Remembering Busch Stadium II

You can check out Lost Ball Parks on Instagram or go to their website. This post on their Instagram website brought back a lot of memories for me. I saw many games at Busch Stadium II.  We arrived in St Louis in the late '80s.  Dad retired from the Air Force and we have lived here ever since.  

I have great memories in that stadium.  The first game I ever went to the Cardinals were playing the Padres.  We sat in centerfield in the top level, and all the players look like ants Ha Ha! People forget that the cookie cutter stadiums of the time were very spread out.  They were symmetrical, but there was a lot of foul territory as well.  If you were a fan, you were not as close to the players compared to the stadiums of today.

somebody in the Instagram post talked about how hot it would get at Busch Stadium II.  They are correct... The sun would bear down on the astroturf.  The bleachers out in center field would burn your legs! We sat many times in the center field bleachers which were truly bleachers at the time, not seats.  It was very cheap to sit there. I think I remember the tickets only costing $4 to $6 a piece.  Can you imagine those prices today?

That being said, you had the whole cast of characters that would sit in the bleachers that were regulars.  The whole thing brings back fond memories.  The smells of popcorn, soda, beer, cigarette smoke... And let me tell you everybody was sweating. Ha! Ha! The sun would beat down on everybody and there was no shade.  We were packed in like sardines and you could feel the body heat from people right next to you.  So how is this a fond memory? Ha! Ha! Well, you had to be there to understand.

Busch Stadium II was also a very big ballpark.  The outfield was 414 to straight away center.  The park was designed to support the "Whitey Ball" teams in the '80s.  You can look up the teams of Whitey Herzog and his strategies, but understand his strategies revolved heavily around speed.  Many of the players on his teams could have been world-class track athletes.  Their success absolutely came down to great speed and really good pitching.  They could score at anytime because of the speed they had on the base paths.  If you look at players like Willie McGee, Ozzie Smith, Vince Coleman, and Terry Pendleton... All of them had very good speed.

This was really fun to write about and brought back some great memories.  Do you have any great memories from the ballpark that you grew up in?  Please leave a comment.

Remembering a Griffey men moment

Mariners vs Angels on September 14, 1990.  I was around 12 or 13 years old.  Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. were were in the Mariners lineup hitting back-to-back in the 2-3 spots (Griffey Sr. hitting 2 and Griffey Jr. hitting 3). I will never forget watching that game live when they hit back-to-back home runs. What an amazing game, and amazing father and son moment.

Micro Lures Fishing Prep on a Nasty Day

 

Gray, gloomy, cold, wet, rainy...this is what was in play on this day.  As I am writing this, there is still a good chance the 'Lil Shaka and I still venture out to "Sunfish Pond" to test out some new micro lures.

We made a run over to Academy Sports which is a normal "father-son time" activity.  And of course, we didn't walk out without hitting the fishing aisle.  Below are a few micro lures we will be trying out at "Sunfish Pond", which if you have been following me for awhile, you know is our home field test pond!

 Micro Ned Rig

NedlockZ Heavy Duty Ned Rig Jigheads 1/15oz

Z-Man Finesse TRD Green Pumpkin/Orange

I am pumped up about this one.  I was inspired by the Online Outdoorsman who also is the creator of the Mule Jigs.  This guy has several videos out there about how "Micro Ned Rigging" could potentially be the future in finesse fishing.  He shows how the Micro Ned Rig can catch many different species.  I have played around with Ned Rigging, with no luck so far.  This is one lure that I will keep trying out that I think will be very productive once I can get some confidence with it.  I actually cut the normal size Z-Man Finesse TRD in half in order for it to "look right" on the small micro Ned Rig lure (1/15oz).

Strike King Micro-King Spinnerbait

I think this little guy is going to get hit at "Sunfish Pond".  It is now November and it is nasty outside.  I am thinking the visibility at the pond will be a challenge for the fish, so I am hoping for some bites on this little lure.  There is a good chance though that the fish are not active, and something more finesse is going to play much better.  We shall see...This little dude out on Youtube called Bass Dawgs was catching multi-species on this lure.

Shoulder Workout 11-20-20

 

Yesterday's workout of course happened in the morning.  I went through my normal HIIT treadmill workout where you sprint for 30 seconds, and then you rest for 12 seconds, and then you do it again.  You do this for 15 rounds.

Then I went right into shoulders.  Basically the same couple of movements that I like to do, and that I had time for yesterday.  I got into some shoulder dumbbell flies, and also some dumbbell military press.  

Right now, my right shoulder is barking at me a little bit so I am keeping the weight a little lighter, and really concentrating on good form so I don't continue to aggravate anything in the right shoulder joint.

I hope all of you are having success in your workouts right now.  Comment or reply and let me know how you're doing in your workouts.

Practice session 11-17-20

We got after it this week in the garage. We worked through some new tee drills. We will continue to focus this winter on staying inside the ball.

