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I think I should get the tickets… because I responded first and I already kinda have them… so can I just keep them for my own selfish designs? Thaks in advance for your tireless consideration.

i think i should have them…oh wait, crap, i’ll be out of town that night kickn’ it w Kasey Mir…just don’t give them to that O’Neill dood…

I should get the tickets because this happened:

It was an unusually cold day in September. I remember I was wearing my lucky cardinals hoodie. You know, the one with a BBQ sauce stain across the back that I got when my friend skinny Johnny threw his chicken wings at me during a heated argument about who has the best drummer: Styx or rush. (he said Styx, and I said rush, because, well, Neil pert is Neil pert. after I lunged at him across the bar to smack him something wicked, I missed, and was bombarded with chicken wings.)

But I digress. So there I was, wearing my “lucky” Cardinals hoodie, downtown waiting for Busch stadium to open its doors. It was the new Busch Stadium. It was glorious. As I stood there in its warm shadows, I felt something I had never felt before…I felt that the great game of baseball had leaked its way into my heart, and made a home, once again. As I sat there with the cool breeze blowing across my face, I started to think how lucky I am to have the opportunity to see the cardinals, or any team for that matter, play. I started to think about all the games I went to over the years, all the games I played over the years, and how much better these professional athletes are than me. And then I started to get sad. What if I was a professional baseball player? Oh how sweet it would be. Get paid to hit at a ball and stand around in a field? Sweet. Travel around the country with your friends? Awesome. Hit homeruns and point at the sky while I run the bases? Pretty cool too.

As the gates opened I was standing there thinking about all the mistakes I had made in my life, and how they were all due to me not playing baseball past 1998, I realized something. I had forgotten my tickets. It was like a quick flash in my brain. There they were, plain as day, sitting on my dresser, begging to be picked up and ripped in half. My hands started to tremble. Panic swept over me like a storm in June. The game was starting in 30 minutes. What the hell was I going to do? Using my quick wit and my ability to run extremely fast, I headed to my car. I was with my girlfriend at the time, and I told her to wait in front and see if she can find any. When I got to my car, I unlocked it, started the engine, and flipped it into gear and then BAM. A collision. A huge collision. My airbags had gone off. I was in a daze. As I curse the skies above me, I focused my eyes on what was in front of me. At first I thought it was a semi truck. No. a plane? No. a space ship? Yes. A space ship. This damn thing had hovered down and parked right in front of me. And since they were parking in light speed, I couldn’t see them. Furious, I got out of my car, and headed over. I kicked on the spaceships door, hoping for an answer. Nothing. Finally, after a few minutes of kicking, punching, cursing, crying and singing, the door opened.

At first I was terrified. Aliens! I was about to see, and beat up, an alien! But this was no ordinary alien. As the door opened, and the smoke cleared, there he was. Albert Pujols. Stunned, I said nothing. I sat there and stared at him for a minute. He stared at me. Honestly, I was terrified. Then he told me, “Hey dude, I’m really late for this game. I was hanging out with my alien friends, and we was partying, and, well, you know how it goes.” Unable to talk, I just stared. “I’m sorry they crashed your car. I wish there was something I could do about it, but I really got to go.” And then, Albert Pujols, the best player in the game today, took off like an eagle, and soared towards Busch Stadium. As I watched him fly away, I heard the door shut. When I turned around, the spaceship was gone. And my car didn’t have a ding on it. Did this really happen? Is this some sort of acid flash back? And if it is, why was I doing acid when I was 5? My mind was troubled with questions.

I never went home to get my tickets that night. I stayed in the parking lot and listened to the game. Albert Pujols hit 2 home runs. The Cardinals Defeated the Astros 6-1. What a game.

It was on my way home after the game that I realized I had left my girlfriend in the front of Busch Stadium.

THE END

Well lets see besides the fact that I am related to the Ayres family so I am automatically awesome I think I deserve these tickets because I have not been to the new stadium ever!!!! I am having my first baby in a couple weeks and I think it would be a great way to complete my summer. I can be a first time mom and a first time Busch Stadium visitor. It would be a great way for my husband and I to celebrate our firstborn child.

My two sons will be visiting this summer, and I’d love to be able to take them to an MLB game without breaking the bank. This would be a real treat for my boys, and for me. I can spend the money I would have spent on tickets on things for them at the game – food, souvenirs, etc. Things people normally buy, but without the expense of the tickets.
You’d be doing a wonderful thing.
Thanks for the consideration.

I should be awarded these awesome Cardinals in the name of reprogramming. I am a native New Yorker, lifetime Yankees fan who has lived in St. Louis for going on 5 years. I love sports…eat…live…breathe…schedule my love life around sports. You, I’m sure are life long Cards fan and feel the passion, share the office chit-chat about Albert, dream of that 11th World Series ring. I, on the other hand am an outcast…nobody to talk to face-to-face about local sports…always IM-ing by posse back east to get the lastest/greatest. I am in the universe of what may be the greatest player in the last 50 years in baseball but can’t fully enjoy this special athlete since I bleed pinstripes. So Switch, I am asking…no begging to let me witness the great Albert in person so I can slowly come around to bleeding red…help my fix….I need more in-person, one-on-one time with the Cardinals so I can cross over to the National League and root like a madman for my new hometown’s team…consider this gesture community service, reaching out to the tortured and helping me find my baseball way! I’m sure we can arrange a swell plaque for your office walls to showcase your good deeds….

i think i should get them because i read this blog (almost) everyday.

