St. Louis area spring baseball options in ’09

With the economy in the shape it is, finding baseball alternatives in 2009 might help out your budget this year. I know baseball is a very important part of my entertainment budget. I’m a Cardinal season ticket holder and try to get to as many games as possible. However, for me to go to a game, it’s usually going to set me back $35, minimum. This is just my ticket, transportation/parking, 1 beer, and something to eat. I’m not giving up my season tickets any time soon and will still get to about 15 games this year. That’s going to be a drop from the 20 – 30 I’ve attended at Busch Stadium the past 2 or 3 years. I’m going to get my baseball fix in 2009, and here are some of the other games I will be trying to attend in the St. Louis area.

With the Cardinals not getting to St. Louis until April 6th, there is a lot of other baseball taking place in the region. In less than 2 hours, you can get to Taylor Stadium in Columbia, MO to watch a top 25 college baseball team in the Mizzou Tigers. Mizzou is led by top college prospect Kyle Gibson. Gibson is a top 10 college prospect according to most sources. There are other options for baseball in the St. Louis area that don’t include a trip to Columbia, MO. You can catch Mizzou in the St. Louis area a couple of times this spring.

Kyle Gibson - Mizzou Pitcher

You can catch Mizzou at TR Hughes Ballpark in O’Fallon, MO. The Missouri Tigers face Eastern Illinois in a game on April 28th. The Tigers also visit the St. Louis area earlier on April 1st to take on St. Louis University at Busch Stadium. Not exactly sure how the tickets work for this game, but it is another opportunity to catch one of the top collegiate teams in the country.

One of the best places to catch baseball this spring is at GCS Ballpark, the home of the Gateway Grizzlies, in Sauget, IL. The Grizzlies have posted their extra events schedule on their website. Games start on February 28th with a college baseball tournament hosted by Webster University. Webster University plays many of their home games at GCS Ballpark, but the stadium also will host collegiate games between Saint Louis University and SIU-Edwardsville, University of Indianapolis and SIU-Edwardsville, and the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament. Not only does GCS host all these college games, they have 22 high school games, including many border war contests with Illinois high school teams matching up against Missouri high school teams. The great thing about these games is that the max cost of attending is only $5 and many are free.

The schedules for local colleges are loaded this spring, so catching a good game in your area won’t be to difficult.

Missouri Tigers
Saint Louis University
Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville
Southeast Missouri State University

SEMO actually just defeated the 16th ranked Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday. You can catch some good baseball all over the area this spring.

One more game you may may want to catch would be a Westminster Christian Academy game started by high school pitching phenon Jacob Turner. Turner is projecting to be a top ten pick in this years amateur baseball draft. I’ll try and keep this site updated with dates he will be pitching this spring.

Jacob Turner - Westminster Academy

I was going to include the Gateway Grizzlies and River City Rascals as other St. Louis area baseball options, but I’ll save these for another post. The Grizzlies and Rascals don’t kick off their Frontier League season’s until late May. I’ll have a full Frontier League preview in a few weeks.

Until then, go out an enjoy some good baseball this spring, while we wait for the Cardinals to leave Jupiter and head back to St. Louis.

Matt Wilson

Kyle Gibson Photo – Baseball America Top Prospecs
Jacob Turner Photo – AFLAC All America Team

Miller Park, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Miller Park, Home of the Milwaukee Brewers

 

Photos taken by Josh Lee.

Smokies Park, Sevierville, TN

Smokies Park, Sevierville, TN, Home of the Tennessee Smokies of the Southern League.  Double-A Affiliate of the Chicago Cubs and formerly the St. Louis Cardinals.

All Pics taken by Dustin Mattison

Hammons Field, Springfield, MO

Hammons Field in Springfield, MO.  Home of the Springfield Cardinals, Double A Affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals and member of the Texas League.

   

    

    

   

 

  Indoor training facility.

  Specialty of the house, the BEER float.

Pics taken beginning of August, 2007.

Autozone Park, Memphis, TN

Autozone Park, Memphis, TN.  Home of the Memphis Redbirds, Triple A affililiate of the St. Louis Cardinals and member of the Pacific Coast League.

   

   

   Owner’s Suite

    Fedex Suite

   

    The dugouts.

  The Pressbox with the Peabody in the background.

 The Redbirds’ bullpen.

  Long live Stubby Clapp.

   

   

   

   

  Pics taken on Sept. 1, 2007.

Price Cutter Park, Ozark, MO

Price Cutter Park, Ozark, Mo.  Former home of the now defunct Ozark Ducks of the Frontier League.

   

   

   

Pics taken 9/1/07.

AT & T Field, Chattanooga, TN

AT&T Field, Chattanooga, TN.  Home of the Chattanooga Lookouts, Double A Affiliate of the Cincinatti Reds and member of the Southern League.

     

   

    RF line with the picnic pavilion and stadium club.

  Notice how most of the seats are on the first base side.

  Stadium club with the Tennesse Aquarium in the background.

    An Engel Stadium holdover, the barber chair.

     

    Luxury Box and Concourse.

  The bullpens are not visible, only a cutout so the players can watch.

  Inside the Stadium Club.

    Picnic Pavilion with adjoining seats.

    The beer garden.

   

What would a visit to Chattanooga be without the Chattanooga Choo Choo?  This comes out when a Lookout player hits a HR.

Pictures taken 8/4/07

Historic Engel Stadium, Chattanooga, TN

   

   

   

    The lone luxury box.

 

 The stadium has definitely seen better days, but when stepping inside, you feel like you have been transported back to a time long ago.   The stadium has a seating capacity of 12,000, but on this day there might have been 12 people in the stands. 

 Historic Engel Stadium is the former home of the Chattanooga Lookouts.  The stadium opened in 1930 and saw its last Lookout game played in 1999.  The dimensions are enormous as the stadium is 325 down the left line, 318 feet down the right field line, and an incredible 471 in dead center, which was the longest in professional baseball history.   A new fence was added to shorten the distance in centerfield. 

Hall of Famers that played at Engel Stadium:  Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson,  Willie Mays, Satchel Paige, and Harmon Killibrew who is the only player who hit it over the 471 foot centerfield fence.

Today the stadium hosts the Chattanooga men’s league, local high school, and the TSSAA games.

Pictures taken August 4, 2007.