(no subject)
When baseball games turn deadly....
...I was in St. Louis on business this past week, and on Wednesday night, one of the partners offered me and my dad their tickets to the Cardinals game. They have a brand-new stadium, just opened this year. They were great tickets, Row 3, about 2 feet left of third base. No rain predicted in the forecast, but it was going to be very hot...103 to be exact.
We get to the stadium, sit down, eat a hot dog, and all of the sudden my dad looks up and goes "holy crap....look at those clouds" i have NEVER seen clouds like that. All of the sudden, the wind picks up, dust from the construction site next door starts blowing into the stadium and napkins, paper cups, and who knows what else start flying around everywhere. We ran under the awnings, by where the consessions are, and turned around just in time to see the grounds crew almost lose control of the big tarp they were using to cover the infield.
A few minutes later, it started POURING. You couldn't see 5 feet in front of you, between the incredible amount of rain mixed with wind and how black the sky had become. It looked like a snowstorm. Things were just flying everywhere. There was a Build-A-Bear store directly across from the little opening to get into the stadium, and they closed their gates with people still in the store because all of their stuff was flying everywhere and getting soaked.
The wind started picking up even more, and all of the sudden, one of those big pop stands ripped across the concourse and smashed into the gate that had just been closed. Two more huge garbage cans followed, and you could hear the people screaming inside...if they hadn't closed that gate....eek. That would have been really bad. However, the storm wasn't over yet, becasue next, the ceiling beams and panels started flying off. That was the most dangerous, because they were flying over the crowd, everyone was down on their knees covering their heads. It was just scary. I have never seen so much lightning in my life.
Once the storm FINALLY blew itself out (it was at least an hour or more) we walked back into the stadium to see that the tarp they put over the infield had ripped all along the third base line. Home plate was destroyed...it was a mud pit. Where the actual base ended up, who knows.
They did end up playing the game, it started about an hour after the storm ended, because the grounds crew had to walk around basically the whole field and pick up the stuff that had landed there. They also scraped off some of the mud and threw new stuff down. I had a full waterbottle at my seat when we left, and needless to say, it was not there or anywhere near my seat when we returned. I read in the paper the next day that 30 people had gotten injured, the press box windows had blown out, and there were 500,000 people without power. When we went into the office on Thursday the parking deck had huge holes in the ceiling and there were tree branches all over the streets. Naturally, our office was about the only one on the block that had power.
Business trips can be dangerous.
...I was in St. Louis on business this past week, and on Wednesday night, one of the partners offered me and my dad their tickets to the Cardinals game. They have a brand-new stadium, just opened this year. They were great tickets, Row 3, about 2 feet left of third base. No rain predicted in the forecast, but it was going to be very hot...103 to be exact.
We get to the stadium, sit down, eat a hot dog, and all of the sudden my dad looks up and goes "holy crap....look at those clouds" i have NEVER seen clouds like that. All of the sudden, the wind picks up, dust from the construction site next door starts blowing into the stadium and napkins, paper cups, and who knows what else start flying around everywhere. We ran under the awnings, by where the consessions are, and turned around just in time to see the grounds crew almost lose control of the big tarp they were using to cover the infield.
A few minutes later, it started POURING. You couldn't see 5 feet in front of you, between the incredible amount of rain mixed with wind and how black the sky had become. It looked like a snowstorm. Things were just flying everywhere. There was a Build-A-Bear store directly across from the little opening to get into the stadium, and they closed their gates with people still in the store because all of their stuff was flying everywhere and getting soaked.
The wind started picking up even more, and all of the sudden, one of those big pop stands ripped across the concourse and smashed into the gate that had just been closed. Two more huge garbage cans followed, and you could hear the people screaming inside...if they hadn't closed that gate....eek. That would have been really bad. However, the storm wasn't over yet, becasue next, the ceiling beams and panels started flying off. That was the most dangerous, because they were flying over the crowd, everyone was down on their knees covering their heads. It was just scary. I have never seen so much lightning in my life.
Once the storm FINALLY blew itself out (it was at least an hour or more) we walked back into the stadium to see that the tarp they put over the infield had ripped all along the third base line. Home plate was destroyed...it was a mud pit. Where the actual base ended up, who knows.
They did end up playing the game, it started about an hour after the storm ended, because the grounds crew had to walk around basically the whole field and pick up the stuff that had landed there. They also scraped off some of the mud and threw new stuff down. I had a full waterbottle at my seat when we left, and needless to say, it was not there or anywhere near my seat when we returned. I read in the paper the next day that 30 people had gotten injured, the press box windows had blown out, and there were 500,000 people without power. When we went into the office on Thursday the parking deck had huge holes in the ceiling and there were tree branches all over the streets. Naturally, our office was about the only one on the block that had power.
Business trips can be dangerous.