Last Game at Sportsman's Park

Footage from the last game at Sportsman's Park on May 8th, 1966. St. Louis Cardinals host the San Francisco Giants. Pre-game footage includes: Street interviews outside the ballpark in which fans recall their experiences at the park. Interview of August Busch Jr.
Stan Musial speech introduced by Harry Carey. Game highlights. Post-game footage includes: Groundskeeper Bill Stocksick digs up home plate and delivers to waiting helicopter to transport to new Busch Stadium. Parade footage.
mhm:id=M3158

[@steveswangler190]

as a huge baseball fan, I regret not having been born in time to visit the great old stadiums and see the great ballplayers through history. thankyou for posting this great video. though I am a Phillies fan, I have great respect for the Cardinal organization, and the city of St. Louis. I have visited several cities and ballparks and St louis is one of my favorites to visit, and the people in and out of the ballpark were very friendly. I love seeing these old baseball videos, it makes me nostalgic for the old ballplayers I never got to see, such as George Sisler and Stan Musial, as well as the old ballparks that are no longer with us.

[@kevinmiller6324]

Me too. I would have loved to have been around in the 1950s and been able to go to a ballgame at both Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds.

[@QED_]

@@kevinmiller6324 You can still visit the places where the nineteen 1950s ballparks use to be. I've been doing them on-by-one for past 25 years. All I have left to visit is Municipal Stadium in Kansas City -- maybe next month. It's been great: Shibe Park, Sportsman's Park, Crosley Field, Forbes Field, Braves Field, Polo Grounds, Tiger Stadium, Griffith Stadium, Cleveland Municipal Stadium (my most recent one), etc.

[@rocknrallsoul94rockero4]

I've gone to a ton of baseball games and maybe hit a Beatles or stones show or chill at the Whiskey a go go in the 60s lol

[@Teemoney612]

KZbin is a time machine and I love it! You can see and feel the energy in that place and it happened almost 60 years ago...beautiful

[@JohnSmith-zw8vp]

I've been saying that all the time!

[@lonewave1]

One thing my dad made sure of was, my brother and I going to see the Cardinals at Sportsman's park from time to time. And the coolest things ever was that he got himself, my brother and me tickets to Stan The Man's last game. As you can see I didn't forget. Thanks Pop!

[@vaibanez17]

Im not a Cardinals fan but this video is fantastic. Im so glad I stumbled onto this footage. Harry Caray! Stan Musial! The old timer fans who eyewitnessed all the great history. Baseball is awesome

[@larryloveless2967]

This film is really a treasure for Cardinals fans. I went to games here with my family, as it was the stadium for me to attend in STL up to the 8th grade.

[@prchristman]

It's a pleasure that the AL St. Louis Browns, who had become the Baltimore Orioles after the 1953 season, were remembered by several fans.

[@robbybonfire9944]

I can tell you that the final out made by a member of the St. Louis Browns in Shibe Park/Connie Mack Stadium was made by Vic Wertz who struck out swinging vs. Alex Kellner in September of 1953. You had to be there to appreciate it. lol

[@WAL_DC-6B]

Curiously, all electric streetcar service will come to an end in St. Louis 8 days later on May 21, 1966.

[@oklahomahank2378]

Supposedly my father took me to a game there, but I don’t remember it. I have been to Busch 2 and 3. Yesterday I listened to the audio of the June 8, 1962, game between the Giants and Cardinals from this park. I scored it as I listened. Good game. If you look at old pictures from the time the Browns were also there the grass is worn down to dirt from having two teams play there.

[@markstlcard]

I was at the June 8 1962 game. I was 11. Cards won 8 - 4 beating Marichal

[@willdrucker4291]

“Hornsby, Musial…and the guy playing centerfield today…I think he’s the greatest”…that guy’s name was CURT FLOOD

[@brucehensel1209]

My parents frequented Sportsman's Park in the 40's and 50's. They were lucky to see baseball played in one of the great ballparks. The got to see so many legends play there, Musial, Slaughter, Schoendienst, Moore, Mizell and also Robinson, Reese, Snider, Campanella, Mays, Kiner and others. This is one place I would have loved to take in a game at.

[@observer3232]

I wasn't at this game, but our dad took us to the Friday night game of this series against the Giants. Gibson pitched for the Cardinals against another Hall of Famer, Gaylord Perry. After this game the Cardinals made a trade with SF, trading pitcher Ray Sadecki for 1B Orlando Cepeda. Cepeda brought a badly needed big bat in the cleanup slot and would be the MVP next season when the Cards won it all.

