Every year Jefferson joins the Cardinals Kids Crew. They send a badge and when you go to a game, you flash it to pick up a bag of gear (bobblehead, toothbrush holder, backpack,
fake beard, etc). Then, late in the season, the Cardinals hold a party for Kids Crew members. His badge was our invitation to the party.
The party started at 9:30 and we were handed a map marked with activities stationed throughout Busch Stadium. First stop ... Cardinals' dugout. This is Jefferson trying to trip down the steps.
Our butts are where real Cardinals' butts sit.
Pretending to spit (barf?).
The phone on the left is connected to the bullpen. The one on the right is connected to Albert Pujols' agent.
It was pretty awesome to stand where the players come out of the dugout.
It was also awesome to see a pile of sunflower seed hulls that had been spit out by millionaires (note: Jefferson kicked this pile after the photo was taken).
The party was pretty good. There were fun games.
We met real Cardinals. Eight players signed autographs. The lines for John Jay, David Freese and Jason Motte were prohibitively long. While we were hanging out in the dugout trying to find the groove that LaRussa walked into the floor, everyone else went immediately to the autograph lines. The line for Fernando Salas was long, but reasonable. We stood in it for about 20 minutes before Jefferson announced that he needed to pee. Then it wasn't as reasonable. Anyway ... Fernando Salas!
Mark Rzepczynski was a good sport. Jefferson weirded out on him. We noticed that, although he throws left, he autographs right.
The party ended with a Q&A with Tony LaRussa. A kid asked him why he never smiled. And with that, we had to go retrieve Mom.
One of the nice benefits of the Kids Crew is half price tickets to the game (v. Reds) that afternoon. The downside is that we had three hours to kill. So we spent that time looking for the Arch. It's around here somewhere.
Eventually we made it back to Busch Stadium.
This time we brought the lovely Mom.
First pitch. Garcia had a rough couple of innings, but straightened it out and got his first win in 7 starts.
Well. There he is ... I don't want to talk about it.
Baseball games are fun, but...
... not nearly as fun as a filthy, bedbug-ridden rollaway hotel bed. Seriously. Jefferson's favorite place in the world is a hotel. I'm not sure I've ever seen him this happy.
