I was lucky enough to go to the Friday and Saturday games of the St. Louis Cardinals sweep of the Kansas City Royals in Kansas City at Kaufmann Stadium.  It is a nice park.  Not sure if it’s nice enough to host an All-Star game, but they didn’t ask my opinion.

On Friday night, my wife, son, and I climbed to our seats in section 420 row XX.  It only goes to ZZ so you know how high we were.  I knew it was fireworks night and seats apparently are harder to come by for this event, so I took what I could get.  We were witness to Joe Kelly’s first Major league win.  One issue with the stadium is that for these large sections there is only one way out.  Everybody left at the same time after the fireworks so it took a while to get out of our seats.  I do appreciate the onsite parking, though.

Saturday we got there early as we could and my son raced to the side of the visitor’s dugout with his bag of balls to get autographs.  The Cardinals did not take batting practice on Saturday and only pitchers came out to stretch and Skip Schumaker came out to sign autographs.  Both my wife and son got Skip’s autographs while I stood lonely in the left field bleachers waiting for balls to come my way that never happened.

It was another nice victory for the Cardinals as Adam Wainwright pitched well and the Cardinals hit well again.  Luckily, we weren’t as high for this game.  We stayed until the end of the game to come home after vacation.

The Cardinals finished the sweep on Sunday and flew to Miami to take on the Marlins.  Last night’s game was definitely a different and yet exciting game.  The Cardinals were down 6-1 after the 7^th inning and with one in the 8^th and 4 in the ninth capped off by Yadier Molina’s game tying homerun, the Cardinals went on to win in the tenth.

Victor Marte came in the 9^th inning as part of a double switch.  Cardinals Manager told the umpire that he was coming in for position 5 and the umpire thought he meant position 5 in the lineup not defensively.  After the first batter, Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen noted that Allen Craig who was batting in position 5 was still on the field.  Umpire Bob Davidson said he shouldn’t be and after Matheny said that is not what he told him, he still had to replace Craig because what the umpire had written is law.  Luckily Tony Cruz was available to take over at first so the Cardinals finished the inning holding the Marlins.

On to the 10^th.  Tyler Greene gets a one out single and scores on Rafael Furcal’s double.  Tyler Greene flew around the bases and scored easily on the hit.  After getting the bases loaded, Victor Marte’s spot in the lineup came up.  Pitcher Joe Kelly was called to pinch hit.  He grounds a ball up the middle and beats out the throw at first to score another run.  I immediately nicknamed him ‘Joltin’ Joe Kelly.  He was flying down the first base line.

Jason Motte got three outs allowing one run in the bottom of the tenth and that Joe Kelly single ended up being the difference in the game.  What an ending to the game.  The St. Louis Cardinals reminded us why they are who they are, defending World Series Champs.  The never give up and believe they can win it all again.  What a great team and a great time to be a fan!