mjohnson71

That's funny. Though why rip on "Hopelessly Unstyled Cardinal Fan"? He may have no style, but the chick he's with looks pretty good. Then again she's probably impressed with his 2005 Chevy Silverado. :roll:

Never been there. Only doing the poll because of Chicago's connection to Milwaukee and St. Louis. Plus the fact that I've been both places a number of times to notice each cities zombie-like fixation on a certain brand of beer.

Sorry: my bad. If I remember right: the bars close at 2am in Ohio and 3am in Kentucky. For late night food I think Skylines are open until after the bars close and Gold Stars are not. I vaugely remember taking a 10 minute car ride from downtown to the Xavier University area and there being some cool bars in that vicinity. Lots of college aged gals. But then again school is out so that might not be a good option.

So that makes the smell one million times better than Busch II, huh? :D Give it time, eventually it'll take on that lovely "St. Louis" smell. Actually, now that I've lived in Chicago for about a year, I can say that Chicago often stinks. Don't get me wrong, I love this city, but it stinks in places. I think it has something to do with the storm drains. They all vent right out into the air. In St. Louis the storm drains are built into the curbs and have solid coverings that keep the smells contained. Here in Chicago they just vent right out into the air so anywhere within a 20 foot radius of one absolutely reeks on a hot day. As far as St. Louis goes, I have yet to visit a town on the Mississippi that didn't stink, but the STL stinks more than most. Chicago definitely has a smell, but it isn't nearly as offensive. Then again, I don't recall spending much time around many storm drains. You haven't been to New Orleans: pre or post Katrina. Now there's a stank above all others. The worst smell in Chicago has to be the newspaper machines on the west side of Michigan Ave at Illinois. It's seems like the homeless love to use that are a toilet: right in broad daylight. Either that or I-55 through Joliette. Though it seems like the refineries are doing a better job in recent years.

More prevalent in it's home city. Which brand has more of a lock on it's home market?

Do you have proof that St. Louis is more racist than Cincinnati? St. Louis didn't recently have riots that cost lives and millions of dollars of damage. IMHO both cities are very similar. Former heavy industrial cities that have faced significant lost of companies and residents to cities (like Chicago) that have been able to adapt to the late 20th/early 21st century. Both cities don't know if they're midwest, the south or both. Both have rotting dying dowtowns that are possibly coming back. Both have tried to use new sports venues as a way to bring the city back. Both have heavy German heritage. Both have experienced white flight to the suburbs. Both St. Louis city and Cincinnati city themselves have small areas when compared to the vast suburbs. When I visit either place I happily remember why I love and live in Chicago. (except for my temporary assignment to Springfield Il.) But don;t throw a blanket racism statement out just because you don't like their baseball team.

cinnamon Actually cinnamon and allspice. I have a recipe at home that's almost dead on to Skyline. Adding any type of sugar to a tomato base does not produce sweetness. Some chemical reaction causes the tomato taste to become stronger instead of making the mix sweat. My mom's t spaghetti sauce recipe calls for a 1/4 cup sugar in order to accentuate the tomato taste. Just look at the ingredient list of any jarred sauce: it will have sugar not far down. Wow: this is a tangent. Sorry.

I've been to three games at Busch and haven't heard it yet. You know who's bad with the "Day-O"? The Yankees; they beat it to death. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over...

True: my bad. But I haven't been there so I can't comment on the place. Though anyone I know who has been to PacBell raves about it. I still get sick with the fact that DC residents are paying for 100% of the new ballpark when the city finances are in such bad shape.

The riots certainly didn't help an already *bleh* downtown. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_Cincinnati_Riots

Thing is that you can get Miller Lite at many places in St. Louis. You can't say the same thing in Milwaukee. Blue Moon is quite tasty. Yes it is: with an orange slice is even better. BTW: Blue Moon is a Coors product. Same as Killians.

I hate games in Houston: that left field porch is a joke.

Ditto. I've never seen an umpire so blatantly stretch the strike zone. That being said I hope he has a quick and full recovery. I also think he gave Atlanta pitchers a strike zone the size of the Georgia Dome. The moment Bobby Cox starting barking from the dugout the strike zone grew. But like others have said: that's no reason to hate the guy in the real world. I hope he recovers. (But I don't know if I could say the same about Angel Hernandez.)

