On the morning of Friday, September 6, my day began differently than that of many of my friends. My friends and classmates were stressed about their AP US history quiz covering the causes and effects of the American revolution. Instead I was busy taking ground balls and fly balls playing center field down at Busch Stadium.
Big League Impact is a charity organization founded by former Cardinal Adam Wainwright and his brother. The charity has used the idea of having a fantasy football league become one of their main fundraising events each year. In this fantasy football event participants are granted permission to be let onto the field and get the entire MLB game day experience. You can bid on auction items and learn more about the organization by clicking this link Big League Impact.
Just a few weeks prior my mother presented me with a question. She asked if I wanted to play fantasy football with the Cardinals. Of course I said yes and on that September morning I made sure to grab my glove and a baseball (for autographs) and my uncle and I rushed to the stadium. I was not really sure what to expect, all that I knew was that I was going to meet some players. When we arrived at one of the Clark Avenue entrance gates we saw a big circle of people who were waiting for the same thing as us. In the middle of this circle were workers with Big League Impact apparel on. When they assumed everyone had arrived the group of workers with the gear on led us into the stadium and into these big glass doors. This area is like the “VIP” area, it is the entrance of the green seats area. Inside these doors is a lounging area, a bar, booths, etc.
The workers told us that we were to take a seat and we would receive a schedule for the day. When I handed this little slip of paper, I saw that at 10:45 am my group, group 2, were going to enter onto the field and take pictures and play catch. So when that time had arrived we were led onto the field and we did just that. My group consisted of about 20 or so people and when we stepped onto the field we all were struck with the same reaction. We all did a full 360 look of the stadium. One of the workers led us into right field where some of the Cardinals coaches were standing with a bat in hand and a bucket of baseballs right next to them. For the next 30 minutes we took ground balls and fly balls until we were led into the dugout where we waited in a line to shake hands and take pictures with the founder of this event Adam Wainwright as well as Cardinals starting pitcher Kyle Gibson. After that we went back into the lounge area where we did a Q/A with some of the Cardinal participants in the league. At the end of this activity it was only about 12:15, almost 5 or so hours until game time. So during this time period we were encouraged to leave the stadium and go get lunch out somewhere. My uncle and I headed back to my house and had lunch there until game time. We were given instructions to come back to the stadium two hours before game time and we would get to watch the Seattle Mariners take batting practice. When watching them taking batting practice I was able to call over the Mariners young superstar outfielder Julio Rodriguez and he autographed my baseball. At first pitch the participants in this league had their very own suite in the stadium and this is where we watched the game.
To summarize my experience, I would say that I had a great time that Friday. Although there were a few flaws such as the massive gaps between activities and break times it was still amazing. At first I was quick to judge just because my expectations were set so high but after I reflected on the time I had, I realized how lucky I was to experience this. I first started to reflect on my experience right after I had gotten the autograph. I realized that I got this ticket just because my mother has a certain job with openings to opportunities such as these.
