Day 29-Cardinal's Club

In December Jon's mom and Kirk handed Jon a schedule of all the Cardinal's games they had tickets to. They wanted him to select a few dates that we could go with them to the game.  At the time Jon was working for Papaya and knew the only guaranteed day he would have off were Monday's, so he signed us up for three or so of the Monday games. Kirk is a HUGE Cardinal's fan, (who wouldn't be!?) so he has a variety of seats. Two season ago, Jon and I sat on the third base line and the seats were amazing! I had never sat that close to the field before! This season, Maureen and Kirk invited us to go to the July 2nd game at 7:15pm in the Cardinal's Club seats. I was of course ecstatic and Jon was like a kid in the candy store when we found out how close we would be sitting for the game! 

Maureen met up with Jon a week or so prior to the game and handed him an envelope with the tickets, and a parking pass. What? We get a parking pass? You mean we don't have to pay to park and walk 5 miles to get to the stadium? So, we found "Lot C" which was our designated parking place, and got out of our car, had a police officer stop traffic so Jon and I could walk across the street, we walked through the gates and into a place titled "The Cardinal Club". Wait a minute, are you sure we are supposed to go in here?! This looks fancy! We walked in, found Maureen and Kirk and had a seat. Instantly our server came to our table asking what she could get us to drink, we soon realized drinks were included in the ticket price! After we ordered our drink we were invited to an appetizing buffet with chicken, salad, pork, and much much more. Needless to say, I ate a lot of meat and salad--YUM! At this point I was completely blown away at the fact that this goes on at EVERY GAME! My memories of the Cardinal's games definitely didn't include an all inclusive, all you can eat dining experience. Very awesome! 

After we ate, we followed Kirk out to our seats. Don't we need to climb up some stairs? Oh wait, not with these amazing seats! We walked straight out to where our seats were and oh how close we were to the field!!! I swear I could throw something and it would hit a baseball player! I've never been this close the field, nor did I know how amazing it would be to actually sit in these seats. Soon after we took our seats a lady is asking me if I would like anything to drink or eat. I'm not talking about a vendor screaming, "Hot Dogs! Peanuts! BUD LIGHT!" no this was a lady handing me a menu and asking if she can get me something. What? Is this actually happening?!?! Of course you can get me something! I would love a Diet Coke, she smiles at me and within minutes I am sipping an ice cold Diet Coke. This kind of service continued throughout the duration of the game. 

At the end of the game, as usual some fans had departed our area and some seats had opened up. I looked over to some vacant seats next to us, where 5 minutes before sat a family of four, and now there was a man with a "Fox Sports Midwest" microphone. Oh man! I don't know who you are, but you look fancy and famous...so I of course took a couple of pictures of him and then asked Jon who it was and he responded, "Jim Hayes." I do not know who this man is,nor have I ever seen him on t.v. but I took a couple of pictures that you can find below.  
Needless to say it was an unforgettable night, thanks to Kirk and Maureen for inviting us to attend this game with them!

Yummy food

Jon and I in the club eating before the game

View from our seats!

Jon and I

Jim Hayes