Ballpark Pillage
It's a Thursday night during Cardinals' postseason, and the FOX Sports Midwest Live! bar at Ballpark Village is packed.
It's standing room only, and everyone's gaze is fixed on the bar's 40-foot LED screen, watching St. Louis take on the San Francisco Giants in Game 5 of the series. A sea of people, hundreds dressed in their best red and white, fill both floors of the cavernous 20,000-square-foot bar, with others coming and going from the attached restaurant Cardinals Nation. The PBR bar is going strong upstairs, and there's even an outdoor watch party convening on the lawn of Busch-II-Infield. With the game going on at AT&T Park in San Francisco, it's clear that tonight — for sheer spectacle, anyway — the next best place for a Cards fan to be is Ballpark Village.
It's the top of the fourth and the Giants lead 2-1. Cardinals first baseman Matt Adams steps up to the plate. Madison Bumgarner sends a 73 mph curveball toward the plate, and Adams smashes it out to right field. The crowd at FOX Sports watches on the enormous screen as the ball sails higher and higher until it's finally lost in the stands.
There's an explosion of cheers, and strobe-like lights flash around the massive screen. Hundreds of rally towels spin in the air. Fans of all ages, strangers before this moment, turn to one another and high-five.
"Let's go Cardinals!" an emcee booms into a microphone.
The crowd is not unlike the one that would surely be next door at Busch Stadium if it were a home game: young children and their parents, grandparents, college kids, young professionals, middle-aged suburbanites. Just a year ago, this same throng would have been dispersed among many bars in the vicinity of Busch Stadium, such as Mike Shannon's, Kilroy's, Lucas Park Grille, Joe Buck's — stalwarts, some of whom had been downtown since the 1980s. But ever since the massive entertainment complex that is Ballpark Village opened its doors in March, many St. Louisans switched up their game-day plans, eager to check out the shiny new bars, the "Sky High" nachos, slurp cocktails out of party bowls and ride PBR's mechanical bull.
"Before it opened, I used to go to Paddy O's, but the last time I went there it was dead," says Paul Conboy, a fan who lives just down the street. "Mike Shannon's, too."
"We come to Ballpark Village for the energy," his friend Jackie Harz chimes in.
The Cardinals continue to hold off the Giants for several innings — it looks good, like St. Louis may survive until Game 6. In the bottom of the ninth, the score is tied. The Cardinals need to make it to extra innings or the season is over. Michael Wacha is sent to the mound; it's his first appearance in the postseason. Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval gets a single off of him. Next, Wacha walks first baseman Brandon Belt, putting him on first and Sandoval on second.
First baseman Travis Ishikawa takes the plate around 10:15 p.m. The count is 2-0. Wacha throws a fastball, and Ishikawa swings. There's a crack, and the ball flies high into the air and beyond right field. And just like that, it's all over for the Cardinals and their 2014 season.
It also brings to a close the first season of business at Ballpark Village.