[@jayleslie5081]

too see the park before it was shut down!

[@gls600]

They should of kept this ballpark. It would be one of the jewels of the game if it were in operation today.

[@nathansimpson5721]

It would be on a wrigley type of level

[@JohnSmith-zw8vp]

I don't know if hardly anyone even tried to save any of those old parks at the time.

[@cliffordbailey4818]

Where was this park in st. Louis

[@damarkomoore5236]

@@cliffordbailey4818 North city off of grand it’s now the hebert hoover boys and girls club baseball field (I actually played little league there lol).

[@davidlafleche1142]

Sportsman's Park was abandoned for the same reasons all of the other old ballparks were: * Too small (only 30,000). * Old and broken-down, in desperate need of repairs. * No parking * Bad neighborhood.

[@CraftedYT]

There are so many parks I wish they didn't tear down. e.g. Polo Grounds, Sportsman Park and like 50 million others.

[@jeffreymcfadden9403]

crosley

[@MisterCaution]

Polo would be awesome to see, but that would be constant homeruns to right and left field in the modern era. Maybe if they kept it as a museum...

[@SweetbJames]

I understand the nostalgia for PG but don't forget the locker rooms were behind center field. Not exactly user friendly.

[@sidhoward829]

The first three major league baseball games I ever saw were in Sportsman's Park. Cardinals vs. the Pirates. Stan the Man played, as did Curt Flood, Ken Boyer, and Julian Javier, among others. I was in the fourth grade and from Oklahoma City. The town and stadium awed me beyond belief.

[@jackpatti8424]

Harry Carey actually looks sober

[@jarrodbarkley9061]

😂😂

[@muzikdude1188]

Sportsman's Park was long gone by the time I entered the world but I wish I could have seen a game there. Looks like a really cool and nostalgic old stadium the likes of Wrigley Field or Fenway Park.

[@johnmanier7968]

New Busch Stadium (II of III) opened just 4 days after this game. The Cardinals had a brief road trip to Chicago in between (with 2 of 3 games being rained out) before coming home on Thursday night, May 12, with a 4-3, 12-inning win over the Braves (who were playing their first season in Atlanta and had opened Atlanta Stadium exactly one month earlier).

[@davidlafleche1142]

The All-Star Game was held at Busch Stadium that year. The field temperature was 105 degrees! Casey Stengel said, "I must say, it sure holds the heat well!" It became even hotter when the Cardinals installed Astroturf.

[@sdsmt99]

I'll always call this one Sportsman's Park, then came Round Busch, and Square Busch.

[@billslocum9819]

Willie Mays hit the last homer at Sportsman's Park in the top of the ninth inning of this game. He hit more HRs in St. Louis than in any other city as a visiting player except Chicago. The player to hit the most HRs there was another first-ballot Hall of Famer, Stan Musial. He had 252, which is 114 more than the player with the next highest dinger total (Ken Williams).

[@richardmiller3919]

Bill Slocum .. yes great Wille Mays

[@RuBaron715]

Mike Shannon hit the last Cardinal home run at Sportsman's Park, it tied the game in the 5th. Lindy McDaniel, a long time Cardinal pitcher, got the win for the Giants.

[@davidkuczinski7006]

I have visited old ballparks, Fenway in Boston, Candlestick in San Fran ,municipal stadium in Cleveland, I would of loved to see all these old ones a lot better than the new ones of today, great to see the great Harry Carey and Stan "the man" Musial, great video clip.

[@kenmadden6294]

The first game I ever attended was in June 1966. Age 12. Drove from Indiana. Pittsburgh and the Cardinals at the new stadium. Great game. Bob Gibson beat the Pirates. I remember being in awe of Clemente. He had the "it" factor. You couldn't keep your eyes off him. I was able to attend many games there over the years and I have always regretted that I was a month too late to see Sportsman's Park.

[@refunds1952]

My brothers and I were there!

[@timmclain5576]

Sportsman's park had way more character about it.

[@sillambretta]

Growing up in the 70's I saw games at Comiskey and Wrigley. Back then only Tiger Stadium and Fenway survived besides the 2 in Chicago. So many of the great parks died out in the 60's. Replaced by the Multipurpose stadiums built primarily for football. The Jewel boxes had so much charm, so close to the field.

[@docadams7099]

As they dug up home plate, I could hear a band playing "Auld Lang Syne", one of my absolute favorite songs. What a sweet song.

[@oscarwinner2034]

Gave the poor old guy a flat head shovel too. Rough!

[@twistedtony82]

It really bothers me that I never got to see the park in person. Gone be for i was around

[@kevinmontgomery1383]

I sat right behind a post. It took away from the game!

