A Fitting Sendoff

It was a perfect ending to a season, to a stadium. Just as perfect, in fact, as it was temporary.

When Jason Isringhausen struck out Chris Denorfia for his 39^th save, the roar from the season-high 50,434 fans seemed a little louder than usual.

As the standings go, the regular season finale between the Cardinals and Reds was as meaningless as a Paris Hilton comment. And "goodbyes" to Busch Stadium that were uttered preceded "…until Tuesday."

But this is an organization, stadium and fan base too rich with a sense of history, tradition, and symbolism to treat this as just another game. Some fans paid up to ten times face value for tickets. And the team seemed to catch on.

The middle of the Reds lineup tried to spoil it. But Busch Stadium resisted. It refused to lose.

Felipe Lopez, Adam Dunn, and Austin Kearns hit back-to-back-to-back blasts in the third, and the Reds took a 5-1 lead in the third. The Sea of Red was as lively a frozen lake. But there was a strong undercurrent, waiting to surface and erupt.

Finally the two most underrated elements of the talent-loaded Cardinals stepped up; the best bullpen in the NL, and some hitters no one outside of St. Louis has heard of.

That bullpen, which finished with a 3.22 ERA, tossed six shutout innings, allowing just two hits and three walks between eight relievers.

Meanwhile, the anonymous trio of Yadier Molina, Abraham Nunez, and So Taguchi each contributed an RBI in a three-run fourth. And in the fifth, after the better-known Reggie Sanders tied the game on a solo shot, Chris Duncan walked to the plate to pinch hit. And as even some of the knowledgeable fans asked aloud "Who the hell is Chris Duncan?" the rookie crushed a monster home run to right to give the Cards a lead they would not relinquish.

"That’s Dave’s boy!" one grinning, clapping fan said to a former stranger who didn’t know the rookie was the son of the Cardinals’ pitching coach.

Typical of the stadium’s fans: affable, knowledgeable, emotional stakeholders in the team. The familial "Dave," makes it seem the fan was having him over for dinner next weekend. The man had probably seen all of young Chris’ eight previous major league at bats, and reveled in his first home run, his first curtain call.

This emotional investment pays off, time and time again. It sure did for the 11 workers that have worked at Busch since its opening in 1966. Each was honored individually to kick off the two-hour post-game ceremony, which, by the way, everybody stuck around for.

The team paid fans dividends again this year, as the Cardinals led the majors in wins, despite more injuries than a Civil War battalion. Four regulars spent major time on the DL, but the Cardinals still came two runs short of scoring the most runs in the NL.

Two of those regulars, Sanders and Larry Walker, are absolutely scalding the ball now. And despite the statistical irrelevance, the season’s final series meant a lot to a team that hadn’t really played a meaningful game since May, and had lost seven of 10 heading into the series.

But the symbolism was too powerful to ignore. The pressure was there; the team couldn’t lose the series, especially the last game. Not just before history walked onto the field to the tune of speeches and video tributes, honoring the players, teams, and people that made the last 40 seasons so memorable to so many people.

"There are no greater fans in the world. I (played) other places, but that was a mistake, leaving St Louis," Vince Coleman told mlb.com.

"It was the best three years of my life," added Jack Clark who, like Coleman, played most of his career elsewhere.

Any player who has played in St. Louis will say the same thing. The fans and organization are built on a foundation of class. Players with character issues are as welcome as cell phones in the bleachers. (Honestly, they will catch you in about 0.3 seconds and chant "no cell phones" until you hang up.)

Fortunately the current club caught on. And after the 7-5 win and sweep, the team is rewarded by going into the playoffs on a high note. They also got a front row seat to history. When guys like Jim Edmonds bust out the camcorder, you know to pay attention.

Take the "if" out of the expression; these walls do talk. But that is because they are not made of concrete and steel, but flesh and blood. And yet they are just as enduring. They will prove even more enduring in about a month.

When the Cardinals play their first home game in 2006, they will fittingly still play in a stadium bearing the name of a man one of the video tributes called the "Cardinals No. 1 fan," August A. "Gussie" Busch, who bought the team in 1953. And for the last remaining of the dual-sport, cookie-cutter stadiums, the fans were its defining feature.

Fortunately those fans happen to be the one feature of Busch Stadium that will not be touched by a wrecking ball.