An Evening with Red and Lou

Last month, an email arrived for me touting “An Evening with Red and Lou”. This was of course (as any Cardinal fan knows) an evening with Lou Brock and Red Schoendienst. Lou Brock was my first favorite St Louis Cardinal player. The first year I started being really interested in the Cardinals was in 1974 when Lou Brock broke Maury Wills stolen base record. Red Schoendienst was the Cardinal manager that year. I wanted to go but I’d knew I’d spent a lot of money on ball games over the past few months. Donna came to me and having gotten the same email, urged me to go. She agreed to go with me so I went ahead and got a couple of tickets.

We ended up going the day before and I got to even see the Cardinals Reds game for cheap that night. Our hotel was only about two blocks from Busch Stadium (where the event would be held). On Monday night, we walked on over and waited in line for the gate to open. Donna suddenly noticed that Lou Brock was being driven in on a golf cart prompting chants of “Lou” from the crowd. The doors opened at 6 and we were promptly led down the stairs through the Cardinal Club and onto the warning track on the field!

We were allowed to walk from one dugout to the other on the warning track and sit in both. The field was roped off so my dream of throwing a pitch from the mound will have to wait. The 1967 World Series trophy was available for a photo op so we got our pictures made with it and were each given a complimentary copy. Several people carried around trays of food. One was small pieces of Beef Wellington which were excellent. The other was deep fried artichoke. I’d never tried an artichoke in my life but we tried them. They were not bad, they tasted somewhat like an eggroll. After about an hour, we were ushered upstairs to the Redbird club for dinner.

We had an interesting group at our table. One couple had been married for 53 years and their family had bought them tickets. There was one gentleman from the area who was a staunch Blues fan and kept up with that all night. A couple of young men were from Carbondale. One of them had a friend who worked on John Calapari’s staff at Kentucky. He soon moved to a seat next to me when he found out I was a UK fan/alum to show me photos he had of the locker room and discuss UK basketball. The food was excellent – Mushroom stuffed chicken, mashed red potatoes and the best grilled asparagus I’d ever eaten. For dessert, we had an excellent chocolate custard.

Finally, it was time for the main event. Dan McLaughlin (FOX Midwest broadcaster) introduced Lou and Red to huge cheers from the crowd. Dan talked to them for about an hour and a half asking them all sorts of questions about their baseball careers. It was especially funny to hear about Red’s tryout for the Cardinals when Branch Rickey’s secretary gave him a quarter to get him through spending the night. He tried to sleep on a bench at Union Station but was kicked out. He ended up in a “fleabag” motel which he woke the next day covered in bedbug bites! Red was especially entertaining and held up quite well for being a 92 year old. I loved every minute of the Q&A session and Donna admitted she enjoyed it as well. As we left, we got our final gift - a baseball enclosed in Plexiglas personally signed by both Red and Lou.

I am already excited to go back for another one. Dan McLaughlin said they were trying to set up another one of these with Ozzie Smith and Willie McGee – two of my favorite players from the 1980s Whitey Herzog teams. If you are a big Cardinal fan (like me), it’s something I’d recommend doing.

An unexpected visit.

Donna and I had planned to go to Busch Stadium on Monday night to attend a special event (I'll blog about that later). So, I made a reservation at the Drury Plaza by the Arch which was only a couple of blocks away for the Monday night so we'd have somewhere to stay afterwards. Within a couple of days, I got an email from Drury offering me an option to add a night for 59.99. This was a great price and plus we could relax and get there the day before so I called them and added Sunday night to our reservation.

We left Sunday afternoon. The highway 60 bridge across the Mississippi River to Missouri is out for what seems like the hundredth time in my lifetime. There is a ready made detour in which you go through Cairo and then pick up I-57 outside of town to I-55. Driving through Cairo is always depressing to me. I've read in various books (such as some of Mark Twain's) of what a prosperous river town Cairo was in the 1800s. It started a decline in the 1900s to what it is today. It's just a bunch of boarded up storefronts with a few open places sprinkled in. We caught I-57 and got to Arnold church of Christ in plenty of time for Sunday night worship. We always enjoy going there when we are in the St Louis area. Their preacher even came to the hospital to see me when Donna had her back surgery a couple years ago.

