What’s Major League Baseball got to do with it?
In St. Louis, everything. It’s Our Town’s grasp at another World’s Fair opportunity.
Well, sort of, but for a sports town like St. Louis, yes, the Major League All Star Game on July 14th and festivities of the week is akin to having the World’s Fair in your backyard.
Not being consumed by sports as many in this town are (don’t shoot me, okay?), I didn’t realize how the construction being done in the city last year (see Trendbites: A Little Local Color) was the town planners way of preparing for the onslaught of tourists destined to hit St. Louis for Major League Baseball’s All Star Game. Interestingly though, what didn’t get finsihed was the Cardinals BallPark Village which given the event seems like not only a major gaping hole literally but a major gaping planning oversight.
But just as nature abhors a vacumn, baseball didn’t let a wide open field right next to Busch Stadium lie fallow. It’s filled up with puffed up tents offering food, activities, paraphenalia and such. Sheryl Crow performed under the arch to an audience of 50,000 people Saturday night and Washington Avenue (our town’s Vegas strip) has non stop parties planned for the whole week.
from STLToday’s MLB All Star Game Visitor’s Guide.
I only live 2 blocks from Busch Stadium and thus am more or less in the center of all of this activity. I am not attending the festivities because it is hot…..crowded and expensive and my dog, Chloe, is petrified of fireworks going off which sadly are being set off downtown like water free flowing in fountains. They come with the territory. Chloe and I have learned to time our walks around them (read: sans the crowd).
I really knew something was happening when I saw a blimp hovering over the city Friday afternoon. When I was a kid, it used to be the Good Year blimp weirdly hanging in the sky. Now it’s Direct TV, but nonetheless a blimp. Yesterday a small bi plane flew around downtown with a Pepsi Max flag flying behind it. What a heydey for marketers this event is. Even Purina has gotten into the act with their building which hovers over the city anyway and the cutest cleverest cat and dog “playing ball” in a larger than life billboard hanging off the side of it. Truthfully it’s a little like being in a segment of Blade Runner or the Fifth Element with all of these signs airborne in the city. Forget being supersized. I’ve been futurized.
On a personal note and seemingly others noted by attendance, the biggest hit is City Garden. Two blocks long and one block wide it’s packed with plants, sculpture and fountains. And it’s not just busy during the day, but during the night. We have parks all over St. Louis, beautiful green areas, well kept, spacious, clean….. but they haven’t drawn the crowds City Garden has. I admit myself going through the park is an experience. They packed the Garden with so many individual spots of interest that it in and of itself is an event and you feel like a better person for having come through it.
As my dog, daughter and I were taking a swing through it, a young hip guy with a leather jacket came through exclaiming to us, “would we ever have gotten anything like this if it hadn’t been for Major League Baseball’s All Star Game coming to town?”
photo of artist/sculptor Jim Dine’s Pinocchio by Tim Archibald. For more City Garden images, check flickr here.
So again I ask, “What’s Major League Baseball got to do with it?” In Our Town this week, everything.
P.S. If you find yourself in St. Louis this week looking for some cool places to eat (places other than TGI Friday’s), I recommend Rooster on 11th and Locust. They have the BEST breakfast (to rival any cafe in any large city) and be sure to ask for their house Mimosa, it’s divine. And one of our best kept secrets is Papa Fabarre’s….housed inside Macy’s downtown at 601 Olive, the food is All American delish (the French Onion soup will rival any restuarant’s anywhere in the world, I’ll wager), the ambience definitely old world, and the prices very very affordable, just their hours only allow for daytime lunches, so check online to be sure you can time your visit correctly.
Rooster @ 11th and Locust….read the Chicago Tribune’s recommendation if you don’t believe me.
Inside Papa Fabarre’s. Photo by Jennifer Silverberg of the Riverfront Times.
