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
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
Whiteyball 