After we got out, we headed up I-55 to our hotel. The Cardinals had a game with the Reds at 7:05 but the traffic wasn't bad at all. The Drury Plaza is a step above the usual Drury we stay in. The lobby is nicer. The dining area for the 5:30 Kickback Drury is famous for is much larger and nicer. We got there in time for that. I had a hot dog, penne, meatball and soup. It was all pretty good especially for free.

While we ate, I kept monitoring Stubhub. I thought that as the came got closer to start time, the ticket prices would drop. They dropped into the 30s and I was ready to pull the trigger. I then found out something about Stubhub I didn't know. I assumed after the game started, the prices would go down. Well, it turns out that Stubhub stops ticket sales when the game starts. So, I settled into our room to watch the game on ESPN. As the bottom of the 1st started, we heard several loud booms scaring Donna. I then realized what they were - I told her Matt Carpenter would hit a home run on the next pitch. Sure enough, he did. The feed on ESPN was about 30 seconds behind real time - Busch Stadium shoots off fireworks when a Cardinal player hits a home run and that's what we heard.

As I watched the first part of the game, I talked out loud about still wanting to go since it was so close. Donna encouraged me to go, so I decided to go to Busch Stadium and go to their outdoor ticket kiosk to see what I could get. As I got close to the stadium, I did something I had told myself I would never do. As one of guys that hang around Busch Stadium came by with a sign saying "I have Tickets", I actually said "Yes" when he asked if I needed tickets. So, he stopped and said "I have dugout boxes". I said sure and he showed me his tickets. They were in Section 348 which I knew was in the upper deck so I let him know that. I started to walk away, so he pulled out an actual dugout box ticket. These tickets regularly go for around 100.00 but the game was two innings old and I already had my set limit (30.00). So I told him 20.00. He said 80.00. I started to walk away. He said 50 and I said 20. He said 40 and I said 20. he finally got to what I had decided I'd pay which was 30. I thought I'd done a pretty good job for my first real bargaining attempt on tickets in my life. I did tell him I'd come looking for him if the ticket was counterfeit. I could tell it was part of someone's season ticket set since it was perforated. I walked up to the gate and the ticket worked just fine.

I got into the stadium just in time to look up and see the Reds had tied the game. I went to the usher and heard the magic words "Your seat is way down there". My seat was only about 10 rows behind third base. It was the bottom of the third. The game went by quickly. Finally in the bottom of the 8th, John Jay led off with a double. Yadi got him to third and Kolten Wong drive him in with a deep fly ball. Jordan Walden came in and gave up a hit but closed out the game for the 2-1 win. The game only lasted a little over two hours and I was back to my hotel by 9:20pm. Donna even knew about when I'd back because she'd heard the fireworks go off when the Cardinals won.

The Cavalier

Now that the boys have been gone for several years, we had gotten down to three cars. Donna drives her Chrysler 300. I would drive our 1995 Chevy Cavalier to the USEC plant and if I needed to go much further than that, I took our 2005 Town and Country Minivan. In October of last year, we vacated the plant. I work from home three days a week and work at our Governor's Crossing office two days a week. So, I drive the minivan there. I think I have driven the Cavalier maybe twice since then. One of those was to simply drive it since I hadn't driven it in a few days. A couple of weeks ago, Donna came in and asked "Did you notice the exhaust pipe was broken on the Cavalier?". I had not so I went out to look. It had completely rusted through and broken off underneath. Given the age of the car, it wasn't worth fixing so we made plans to get rid of the car.