[@johnnyso1979]

Harry Carey and Stan Musial

[@tvabiker]

Why isn’t there any video anywhere of the neon cardinal on the scoreboard flying or the neon Eagle flying?

[@trapezemusic]

Baseball and music fan here. The background music I can identify: Washington Post March at 4:17, Auld Lang Syne at 12:20, Fairest of the Fair March at 14:23, and National Emblem March at 14:48 and 16:58.

[@kingbee1500]

Shot as TV news footage by either KMOX-TV (now KMOV) or KSD-TV (now KSDK).

[@donaldcasalone4243]

This should be from the KTVI, not KDNL collection. Ed Macauley was the Sports Director at KTVI in 1966; KDNL did not go on the air until June, 1969.

[@jeffreyblocker7371]

KDNL bought the rights.

[@MisterCaution]

Skypoint for the St. Louis Browns. I wish they renovated to keep old ballparks like this around, ala Wrigley and Fenway.

[@jameshudson169]

5:27 legendary cardinal anouncer harry caray!

[@tjd673]

That is the tallest reporter in the history of the world.

[@seththomas9105]

13:43 I expected Bluto, D-Day and the Deathmobile to show up.

[@frankjenny6332]

Animal House wasn't just a parody. There actually were parades like that in those days😀

[@billsmith5985]

The word "stadium" is one way Busch lost his way, I'm from Boston--Dad's from Webster Groves, MO, and "park"--either Sportsman's or Fenway is the ONLY way to name a team's field.

[@pac401]

"Field" is also pretty good.

[@sillambretta]

Ditto. Park or Field with exceptions to Polo Grounds & Yankee Stadium which were larger venues.

[@danzemacabre8899]

Right on,but I absolutely love Busch 3,i highly recommend you visit someday.as a Cards fan and a baseball lover in general,i will make it to Fenway one day! Sox fans don't ever let them take it way it's living history!

[@jrconrad13]

I was there.

[@Curly34584]

NIECE VIDEO!

[@kevinmiller6324]

As per the title I thought the last game at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis meant the Brownies last game there in 1953 in which they lost to the Chicago White Sox 2-1 in 11 innings. The 1953 Brownies were so bad that they couldn't even afford to buy new baseballs, and that the balls that were scuffed from being hit, had to be reused, not to mention the fact that attendance was rapidly dwindling to the point there were hardly any fans in attendance; you could look into the stands and count the fans sitting there.

[@GetBenched2010]

HARRY!!!

[@tomloft2000]

Stan Musial-Mr.Cardinal.

[@emir0324]

looks like that parade was on Washington ave

[@ScoobyDooIsDead]

St. Louis used to be beautiful.

[@kennethlucas7473]

St. Louis was NEVER beautiful. It looked like hell back in the 50's!

[@nate_kang]

5:18 Harry Caray!

[@davidswift7776]

Who was the extremely tall man that. Inducted the outside pregame interviews... he must of been near 7ft ! Well done , thanks for the post 👍

[@jreno58]

Easy Ed Macauley....played basketball at SLU, then in the NBA for the Hawks and Celtics. Then did sports on TV in town.

[@Carl2444]

As far as the game footage, below is what you see. There are some glimpses of historical significance apart from this being the last game played at Sportsman's. St. Louis starter Larry Jaster warming up. Jaster had shut out the Dodgers is his previous start and would go on to shut out the Dodgers four more times in 1966. Five starts, five shutouts against the reigning World Champs. Tito Fuentes leading off the game with a single - he'd go 5-for-5 in the game - all singles. Fuentes scoring on a Jim Ray Hart sac fly. Tito Francona singling. 3-time All-Star Bob Skinner hitting a pinch-hit home run, the 103rd and last homer of his career. Lou Brock caught stealing. Mike Shannon homering. Future batting champ (and malcontent) Alex Johnson hitting into a game-ending double play. Taking the throw at 1B for the final out is Orlando Cepeda, who you also see walking into the dugout. This would be the last game Cepeda would play as a Giant. A trade to the Cardinals would be announced post-game; Cepeda for pitcher Ray Sadecki. Two days later, Cepeda would homer in his first game with St. Louis.

[@vicepresidentmikepence889]

1:55..I assume he's talking about Curt Flood

[@dovbarleib3256]

Yes, Senator

[@TheBatugan77]

Curt Flood was a good un!

[@kevinstephens5108]

What was that parade at 13:42?

[@kennethlucas7473]

Better than Candlestick Park!

