Edward Jones Dome

So here I am at the Edward Jones Dome. For the past few years, I've kind of thrown a dart at the NFL map, and thought "I want to see a game...there". St. Louis was that city this year. When I realized that their baseball team was home this weekend too, well, this game became the target.

To my surprise, there are many similarly minded fans out there: my flight from New York yesterday had many sports fans who had also noted that they could get to a baseball and football game in a different city (and New York teams are not playing St. Louis ones this weekend). Other fans noted that the two Arizona teams were home too; I believe there were other cities with dual baseball/football games this weekend. That this team is on the rise, though, is a nice perk. That they're playing the Ravens means I have the villain to root against, so it's all good. If the Rams can't clobber the Ravens, I will certainly settle for a game that had the exciting finish the Cards game had yesterday.

It's September football, so I'm not bundled up. It's also a dome, so weather isn't a factor at all, still, it was a nice little walk from the hotel over here. This is the first of a few football stadiums I'll be hitting this year, and no doubt I'll be bundled up down the line. For this one, I'm sporting my spanking new team-neutral NFL shirt. Last year, I felt a bit foolish, absentmindedly wearing a shirt that looked to be the colors of the visiting 49ers rather than the colors of the home Panthers. Now I don't have to think twice about that.

Attending this game is my second NFC West home game. How is this for balance? I realize that I've seen a game in half of the stadiums of all eight divisions, but haven't been to all four in any division--yet.

I do prefer outdoor stadiums, but domes are fine, if not really noisy. This place is nice enough. Nothing really jumps out either way. I have a great seat that seems reasonably priced, and I know that my Giants won in Philly, so the next few hours are football gravy.

Anyway, back to the game. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

25 AAA ballparks visited, 5 to go!

Image
A snapshot of the current AAA venues where I've seen a game. The funny thing about AAA ballparks is I can't think of a single one I didn't really like. Well, at least not after a renovation gave me a second chance to form a first impression. Nor until attendance at unseasonably cold or damp April and May games in some of the northeast stadiums was remedied with second and third games at them in the summer months, rectifying any lukewarm perceptions I may have previously had. Yes, it may have taken a couple of ballgames at them, but each AAA ballpark left me with a very favorable impression. Unlike MLB ballparks, where my journey to see them all started 20 years earlier, my AAA chase is a more recent undertaking. With 5/6 of the AAA ballparks now under my belt, I thought I'd take a look back at the journey so far. Not long after moving up to the Hudson Valley in the mid 2000s, my MiLB ballpark chasing got underway, much like a ballplayer's journey might progress, fro...
Read more

Tipping and ripping the cap

A belated tip of the cap to this year’s Baseball Hall of Fame inductees. I know the NFL and NBA Halls had their 2010 inductions more recently, and an eventual nodding of the helmets to the former may follow. It’s just that a recent conversation prompted this post. In this era of free agency, the need for players to don one team’s cap over another when their plaque is created seems to be something of a relic, especially when a player has left an indelible mark on multiple teams. Even if the bulk of his career or prime numbers rest mainly with one team, should that team be solely associated with that player when he gave another some great years? Conversely, if, say, a contract or personal quarrel leaves bad blood between a player and the team where his HOF numbers were earned, should that player have the right to select some team where he had less impact? Admittedly, most inductees do lean to one team or another in terms of career dominance, and Wikipedia, under the "Players with mu...
Read more

That top-32 National Park list I once created

Image
I'm enjoying watching a few friends near the completion of their National Park quests. Earlier this year, while traveling through the three Florida National Parks, it was likewise enjoyable but also encouraging talking to fellow travelers pursuing their own such journeys: a father and son were hitting their 40th, and one woman was at her penultimate with plans to finish in September. That's all great stuff to me.  These quests also lead to questions from interested observers. "What's the first  #NationalPark  you'll be visiting when this is over?", "What's your favorite National Park?", "What are your top 3/5/10?" These are some of the questions I see posted and get asked. With 44/62 seen, I don't know if it's fair to assemble such a list, but here's how I ranked the top 32 I've visited. Yeah, if I redid it, many spots could flip, but the top 4 or so are pretty well locked in, until one of the 18 I'm missing changes ...
Read more