Just like when we got rid of our Blazer a few years back, it was like getting rid of a member of our family. I remember when Donna went to pick it out in the summer of 1995. It's the only car we ever actually ordered instead of buying off the lot. I remember the color Donna chose was Hawaiian Orchid (purple to my eight crayon mind). The car got good gas mileage (over 30 mpg). With front wheel drive, it drove really well through the snow. We made several trips to Myrtle Beach in it. It survived a hailstorm in 2004 I believe. We finally bought a minivan once the boys got too big for all four of us to fit in the car. It became Jonathan's car when he started driving to high school in 2006 and became Josh's car to drive to high school after that. Then it became my USEC commuter car. We had put over 211,000 miles on the car.

I first tried the web and found a few local junkyards. I tried sending a message to the first one on the list via their "Contact Me". I got an autoresponse saying "We'll get back to you as soon as possible". That was several weeks ago, so I went to the second on the search result list. I got an initial reply saying they might be interested and I replied asking for a date and time for them to come look at it. I never heard from them either. As a side note, one of the worst things you can do with a web site presence is be non-responsive to people who try to contact you from it. Anyway, I readied myself to contact the next junkyard on the list, when my brother-in-law Steve got in touch with me and said he was interested in it. He looked at it and said he wanted it which made me very happy to find someone to take it off our hands. We went down to the Ballard County courthouse on Tuesday to do the transfer and on Wednesday, he took the car away.

I am glad we were able to find someone who wanted the car, but it still feels like we've lost a member of the family. Maybe I should try not to get too attached to these vehicles...

Weekend in Chicago..

I had noticed several months back that Kentucky would play in Chicago the weekend before Christmas in the CBS Sports Classic. I knew Josh could get there in a couple of hours so we decided we could meet there and make a weekend of it. Jonathan was iffy about going with us because there was a chance the place where he worked might strike. I went ahead and pulled the trigger on three lower level corner seats when they got below list price. Jonathan finally got word that no strike would happen til the first of the year so he was finally in for the trip.

Jonathan and I headed out on the Friday before. The trip up went smoothly. We got past Champaign before looking for a place to eat. We called up Road Ninja. The next exit had several choices including one that warned us not to go because (I kid you not) one of the waitresses has “meth mouth”. We actually found a Just Hamburgers that appeared to be similar to the one in Paducah. The logo was the same but it was strictly a take out place. The burgers were good though. We got to our hotel by O’Hare airport with no problem and settled down to rest. There was a Steak and Shake next door and given it was Happy Hour, I grabbed us both a milkshake plus some cookies for later. We rested in the hotel until it was time for dinner. I wanted to get pizza from Giordanos so Jonathan could try Chicago deep dish style pizza (and because I like it). We got a medium meat pizza (which easily would feed the three of us). Jonathan loved it and we managed to hang on to a few pieces for Josh. Josh ended up taking the bus to O’Hare from Madison so he could come home with me to visit for the holidays. Picking him at O’Hare was a bit tricky. The airport is huge much bigger than BNA in Nashville. We finally managed to find him and get him back to the hotel. He even came bearing my favorite candy – Chocolate Stars. He also brought his Nintendo 4DS which Jonathan promptly latched onto for the evening.

We got up the next day and had breakfast. We decided to try Uber again. Jonathan signed up via my link so he got a 20.00 credit and so did it. He summoned a driver via his phone app. Murray showed up in about 10 minutes. He was about my age so we talked all kinds of sports from the 70s on. As we got close to the United Center, traffic was backed up. Murray hopped off an exit and took us a back way (that he said his dad had taught him) and we got to our destination with no trouble. We went inside and found our seats which ended up being excellent. The United Center is the home of the Bulls and Blackhawks so there were numerous banners hanging up celebrating their accomplishments. We settled in to watch Ohio State and Carolina. Carolina had absolutely no trouble with Ohio State. In fact with about 10 minutes remaining, we all got up to roam the concourse. Jonathan and I found that the Naismith Trophy for the best college player of the year was on display so we got pictures with it. We also were able to get pictures with Coke Zero props which they turned into a magnet. We got back in time to see Ohio State try to mount a run, but they still lost by eight. Finally it was time for our team (the Wildcats) to play UCLA. Aaron Harrison nailed a three and got a steal for another basket. UCLA called timeout down 7-0. Kentucky kept on rolling jumping ahead 16-0 forcing another UCLA timeout at the 16:24 mark. Kentucky kept pouring it on and were up 24-0 before UCLA finally scored at the 12:21. Kentucky kept piling on points and holding down UCLA. The halftime score was 44-7! I felt a little sorry for UCLA (but not that much). It was easily the best half of UK basketball I’d seen in recent memory. The game was more competitive in the second half but UK still won 83-44. We of course stayed til the end.

We left the United Center and I had to get a look and picture of the famous Michael Jordan statue. We walked away and tried to summon an Uber. It recommended we walk a few blocks east so we did. As we tried to get a car, we found one of the fatal flaws of Uber. When there are times of “high demand”, Uber will raise prices to “get more drivers on the road”. They were quoting prices that would be 3-4 times their normal rate. Being cheap, we didn't want to do that. We tried Lyft, but they were doing a similar thing and quoting 100-150% increases in regular prices. I keep trying on my phone and the prices stayed like this. We continued pressing east towards downtown Chicago. Jonathan grumbled all the way saying “we’re gonna die”. However, there were enough people around us most of the way, so there wasn’t much to worry about in my mind. My phone died finally so we decided to see if we could grab the “el” to O’hare where we could catch our hotel’s shuttle. We finally reached Union Station where we could get inside (it was pretty cold) to look at what seemed to me a very confusing map. Between Josh checking Google maps, we decided we needed to get on the “Blue Line”. We found a station a couple of blocks away and managed to get tickets and get on the train finally. The tickets cost 9.00 total, so it was a good deal. It took about 50 minutes to get to O’Hare (the end of the Blue Line). I called the hotel from the courtesy phone in the shuttle area at O’Hare and they told me they’d be there about 6:30. We got picked up and got back to the hotel no problem. We ended up getting Culvers (so Jonathan could try cheese curds) and then going back to the hotel for the evening. We found out later we walked 2.3 miles from the United Center to catch the train. Fortunately, we are all runners so going that far didn't bother us at all.

We got up the next morning and ate and checked out. We went to Bible Class at the Bridgeview church of Christ. We enjoyed being there. We did have trouble getting out because someone had blocked us in. Several people very nicely found the person owning the car and we got out. We only made two stops on the way back – once to get lunch and once to gas up. We made it back in time so Jonathan could get to Maple Hill and Josh and I to Central. We really enjoyed ourselves on our trip. UK plays Duke at the United Center next fall, so we are already planning to go to that one as well. I also learned that you need to have a backup plan when you Uber somewhere just in case. We should have found somewhere to eat after the game to let the crowd die out and then summon a ride via Uber/Lyft.

Uber

One of the podcasts I listen to regularly is Clark Howard. He discusses a wide variety of items concerning personal finance and spending money. Something I've heard him extol is the the ride sharing service called Uber. The idea behind Uber is the ability to quickly call up a ride (similar to a taxi). There is an app on your phone that used the GPS in your smartphone to allow a driver to come right to your location and pick you up. The cars are driven by people who simply sign up as a driver usually to make a little spare money in their spare time. The drivers are given background checks. No money changes hands, the app charges your debit/credit card once the ride ends. I've also read about a similar program called Lyft. You can get a fare estimate online to see about what your ride will cost.

I was in Indianapolis last week to see Kentucky play in the Champions Classic. I was about a mile away from the Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The wind chill was 4 degrees, so I decided I'd give these ride sharing services a try. I tried Lyft first. I was disappointed to immediately see that a "Prime Time" banner appeared that would add 25% to my regular far.e. So, I tried Uber instead. I pulled up the app on my phone and selected my location. You then select the type of vehicle you want. You can go with UberX which is the cheapest standard type of car up to UberBlack which is their luxury mode. I chose UberX and then tapped "Request a Driver". I got a message saying a driver would be there in less than five minutes. I then input my destination. I was able to wait in the hotel lobby until I got a message from Uber saying my driver was arriving - along with a photo of my driver and the make and model of his car. I then saw him pull up and headed out.