[@rmartin7558]

Why does the reporter keep referring to it as Busch Stadium?

[@HarryD738]

Interesting story. The Baltimore Orioles and Busch Beer exist because of it. "...By the early 1950s, it was clear that the city could not support both teams. Bill Veeck, owner of the Browns (who at one point lived with his family in an apartment under the park's stands), fancied that he could drive the Cardinals out of town through his promotional skills. He caught an unlucky break when the Cardinals' owner, Fred Saigh, pleaded no contest to tax evasion. Faced with certain banishment from baseball, Saigh sold the Cardinals to Anheuser-Busch in February 1953. Veeck soon realized that the Cardinals now had more resources at their disposal than he could hope to match, and decided to move the Browns out of town. As a first step, he sold Sportsman's Park to the Cardinals for $800,000. Busch immediately renovated the stadium, which had not been well maintained in some time. Even with the rent from the Cardinals, the Browns had not had nearly enough money to bring the park up to code. Meanwhile, by the next year, the Browns relocated to Baltimore and were renamed as the Orioles. The brewery originally wanted to name the ballpark Budweiser Stadium. Commissioner Ford Frick vetoed the name because of public relations concerns over naming a ballpark after a brand of beer. However, the commissioner could not stop Anheuser-Busch president August Busch, Jr. from renaming it after himself, so the park was renamed Busch Stadium. However, many fans still called it by the old name. The Anheuser Busch "eagle" model that sat atop the left field scoreboard flapped its wings after a Cardinal home run. The next year, Anheuser Busch introduced a new economy lager branded as "Busch Bavarian Beer", thus gaming Frick's ruling and allowing the ballpark's name to be branded by what would eventually be Anheuser-Busch's second most popular beer brand." - Wikipedia

[@compuspex]

It was renamed Busch Stadium when Anheuser Busch bought it and the team in 1953. Busch bought the Cardinals from Fred Saigh, who pled guilty to tax evasion, and the stadium from Browns owner Bill Veeck, who then moved the Browns to Baltimore. There were three sites in St. Louis named Sportsman's Park, this being the third and last one. Most people now refer to the place as Sportsman's Park to distinguish from the following two Busch Stadiums.

[@davanmani556]

Did Sportsman Park have lights?

[@aboxofbroken8tracks983]

Yes. Aside from Wrigley, Detroit was the last stadium to get lights, in 1948.

[@carolgriffith5386]

Great ballpark -- the Cards should still be playing there to this day, as the Cubs do in Wrigley and the RedSox in Fenway. The new Busch Stadium was one of those horrid concrete donuts -- a multi-purpose mess. Sportsman's Park was better, and should still be around.

[@funzo1159]

Same with Three Rivers and Ebbets (although parking at Ebbets was near-impossible). Everyone wanted a Jetsons-style stadium by the 1960's. Kudos to the city of Baltimore for keeping the feel of a real stadium alive.

[@steveswangler190]

three rivers was a cookie cutter, perhaps you mean old Forbes Field in Pittsburgh?

[@funzo1159]

Yes, Steve. My mistake. Forbes Field was a classic park.

[@Kiamichi-Okie]

Don't forget Crosley Field in Cinn., Connie Mack in Phil. Memorial in Baltimore, Municipal Stadium Cleveland.or Comiskey Park.Chicago.

[@ChrisCardenDrums]

You must not live in st louis (I say that because the neighborhood sportsmans park was in is HORRIBLE) And I agree, old Busch stadium sucked as all the multi purpose stadiums did

[@americangiant1003]

I am confused? I thought this was called Sportsman's Park? Why they state Busch Stadium? I thought the 2 ballparks at the current location was called Busch Stadium I and the existing one Busch 2? Just curious as someone not from St Louis. Thanks in advance to anyone who can answer these couple of questions. PS Going to send this video clip to my former supervisor/friend at an old job(he was not alive in 1966 like myself) who is from originally from the St Louis area and a lifelong Redbirds fan. Great video clip showing a huge milestone moment to one of the most under appreciated and Under rated championship clubs in sports history at least in North America.

[@jtleon7086]

A comment made above states it was changed to Busch a few yrs earlier

[@davidmartin7878]

Sportsman's Park was renamed Busch Stadium and is known as Busch I. The round, multipurpose stadium, where in the Summer you could glaze pottery, is Busch II. The new stadium is Busch III.

[@kipfogarty6832]

Our Giants ruined their party. But it was a great old ball park, much better than the monstrosity they built to replace it.

[@disoriented1]

Seems like the Missouri History Museum needs to be renamed the "St. Louis History Museum"...

[@bots08]

+disoriented1 someone's jealous.

[@olivercrangle7160]

Until 2021,this was the last place with segregated seating.Now,the Mets and the Yankees are bringing it back with vaccination and non-vaccination sections.

[@mactheknife7049]

Good. Unvaccinated nitwits need to be kept separate from those of us with common sense.

[@jeffreymcfadden9403]

busch was the first of the do-nut stadiums. riverfront,3 rivers etc

[@OldRustySteele]

Hi, Jeffrey, no offense, but Busch II wasn't the first. The first of the circular, multi-purpose stadiums was D.C. Stadium (now called RFK Stadium) in Washington, DC, where the Washington Senators and Washington Redskins played. That stadium was built in 1961, 5 years before the Cardinals played at Busch Memorial Stadium in May '66. The second and third of the "donut stadiums" was a tie! Atlanta's Fulton County Stadium, home of the Braves and the Falcons, and the Houston Astrodome both opened on April 9, 1965. For the Astrodome, the configuration with the first & third base movable seats were nearly identical to Busch. The Dome did not have an Upper Terrace (cheap seats) section in the outfield way above the bleachers like Busch -- in the Dome, those seats ended just beyond the foul poles on either side. Instead, the Dome had that enormous animated scoreboard above both LF and RF bleachers. They took that out and put in upper level cheap seats to increase capacity for Houston Oiler football games in the mid-1980's. What folks don't remember is that the Oilers played at Rice Stadium for 5-6 years after the Dome was built, and didn't move into the Dome when it was brand new.So Busch II was really the 4th of the multi-purpose, circular stadiums.Oakland Coliseum (Raiders and later the A's) opened in Fall 1966 for the football season, so it was 5th.Cincinnati's Riverfront and Pittsburgh's Three Rivers both opened for the 1970 baseball season. Only 3 still exist: RFK in Washington (The Nationals played there when the Expos moved there from Montreal for 2 years. They still play MLS soccer there), Oakland. This one was by far and away the worst of the group since they laid the football field "east-west" with the endzones past 1st and 3rd bases for baseball, and ensuring even the best field boxes for baseball were very far from the baselines and making foul territory humongous. (Pitchers loved it - lots of foul ball pop outs). Then Al Davis had the OF bleachers replaced and tall stands built in the 1990's for the Raiders which blocked the beautiful view of the California mountains. A's fans still cynically call those stands Mt. Davis. :-). Once the Raiders move to Vegas, I wonder what the A's will do. Renovate again, or move? The Astrodome. It sits vacant, in the same parking lot as the Houston Texans new stadium NRG Stadium (formerly Reliant Energy) Stadium. They can't decide whether to blow it up, or repurpose it. I grew up in St Louis, but later lived in Cincinnati and later yet, Houston. Of the "donut stadiums" I've been to Busch II, Riverfront, The Astrodome, and Oakland Coliseum.Last point: Two more multi-purpose stadiums from that era come to mind, which aren't quite "donuts".San Diego Stadium (later Jack Murphy Stadium and eventually Qualcomm Stadium). It opened in 1967 for the Chargers, then the Padres became an expansion team in 1969. Rather than donut shaped, it was a square with curved (think bulged-out) sides. Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. This opened in 1971. Similar "bulged square" shape, but even bigger.Both of these were arguably a better shape to accommodate both football and baseball, but The Vet in Philly, was enormous and it's upper deck was so high that you needed oxygen to climb to the top. Also they built too many seats in the upper deck and not enough in the lower deck. I was never there, but they tell me it was far better for football than baseball.BTW, I'm 64, so I got to see Cardinal games at the "first" Busch Stadium (was Sportsman's Park until 1953) as a little kid, but Busch II was where I saw most of the Cardinal games I attended in my life.Hope that helps.Cheers !

[@richardmiller3919]

Busch Stadium 11 was the most beautiful, they talked about adding roof and dropped it due to costs. It should have done.. if so, probably never have Busch 111

[@robbybonfire9944]

Sportsman's Park? The name was changed to Busch Stadium several years before. And Sportsman's Park would be politically incorrect, today, so that you will never again have a name like that. Of course all parks have to be named after banks or some such conglomerate, today, so the whole topic is a moot point.

[@nate_kang]

why would it be politically incorrect?

[@downtownbobbybrown6237]

@@nate_kang Yea why ?

[@TheBatugan77]

Yeah! WHY!

[@superfly9173]

Idiotic statement. Politically incorrect? Where do you get your ideas laser brain

[@user-pu2cj3no5f]

How about Sports person's park.