “Did you already take the shuttle?” He answered: “Ooh Menna Choch Nya Mxyptlyk.” (At least that’s how I remember it.) Then we both looked at each other in a linguistic stalemate. An awkward silence followed that seemed to last minutes. We were both entirely satisfied with our part of the conversation to date. Finally, I broke the silence with “English?” Both the man and woman pointed to a man near the front of the group’s van. When the man saw the couple pointing to him, he walked aggressively toward me, saying “What is problem?” Fortunately for me, the only thing Russell Petushanskyl liked more than protecting his flock was to talk about Zion National Park. (You can see Russell’s comments in Week 2 of “Sprinting Across America.”)

All Access in Arlington

The Texas Rangers issued all-access credentials to us. First, we scouted out the press box, then went on the field for batting practice. Next, we took the media elevator to the lower concourse level so we could start to look at different food offerings for review. Except the elevator let us out in a large industrial kitchen area. Fortunately, a worker took pity on us and directed us out of the kitchen into the concourse area. Definitely all-access.

Autism Seating in Atlanta

Braves player Matt Olson and his wife Nicole worked with the Atlanta Braves Foundation to set up a special seating area for families who have individuals living with autism. There are six seats near section 213 that are semi-secluded with the sounds of the game reduced. We stood in the area and the PA system was at about 50 percent volume in this area. It is part of a mission, as listed in a Braves press release, “to provide opportunities for more typical life experiences for individuals living with autism and those who care for them. Each Braves home game, a family impacted by autism is invited to enjoy a complimentary, sensory-friendly game experience.” It is branded the Matt Pack.

Tom Trepiak is the former sports information director at Humboldt State and a member of the Cal Poly Humboldt Athletics Hall of Fame.