Which one of these Chicago wanabees with major beer fixations are worse? Which city is more "locked in" to their city's native brew? I say Milwaukee. It seems in St. Louis there are more options in bars when it comes to beer besides Anheuser-Busch. The Shlafly microbrew is pretty common and other options are prevalent. Spent a lot of time this last weekend in St. Louis drinking my new favorite beer: Blue Moon. In Milwaukee it seems harder to find anything beside Miller product. When there I spend most of my time drinking mixed drinks. Don't consider the ballparks since much of that is dictated by contracts. Only consider bars and restaurants.

I don't know how much help they would be. I could see the Royals player: "What does 6-4-3 stand for?" "Why did you write that K backwards?"

Possibly because it's still a work in process. Thought it was completed now? The seating areas are done and people are sitting there, but the left field corner still has a fair amount of work. Still pretty messy in that area. Gotcha, I guess I was thinking the left upper deck was the last part to be done. Straight out from left to left center field, is that what's left of the old stadium? There's nothing left: just dirt. rocks and pulverized concrete.

Cincy is kind of a blah place IMHO. Every time I've gone it's in and out. The two Reds games I've caught were because I had scheduled a layover (when flying Delta) through the Cinci airport. Great American Ballpark is anything but great: think Cominsky before the recent rehab. I think the area across the river in Covington KY is supposed to be pretty good now. One thing: get some Cinciannati style chili. I prefer Skyline over Gold Star. Very different style you can't find outside that area. Get a chili 5 way and put the hot sauce on.

Possibly because it's still a work in process. Thought it was completed now? The seating areas are done and people are sitting there, but the left field corner still has a fair amount of work. Still pretty messy in that area.

I've made the trip down from Springfield for both Cubs/Cards series. The article is pretty much right: nice place but not great. Some thoughts: - upper deck seats are not bad. Even sitting three rows from top the view is good. - open air design is nice. Old Busch was an oven. - weird setup on concourses: makes it tough to get to upper decks. Old Busch was easier to go up and down. - food and beer still suck. Run by SportService which is just as bad as Aramark that does Wrigley's oncessions. - Busch III's brand new smell is 1000 times better than the funk that covers Wrigley. I still gag sometimes when going to the guys rooms in Wrigley. - I agree that Busch is in the middle of a waste land: they'd better get started on the Ballpark Village ASAP. They also need to fix up the dumpy area to the south of the stadium. I think part of Busch's problems is the fact the Cardinal owners couldn't hoodwink the city of St. Louis and the state of Missouri into getting screwed. (good for them) From ballparks.com here is a list of recently constructed and future ballfields and their public money: Busch III -- Cost:$343 million. Public money:$45 million PNC -- Cost: $265 million. Public money: all $265 million since city owns stadium Miller -- Cost: $400 million. Public money:$310 million Great American -- $325 million. Public money: $280 million Petco -- $465 million. Public money: $304 million Washington DC -- $600 million. Public money: all $600 million Minnesota: $522 million. Public money: $392 million. Bill to go up another $100 million if the Twin can get money from the state for a retractable roof. Safeco: $517 million. Public money: $340 million (or more) I haven't been to PNC so I can't comment. Great American looks like the Reds pocketed most of that money and spent maybe $125 million building that place. Miller also sucks IMHO: did they spend $300 million on the roof and $100 million on the rest? While there's no proof. The Cards owners claim that more public money would have meant a better place.

The problem is Rooney gets too geeked up with long fly balls. As much as I hate Shannon; he's almost always right on calling home runs or a fly ball for an out as soon as they are hit. I know I'm committing blasphemy here: but Harry was a horrible judge of home runs.

The Cardinals and St. Louis city have hired the same developer who redid the inner harbor in Baltimore. As I understand it that very ugly looking lot will be the home to three condo buildings and one office building along with restaurants and shops. Supposedly the two condo building that look into the stadium are heavily sold before they even break ground. Also rumored is an ESPNZone overpriced tourist trap/restaurant. I've been to St. Louis for the last two Cubs/Cards series. Back in April it looked like they were using that lot as a staging area to complete Busch III. But now that Busch III is 95% complete it looks like all the construction equipment is being removed. I thought I've read St. Louis won't get an All-Star game until they break ground and have significant progress on the Ballpark Village. I believe the Bowling Hall of Fame is being torn down.

Is it just me or does it sound like very few Cub fans made the trip to St. Louis for this series? Normally these games sound 50/50 and you can't tell where they're played. But closing my eyes I can easily tell the game is in St. Louis.

Looks like they've got all the seating sections filled: I guess the place in finally done.

Yeah, that was the trainer. He's probably seen it a number of times already this season.

4th straight loss for Maddux. :roll: