St. Louis Cardinals Fans' Bucket List by Dan O'Neill

Author:Dan O'Neill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Triumph Books
Published: 2016-04-04T16:00:00+00:00

Visit the Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum

Where: Ballpark Village, 601 Clark Avenue, St. Louis, MO—the museum is located on the second floor of Cardinals Nation

When: Monday–Sunday, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. For more information, call (314) 345-9880 or go to www.stlballparkvillage.com/dining/play /cardinals-hall-of-fame-museum#sthash.nSNjui7c.dpuf

What to do: Soak in the history and pageantry of baseball in St. Louis

Cost: There is no door charge to Ballpark Village. Admission to the Hall of Fame is $12 for adults, $10 for senior/military, and $8 for children (under 3 are free). Admission is free with AT&T Rooftop tickets.

Bucket Rank:

Not everyone can get to Cooperstown, New York, to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame Museum. But if you are able to get to Ballpark Village in downtown St. Louis, the Cardinals Hall of Fame is a worthy pinch-hitter.

It has a similar feel—the same manufacturer, Matthews International, was used to make the bronze plaques—and a similarly inspiring impact. The Hall of Fame opened in 2014 and for a variety of reasons, no ceremony was conducted for the initial 22 members. They are players who either had their numbers retired by the Cardinals or were already in Cooperstown.

But an annual induction ceremony is held to celebrate each additional class of inductees. In 2014, the first group of new honorees included Jim Edmonds, Willie McGee, Mike Shannon, and Marty Marion. In 2015, Ted Simmons, Curt Flood, Bob Forsch, and George Kissell joined them. Admission to the induction ceremony, which is held on the Cardinals Nation stage at Ballpark Village, is free, so there might not be a better time to see both Ballpark Village and the Cardinals Hall of Fame.

You will see a grizzled veteran catcher like Ted Simmons wax poetically about being a Cardinals Hall of Fame Player.

“There are really four organizations—the Dodgers, the Giants, the Yankees, and the Cardinals,” Simmons said. “Everybody else kind of participates, if you know what I mean. This is a very special thing and not something people should take lightly. With the inclusions already walking around in this thing already, this is pretty humbling stuff.”

Few franchises in baseball have the pedigree and tradition the Cardinals bring to the table, and their 8,000-square-foot museum on the second floor of Cardinals Nation reflects it. Featuring stadiums, players, and championship moments, the Hall of Fame has the largest team-held collection in baseball and is second only to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in scope, with more than 16,000 items of memorabilia and hundreds of thousands of archival photographs.

Pieces of a proud baseball heritage more than 100 years old are reflected in the jerseys, diamonds, press pins, and World Series trophies. Watch the opening film in the Sportsman’s Park Theater and a lump will be stuck in your throat for the rest of the visit.

The museum is divided into sections and the highlights are too many to list. Take your time; there is lots to see, touch, hear, and experience. You can enter a broadcast booth, watch the replay of a dramatic moment in the past, and try your hand at doing the play-by-play.

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