It’s been a month since our last “Softball Village” post, so we figured today would be a good time to update the good people of St. Louis, MO.  Frankly, a lot has happened in the former home of “Go Crazy Folks”, Number 62 and the Tom Lawless’ bat toss.

Truth be told, we’re a little flabbergasted about the lack of mainstream sports media covered on the “area”, but we’re guessing that’s exactly what the Cardinals want.  Ha.  As if the once-hallowed ground being occupied by a bunch of drunken, mustached adult men wearing baseball pants and pulling hamstrings is embarrassing or something.

Let’s get right to it…

(Click on individual pictures for larger view)

May 28, 2009 – Dugouts are “completed.”  They really went all out on those suckers.  Looks like someone had a gift card to Home Depot.

June 6, 2009 – Grass, infield dirt and surrounding gravel is leveled and smoothed.  If you’re wondering about the surrounding gravel, your guess is as good as ours.  Maybe the Clydesdales are going to circle the perimeter before big prime time games between Slick Willy’s Saloon and the HotShot Big Ballers.  Truth be told, the gravel reminds us of “Field of Dreams,” and that excites us because we’re guessing that Shoeless Joe can flat out rake on the softball diamond.

June 13, 2009 - Many of our of town JoeSportsFan.com readers laugh when we say that the new softball field is “right across the street.”  What they don’t know is that  it’s literally “right across the street”…as in 10 yards away, across the street.

June 20, 2009 – The outfield is lined with a mesh wall (click the photo for larger version).  This puppy is almost ready.  In fact, the doors to softball heaven are open. Come on in.  The Busch Light is ice cold.

Now that you’re up to date, we’re going to start bringing the heat on our “Softball Village” coverage.  It will be picking up in the weeks leading to MLB’s All Star Game on July 14th, so check back early and often.

For the time being, the collective group of city officials and St. Louis Cardinals brass have abandoned the original plan to transform Ballpark Village into a commercial and residential metropolis.  To circumvent the embarrassment of a barren field due North of this year’s MLB All Star Game festivities at Busch Stadium, the aforementioned visionaries are building a softball field.  That’s right.  A. Softball.  Field.

While the solution is planned to be temporary until suitable real estate contracts are signed for Ballpark Village, make no mistake about it; softball fever is here to stay in downtown St. Louis.  When a barrage of overweight, mustached men sporting pinstriped ball pants begin making weekly voyages up Highway 55 to strut their stuff on the hallowed ground, the facades in and around Busch Stadium will become marketing gold mines.

Although the early skeleton of the Busch Stadium softball field embodies a beautiful skyline for ropes, bombs and piss rockets, we wonder what the horizon of downtown St. Louis will look like when it’s overrun by potential advertisers, marketing their products to the everyday, lavish adult softball guy.

(Click on the photo for a larger version)

This photo appeared in the June edition of St. Louis Sports Magazine, where the good people of JoeSportsFan.com (Sebek, Bacott and Imig) have a monthly, four page spread.  Read the entire magazine online here.

Earlier this week, Nike announced that it’s opening a store in downtown St. Louis, in the old location of the Bowling Hall of Fame, which closed last winter.

Nike is hoping to take advantage of the increased traffic from this summer’s All Star game (July 14) at Busch Stadium, and hasn’t formally released plans to stay in the location long term.  Big surprise.  At this point, city officials will probably take anything they can get to overshadow complement the state of the art softball field sitting due Noth of Busch Stadium.

Two things:

• The meaty softball players soon to inhabit the area can’t be pleased about this news.  Softball guys *hate* Nike.  It’s for
  “soft, finesse athletes” like joggers and soccer players.  Softball guys like Easton, Worth and Mizuno.
• Keep your eye out for the downtown homeless wearing brand new Shox, Jordans and Air Max’s.  I’m not saying they like to steal…but yeah, they like to steal.

[ St. Louis Business Journal ]

The collective group of city officials and St. Louis Cardinals brass have abandoned the original plan to transform Ballpark Village into a commercial and residential metropolis.  To circumvent the embarrassment of a barren field due North of this year’s MLB All Star Game festivities at Busch Stadium, the aforementioned visionaries are building a softball field.  That’s right.  A. Softball.  Field.

Over at JoeSportsFan.com, we’re quite obsessed with mens softball…but not from a “my team is going to beat your team” perspective.  Naw, it’s more of a “that dude with 8 bats and an incredible mustache is hilarious” point of view, as seen here and here.

Needless to say, we intend of keeping tabs on the development of the Busch Stadium Softball field.  Here are some pictures to get you caught up on the progress.

(Click on pictures for larger view.)

April 21, 2009

May 13, 2009

May 21, 2009