He opened the door to his car and said "Stuart?". I could see he matched the picture I was given plus the car was the correct one. I hopped in the front seat and we took off. We chatted about the upcoming game and I found out he was originally from Wisconsin so we immediately began discussing an obvious topic. My driver effectively weaved in and out of traffic and within a few minutes we were in front of Bankers Life Fieldhouse. My driver told me to have a good time and I got out. By the time I was inside, I received a notification in Uber to rate my drivers (I gave him five stars). I also got an email receipt detailing the path my driver took, the time it took and the cost (a reasonable 5.25).

Would I use it again? Absolutely I would. I enjoyed it thoroughly. It's much easier than summoning a taxi (Taxi companies don't like Uber as you might guess). There is an issue with airports (airports want Uber drivers to buck up for permits) so you need to be sure Uber can give rides to any airport you want to use. It's only in bigger cities (you can get a list on their web site). If you are ever in one the cities they serve and you want a ride, I'd say give them a try.

Champions Classic

I had realized earlier this year that Kentucky would be playing in Indianapolis this fall in the Champions Classic. This is a yearly series comprised of Kentucky, Kansas, Michigan State and Duke where the teams rotate playing each other and at different sites. This is as close as they've been so I decided I'd go. They'd be playing Kansas and Duke would play Michigan State. I tried to buy a ticket when they went on sale but all the good seats were taken somehow. I ended up buying a club seat on StubHub so I was good to go. I got a hotel that was reasonably priced (Fairfield Inn and Suites) about a mile from the Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The game was not at Lucas Oil field where we'd seen the NCAA Regional last year but at the arena where the Indiana Pacers play.

The day of the game came and I headed out. When we went to Indianapolis earlier this year, we went through Indiana. This year, every mapping program I tried sent me through Illinois. I am not entirely sure what changed there, but I ended up liking that route better. I stopped in Effingham at a place called Niemerg’s Steak House. Surprisingly enough though, I got a fried chicken dinner (it was highly recommended). It was excellent. They had a bunch of kinds of pie, but I was really full so I passed. The trip was uneventful and I got to the hotel OK. I checked in and rested a bit. There was a TGIF attached to the hotel, so I grabbed some food from there and ate in my room.

It was time to leave. The wind chill was 4 degrees, so I decided to try one of the new ridesharing services (I'll blog on that separately). I got to the game no problem. While I was line, two ladies from Duke starting talking to me and of course they brought up Christian Laettner. I told him I would never get over that and told them about the upcoming (no joke) 30 for 30 series called "I Hate Christian Laettner". My seat turned out to be excellent. Being in the club section was nice. The first game got ready to start. When Duke came out, they were lustily booed (wonder why? ha). The game was close for the first half but Duke pulled away to win in the second half. The Duke freshmen (Jahlik Okafor, Tyus Jones, and Justise Winston) looked really good (I have to grudgingly admit). Although, Michigan State's defense was to play straight man to man on Okafor which seemed a bit odd.

The Kentucky Kansas game started and the atmosphere totally changed. It felt like a NCAA tourney game. There were quite a few Kansas fans but still more from UK. A few minutes into the game, a man behind me complained to an usher about a bunch of guys using very audible foul language. The game was close at the first as the teams looked tight. Kentucky started to pull away. It seemed like every time Kansas drove to the basket, Kentucky blocked their shot. Kentucky was up 17 near the end of the first half, but Kansas nailed two threes and a basket to a single free throw for UK and it was a ten point game at half (38-28). Kentucky's 2nd platoon would be starting the second half and I was a bit nervous. I had no need to worry. They shut down Kansas completely. In fact, UK shut down Kansas completely in the 2nd half. They scored a grand total of 12 points and only 3 baskets. The UK crowd kept getting louder and louder. Kansas fans began leaving. By the time the game was over, Kentucky had won 72-40 over the 5th ranked team in the country! It was a great game for UK. I was so happy I even bought a Champions Classic shirt on the way out. I was so pumped and warm, I just walked back to the hotel. There were enough fans on the street so it was safe. I didn't get back til almost midnight. I got up the next morning and drove back without incident.

If UK can play like that, they will be tough for anyone to beat. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The game is in Chicago next year and Kentucky plays Duke so I plan on going again.

Paul McCartney

I’ve liked the Beatles for about 35 years now, but the path to how I got there was strange. When I was a senior in high school, I started hearing some songs on the radio like Got to Get You into My Life and Come Together. They were from a movie called “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”. The movie starred a diverse cast of the Bee-Gees, Peter Frampton, George Burns and Alice Cooper. I was talking about the music in Calculus class and my friend David Darnell scoffed. He said “those songs don’t compare to the original releases by the Beatles”. I was skeptical and just filed that away in my brain. The movie by the way was absolutely terrible. I thought about the Beatles again when I was watching Monday Night Football on Dec 8, 1980. Howard Cosell broke in to say John Lennon had been murdered. I knew who he was and remember being really saddened by the tragedy of it. He had this song he’d just released called “Starting Over” which I really liked. How do I remember that date you might ask? Turns out the most wonderful woman in the world celebrated her 16th birthday that day.

A couple of years later, my friend Keith “Corky” Johnson re-introduced me to the Beatles. He had most of their albums which he loaned to me. When I listened to them, I was blown away. Where had this music been all my life? I became totally obsessed with the Beatles to the point where I was obnoxious about it. It was all I talked about. I spent every spare cent I had on Beatles albums and read everything I could find about them. I got a Beatlemania trivia game (that I still have) for Christmas that my friend Rick Alvey and I used to play a lot.

I’ve calmed down about the Beatles since then. But, I still would count them as my favorite. I still scoff when somebody claims to have been as popular or talented (Garth Brooks comes to mind). I’d always hoped they would get back together just once even after John died. I thought Julian Lennon could fill in for his dad. But once George Harrison died in 2001, that dream pretty much ended. My next idea was I really wanted to see Paul McCartney in concert. The right opportunity never came along til recently. His “Out There” tour started last year and I noticed happily he would come to Nashville and Louisville. I chose Louisville because the concert was going to be on June 25th (a Thursday) which worked out better for me. Lo and behold I get an email that Paul had been ill and that concert wouldn't be held. Fortunately, the concert was rescheduled for Tuesday October 28th.

The date finally came and I took off for Louisville. I had to stay across the river in New Albany because an FFA convention pretty much taken every room in the city. I grabbed some Five Guys and headed for downtown Louisville. I got to the Yum center at 6:45 (the concert started at 8). For some reason, they didn’t open the doors til 7. Even when we got in, they didn’t let anybody take their seats til about 7:30. I guess they were trying to convince you to buy stuff. It worked on me – I bought a pretzel and an outrageously priced tour shirt. Finally, I got in to my seat. I had purchased a floor seat and the view looked like it was going to be great.

They were still seating people at 8. The concert finally started at about 8:40. Paul took to the stage and started with “Eight Days a Week”. He played a lot of Beatles songs including my favorite “The Long and Winding Road”. He sang “Something” in a tribute to his old bandmate George Harrison (another favorite of mine). He alternated between bass guitar, guitar and piano. I had to stand most of the time but I didn’t mind at all. He put on a great show. He even got in a reference to Louisville and Kentucky by talking about the time the Beatles met Muhammad Ali in Miami right before he fought Sonny Liston. He played for over two and a half hours. He came out to his first encore with his band and him carrying British, US and Kentucky flags. I could tell his voice was straining a bit when he sang Helter Skelter in his first encore but he still did well. He finished a three hour concert with a second encore singing “Yesterday” and ending with the Abbey Road “Golden Slumbers” finish. I’ll just simply say what I said on Facebook that night “The Paul McCartney concert was AWESOME!!”.

He actually said “We’ll see you next time”. I cannot imagine he’ll tour again. He did great this time – a three hour concert for a 72 year man is amazing to me. I’ve knocked this item off my bucket list. But if he tours again, I’ll be there.