Why is busch stadium

Louis airport. The Mississippi River is in the foreground, with the gleaming Arch along its banks. New Busch Stadium is close to the center of this scene, as we are looking at the main seating bowl — and its red-red-and-more-red seats — from beyond center field.

More on that later. But there is one aspect of the setting that is, well, unsettling. The new park is wedged into the land between the old park and a busy, elevated highway. At this point in St. Louis, this highway carries both Interstate 64 and U.

Highway Now, in my mind, an Interstate would trump a U. Highway, and I would assume that locals would refer to this freeway as I They all call it Highway 40 — so I will, too. The really bad aspect of this is that entryways behind home plate above left and near right field are literally in the shadow of this busy highway.

But the fact remains that the home-plate entry and the entire concourse that runs parallel to the first-base line the exterior of which is shown in the right-hand photo above are impacted by the view and noise from the elevated highway. Setting aside the fact that the southern edge of the stadium is so close to Highway 40, the exterior of the new Busch Stadium is absolutely beautiful. The brickwork is wonderful, and in that respect, it reminds me of Ameriquest Field in Arlington.

The entryways are marvelous, although the ones on three corners behind home plate, left-field and right-field are pretty similar to each other. The crowning achievement of the entryways, though, is Gate 3 behind third base. HOK, the architects behind this beautiful ballpark, designed a gateway for the ages, using the Eads Bridge as its inspiration.

The shots below let you see what this looks like both outside the stadium and from within. This walkway includes not only an unexplained green-and-yellow set of lines crossing the walkway below left — by the way, it marks where the outfield wall of old Busch Stadium used to be but also a fence where those without tickets can peer into the place, sometimes even catching a glimpse of action on the field. The new park is situated on 1. Truly, New Busch has it all. There is the Ford Family Plaza above left — not as large or ambitious as the one at Turner Field, but close — where performers entertain the crowd before games.

Nearby is the U. Cellular Family Pavilion. This features speed-pitch, a batting cage and a play area for toddlers above right. Moving around the outfield toward the left-field foul pole, we encounter the Casino Queen Party Porch. It was not completed during my initial visit to new Busch, but one assumes it will cater to high rollers … but personally, I am never in favor of gambling entities as sponsors at baseball facilities.

Once all of the construction is complete, this corner of the stadium will also house the largest of the souvenir stores at the park. All eight position players are in double figures when it comes to homers, but the team is batting.

Everyone in baseball is swinging for the fences, setting up plenty of feast-or-famine situations. The notion of building a roster suited to a venue seems to be antiquated, with teams now building a lineup based on analytics bat speed, bat angle, etc. MLB Renovation Watch. Endangered Ballparks. Mariners to require proof of vaccination, masks during playoffs. Busch punishes batters, even when they hit the ball well. Where at Coors Field or here Milwaukee you get rewarded. Moving or re-aligning the outfield walls would not be the first step that the Cardinals have taken to encourage more consistent offense at Busch.

This winter the team installed a humidor to store the official game balls. It was to gain offensive consistency. Humidity has always been a factor at ballgames at Busch. The team believes that the high humidity — i. By taking humidity out of the ball and keeping them at a stable atmospheric environment humidity and temperature , it could theoretically provide a more stable hitting experience.

This would counterbalance the effect of humidity swings in St. Louis to provide a more balanced offensive environment throughout the season. Check out this article I wrote on the subject back in June if you want to know more. So, are they right? Has the offensive environment at Busch changed in recent seasons? With 66 out of 81 games concluded at Busch Stadium this season, the Cardinals have exactly plate appearances worth of data to consider — from their own offense and visiting clubs.

Over the last three seasons, they have over PAs. Park Factor is a measure of how much above or below average a ballpark plays. In typical Baseball Savant standards, red indicates above average, with dark red being the highest percentile ranking in park factor by offensive event.

Blue indicates below average, with the dark blue shading representing the lowest percentile ranking in park factor by offensive event. White is neutral. As you can tell from all that blue ink, St Louis remains one of the worst locations in baseball to hit. That extends to nearly every offensive possibility. Busch Stadium actively limits how hard a ball is hit.

It suppresses run scoring 10 points below average. It is the second-worst park in the league to hit a home run with a factor of just So, not only do the Cardinals suck at hitting homers at Busch, so does every other team.

This can be traced back several years. Here is the same data, but with a 3-year rolling average. This paints a pretty consistent profile. The Park Factor itself, runs scored, and homers are all essentially the same for the last three seasons — , ,