Anyone who knows me knows how much I love baseball in general and the Cardinals in particular. This love was inherited from my mom who, in turn, inherited it from her mom, my grandmother, who would have turned 99 today.
A card-carrying member of The Knothole Gang as a teenager, she grew up riding the streetcar to Sportsman’s Park for a dime each way. Her mom would give her a quarter, and she’d spend the extra nickel on a snow cone one game, and then a scorecard at the next one. On occasion, she would get autographs from the players after the game, some of which I now have in my possession, including those of Hall of Famers Johnny Mize and Enos Slaughter.
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| Pages from Grandma's autograph book |
Back in 2002, I bought tickets to a game for her 77th birthday. As we watched at old Busch Stadium, she mentioned to me how much she enjoyed watching Fernando Viña play. The reason she gave? “The way he plays, he reminds me of Pepper Martin” (who played for “The Gas House Gang” Cardinals teams in the 1930s.
Another favorite story about her was the time a few years later when we went to my parents’ house for Easter dinner. I was surprised by her absence, and asked why Grandma (81 at the time) wasn’t there. Mom replied, “Oh, she went to the Cardinals game instead.” Albert Pujols hit three home runs that day, showing once more how wise grandma was!
She died in late March of 2018, and we held her funeral service a few days later. After the committal and a luncheon, we came back to the house, turned on the television, and watched the Cardinals game. It was, after all, opening day of the baseball season!
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| Grandma and her friend Fredbird, on the Cardinal Cruise in 2004 |