We also worked through some catcher drills. He was a little rusty, but that is to be expected. We will continue to work on getting better behind the plate this year as well.  Cheers to the grind!

Quick trip to Sunfish Pond 11-19-20

 

Lil sissy Shaka and I took a quick trip out to "Sunfish" pond. Unfortunately, they were not biting. I caught only one out their today. It was so windy out, I am not sure where the fish in that pond were hiding. It was still fun to get a little father daughter time. We had fun!

Leg Workout 11.17.20

It has been a long time since I've done a leg workout. Yes I do lower body movements with my HIIT workouts, but I've decided to dedicate some movements for lower body again.

You see me doing leg extension in the pic above. I stay very light and I do a lot of reps. At a minimum, I will do four to five sets and the reps are normally 15 to 20... My only focus is to feel the burn in the quads.

In the younger days I might be going very heavy on legs as I was training for football and baseball. But today I'm just an old bodybuilder! 

On these days I'm going to try to stay away from doing a lot of pounding on the knees on the treadmill. I will do just enough to get the heart rate up, get a little sweat, and then hit some legs. Besides the leg extensions, I also did leg curls on the same machine.

The hit workout today was only 10 rounds. I did a medley of different movements besides the sprints on the treadmill. Mountain climbers, push-ups, toe taps... I mix all of these movements in the 10 rounds.

I hope you're all having a great day. Have a great workout!

Family Steak Night 11.15.2020

Here are a couple of pics from yesterday's family steak night! I don't normally prepare steak like this. It's definitely a treat, and not something I would normally prepare every time.

I grilled these ribeyes on my Weber grill with my cast iron griddles. When it gets colder outside you really have to pay attention to how long you grill your steaks. I definitely hold them longer on the grill during the colder months in order to get to medium (were we like them in most cases).

These steaks were also around 2 inches or more thick, so I definitely adjusted the cook time because of how thick they were. I always try to have a plan when cooking steaks in terms of how long on each side. 

During this grilling session the thought process was to go four or five minutes on each side. Then I will do the poke test... And then I will adjust depending on if I think they need to keep grilling longer. In this case the total cook time was probably more like 6 minutes on each side.

Your cook time is also influenced by how hot your grill or your cast iron griddles are. I have learned this in the past as well... Sometimes those griddles are not as hot as you think they are... But a lot of times in the summer, they are much hotter than they are when the outside temperature is more like fall or winter. So, you need to make sure you adjust your cooking based upon how hot your griddles really are.

All in all, these steaks turned out great! Cheers to all of you I hope you get out and grill some steaks very soon!

Friday Workout Diary 11-13-2020

Today was Bicep and Tricep work. HIIT Treadmill Run 10 Rounds to start off. Normal straight bar bicep curls to start bicep movements. Seated Incline Dumbbell Curls were giving me a good pump as finishers. Triceps were all cable pushdown movements.

After work fishing session November 12, 2020

It was about 56 degrees in the afternoon. It was sunny, and the air was nice and crispy. It was a perfect fall day to get a couple hours of fishing in before the sun went down. 

I caught two bass and they were both on the Zoom black plastic worms.  From a confidence perspective, I put this lure at the top of my list. I've caught so many fish on this particular worm this year that I am convinced that fish cannot resist themselves. They have to bite!

I hope all of you are having a great fall season. Get out and go fishing!

Yesterday fishing at the local pond Nov 6th, 2020

 

I headed to the local pond yesterday and it was warm!  The bass were finicky.  I only got two bites the whole time, but I was able to connect and "say hello" to a nice mama!  She was probably 2-3 pounds and seemed to be eatin' good.  One positive out of the Covid times is that it helped renew an old love...that love being fishing.  Now I have been teaching my son and daughter what it is all about.  Good times!  I released the mama back into the pond so we can meet again someday.

Fishing Coulterville, IL City Reservoir Fall 2020

 

A buddy and I got after some bass at the city reservoir in Coulterville, IL.   Here is a quick video of the experience.  We had a lot of fun.  I would like to go back to this lake in the spring and summer.  We caught some bass, but the "fall bite" wasn't really on that day.  My braddah caught his bass on Bass Jigs and I caught all my bass on plastic worms in the Texas rig style.  There is a lot of good structure off the banks, and the water visibility was very clear in spots.  Great weather, couple beers with a buddy, and fishing.  Good times!

Family fishing trip to the Lake of the Ozarks October 2020

 Check out the quick video of our family trip out to the Lake of the Ozarks back in October 2020.  We rented out a nice place right on the lake.  Our family friends have a bass boat so we fished professionally every day we were there.  We caught some bass and crappie but "The Bite" definitely was not on.  This is a little footage of our fishing exploits at The Lake of the Ozarks.  Below is a few photos of our fishing fun!  Enjoy.