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Baseball in St. Louis
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I’m often asked what brings my guests come to St. Louis. There are many reasons, but from April through October (most years, October), it’s often baseball. And whether they are here for baseball or not, they also remark how St. Louis is a baseball town, and ask “why is that?”
My answer is personally based—we grew up with baseball in our play as little kids. It’s what we did all summer long, all day and, except for a brief run home for dinner, all evening until dark.
For me, in particular, since there was only one other girl on our street to play with, but 12 boys, it was either play Barbie’s with this one kid (admittedly she had great stuff!) in her room or play baseball with the boys, outside in the summer sun. And, no, the boys weren’t so keen on having a girl play, but my brothers insisted as we had an advantage (besides me being good). We brought the bats and balls.
And not just any bats and balls.
My father’s cousin Leo worked for the St. Louis Cardinals organization. Leo and his brothers all had daughters. My dad had three sons. So Leo gave us the bats and balls used for Cardinal batting practice, as they could not be used in regular play. These bats and balls were handled by the great players of the 1960’s: Lou Brock, Mike Shannon, Curt Flood, Tim McCarver (my hero), Steve Carlton and Joe Torre, among others. We sort of knew these were special, but looking back, I REALLY know how special that was.
This legacy of giving to the community was formalized in later years. The Cardinals partnered with the Policeman’s Athletic League (PAL) by giving uniforms, gloves, bats and balls for kids, ages 5-13, renovating vacant lots into ball fields throughout the city, with the police officers volunteering as coaches. My kids played for three seasons with PALs.
We are weaned on baseball, so it’s no wonder we are all such diehard fans—and friendly ones. I am always taken aback when guests will say, “I know how you all hate the Cubs.” No, I really like the Cubs! They fill my rooms every time there’s a Cards/Cubs home game. Actually, baseball fills my rooms most game nights all season. It’s fair to say, baseball has been very good to me.
And yes, fans of ALL teams are welcome at Lehmann House.
So when you wanting to see the best team in baseball play at Busch Stadium, be sure to check out OUR ROOMS and AVAILABILITY. You can also take a short VIDEO TOUR and get a little bit of the history of each room.