TLR-no, not Total Request Live

This past Sunday I was invited by my friend, Teale, to go to the ballgame.  They were having honoring Group Leaders and she got the tickets from her school.  The day included tickets to the game, a cocktail hour and a dinner with a photo opportunity with a couple of players.

Usually when the Cardinals do something like this, the free tickets end up being the ones at the very top of the stadium.  These seats, however, were really good.  They were in Section 267, Row 11.  This is on the same level as the Bank of America Club and Big Mac Land.

My friend, Donna, came down as well and since we had a couple of empty seats she was able to sit with us.

I had to take a picture of the Left Field Bleachers, our normal seats.

The cocktail hour was held at the Champions Club.  It was cool.  Free beer, wine, soda and water and then a few appetizers.  While sitting there waiting for the events to start, I looked over and saw John Mozeliak standing there.  I thought to myself, "This could be really, really good."

By chance we ended up at the very first table.  I literally could have stretched my hand out to touch all of the speakers.

Mo got a pretty good reception when he came out.  He was surprised with the reception because of the Ludwick trade just happening on Saturday.  He explained his reasoning behind the trade and sounded very sincere in saying that he did not want to get rid of Ludwick as he and Ludwick were actually pretty good friends.  He talked about how it was a very hard decision but that, in the end, he really thought that we needed another pitcher with the uncertainty of Loshe and Penny.

Next we Jay Randolph, Jr.  He is definitely not one of my favorite announcers but he seemed like a very nice, kind, gentle, grandpa-ish type of man.  He gave a few stats and then introduced Bill DeWitt, the son, President of the Cardinals.

The son talked about the business part of the Ludwick transaction.  He also talked about being in the top 10 in revenue sales but still being #23 of viewing markets.

Next was probably the most exciting time of the day, TLR (Tony LaRussa) came out and talked to us for about 20 minutes.  I have never been a fan of TLR as it always seemed that his ego was larger than life but I have to say that he actually made me like him a little bit more.  He was witty, sincere and open in his talk.  He had a question and answer session with the fans (as did the son and Mo) and ended up answering about 6 or 7 questions.  He talked at length about Ryan Ludwick and how much Luddy had meant to him personally, as well as, the team.  He did state that he was for the trade but that it was really difficult to see Ryan go. 

After TLR's talk, we started moving downstairs to the Clubhouse for dinner.  There were 350 of us so they moved us down in groups of 50.  We were 283/4 so we were in the next to last group to go.  While waiting to go down, I noticed some really cool signs and decided to take some pics.

Once we were down in the Clubhouse, we got to take our picture with Jaime Garcia and Colby Rasmus.  They had a professional photographer there to take the pics so we didn't get to use our own cameras.  They are supposed to send the pictures to us in a couple of weeks, signed by both players.  We also were not able to ask for autographs as they kept the line moving.  Both Garcie and Rasmus seemed very nice but very quiet, as well.  I told Colby that I sit behind him in left field and he told me to be sure to yell at him next time to let me know that I am there.  We'll see . . .  LOL

Overally, it was a great experience and I am so thankful that Teale asked me to go!