Yet, it took you almost a week to comment. Mmmmmm.

Great story, Ron. Really tugged on my heartstrings… until I went to your blog and saw that you’re a sports reporter. What, no credentials?

That story sounds made up.

I don’t believe you, sir.

Why?

I should get these tix for 2 reasons.

1) Because of my continued support of Anheiser Busch throughout my college career.

and

2) Because I’ve never been to St.L and this would be a great time!

You can’t change a Yank’s stripes.

i said ALMOST everyday…

plus- i had to check my schedule.

i should get them because i can hook you up with a sweet helicopter ride that will include a bird’s eye view tour of the city, a few car chases and probably a handful of homicides.

I should get them because the last time I went to a cardinals game I had to carry my 38 pound daughter 6 blocks to the stadium in 90+ degree heat plus humidity and then had to carry her all the way up the ramp to the very tip top of the stadium to sit in the nosebleed section and then to add insult to injury the sun was still pounding down on us and it was blindingly hot and we sat roasting in our own sweat until she poured lemonade on me and then I was roasting and sticky in the hot hot heat and then she didn’t even want to watch the game just wanted to buy things from the nice people walking around selling them every 2 minutes and then she had to go to the bathroom and then I had to buy her a snow cone and then it was time to go and I had to carry her all the way back to the car. And this time……..I would get a babysitter.

Steve…you must still be elbow deep in those “Anheiser”-Busch products…or you’re one of those In-Bev fellows using some sort or Belgian/Brazilian spelling for our beloved malt beverage company.

But i like the effort…

i should get them. i should get them so i can give them to Reinholz and rain legal havoc on this city from above.

otherwise my havoc may not be legal…and most definitely not from above.

i also know where each of you moderators live.

Here’s my case:

A. I just might be the biggest Cards fan at Switch (I haven’t asked around). My license plate is a Cardinals plate and reads “BIRDNL”. I have a Cards debit card and Cardinals checks (in a brown leather Cards checkbook, of course). I subscribe to just about every Cards newsfeed available, including team emails at least 3 local sports writers’ twitter accounts. During the offseason I checked mlbtraderumors.com almost hourly to see if the FO was going to make a move. I knew about the DeRosa trade within minutes of it’s announcement. I *might* be able to name more players in the farm system than anyone else. When I’m not watching the game or by a radio, I’m checking pitch-by-pitch on a cell. I’m in two different fantasy baseball leagues, and have a crippling propensity to overvalue Cards players (i.e. trading Matt Capps for Skip Schumaker immediately following one of the drafts, or keeping Wainwright as one of five keepers from last season in a shallow mixed league… over Cliff Lee and John Lackey!) I have a Cards Mr. Potatohead on my desk, the Birds schedule up on the wall, and a shot from the upperdeck of Busch as my computer desktop. I’m a musician, yet spend 90% of my time in the car listening to 101.1FM. Let’s face it, I’m a junkie. Ask my wife. This addiction could lead to a divorce down the road if I’m not careful (read: sneeky), but the good news is, she can’t take the Cardinals in a divorce.

B. Being such a Cards fan, you would think I would have made it to a ton of games so far this season. No, just a couple, and the seats were average, and it was windy and cold, and they didn’t play so well on either outing. At least I got to go, right? True, but the other reason I haven’t been back yet – and had to turn down opportunities to pick up otherwise affordable tix in recent weeks – is that a series of random events in the past two months has put my Cards checking account in a “slump”. First, my wife got a flat and realized she needed new tires on her car, which she bought less than a year ago. Second, I had to spend hundreds of $$ repairing the “evap” system on my car just to get my check engine light off and pass my safety and emissions. Then, my driverside mirror got knocked off in the parking lot here at Manchester, and fixing it cost me my $500 deductible. Next up, my wife drives away from a gas station pump with the nozzle still in her tank, which rips the hose off of the pump. And finally, our puppy swallows a piece of wire which punctures her stomach, requiring a series of four xrays, three days at the vet, and surgery to remove it. Pushing four digits on that one. Needless to say, there hasn’t been much extra change to spring for tickets lately. And, any chance I’ve had to snag the freebies via first-reply email has been squashed by lack of a Blackberry.
C. Aside from all the biggest-fan boasting and poor-me whining, the bottom line is, I just really love the Cardinals in a very unhealthy, obsessive, and mood-altering way, and I’m hoping you can find it in your heart to further enable my addiction. C’mon, give the meth addict ALL the Sudafed behind the counter.

if we get the tickets, we’ll work a free promotion for you and/or wear whatever t-shirt you want to the game (well, maybe not a Dodgers shirt…we want to live through the experience).

and because I’m related to the crazies who are in this video…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtLTxHPtkjI

…contest is rigged.

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yup, you deserve them.

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