Talk about your “how cool is that?” moments, Busch Stadium – home of the St. Louis Cardinals – hosted the high school baseball teams from Clarinda and Atlantic for an IHSAA game this past Sunday.

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I get to chat with Nate Rohr (KLIN Sports Director, Voice of Husker Softball, PA announcer for both Husker Football and the Kansas City Chiefs) occasionally about sports, which coincidently, if you’ve ever met me and were impressed with my sports acumen, think of me more as a well of information and this guy a fountain of knowledge. Anyway, he tells me that the Cardinals (Missouri Ozark variety) do this quite a bit now with high schools and Legion ball following Sunday home games. That in of itself is a pretty neat story.

With a packed schedule, I drove myself down to St. Louis Sunday morning for a 10:50 a.m. equipment check-in. I had reached out to Clarinda AD Eli Bales a few weeks prior to see if this would be something I could tag along for, and he and the rest of the staff welcomed me along. They even invited me over for lunch at Salt + Smoke, a BBQ joint in Ballpark Village!

Having to check my equipment left me without my good cameras and lenses however, so I had to snap some photos on my phone. I did see the statue of Hall-of-Famer Ozzie Smith, who for those that don’t know, played two seasons with the Clarinda A’s in 1975 and 1976. He still comes back to Clarinda often (the stories from this trip are plentiful).

Once inside, the MLB Cardinals were hosting the Miami Marlins (home team won 2-1). At the bottom of the 8th inning, we all met with Cardinals staff to head down for pregame preparations. Along the way, there may have been 5,000 kids lined up to run the bases. That line was loooong.

The St. Louis Cardinals gave the two teams a two-and-a-half hour time limit, and the goal was to get in a 7-inning varsity game, followed by two innings of JV ball. Clarinda jumped out to a 4-0 lead after the first half-inning, before cruising to a 12-8 win.

Cardinals (southwest Iowa variety) senior pitcher Kort Neal picked up the win after striking out five batters, while allowing six hits and four runs in six innings of action. Ryan and Nolan Wagoner (who’s dad and uncle I played football with) each had two hits, as did Warner Schmitt (who’s dad was in my class) and Creighton Bird. A lot of other players saw action too, and I was able to get quite a few photos.

One thing I did not get though were photos of the JV action. I went through two-a-days, basic training, and things like working in heat treat at Eaton Corporation as a younger man. In the summer of 2014, I helped my sister and her husband replace their roof. Me and Karen went up there on one of the hottest days of that summer before everyone else showed up and I began tearing off like a madman, just like my uncles taught me (they all roofed, which should tell you that these men aren’t soft, but if you ever want to hear a funny story, ask them which one has fallen off the fewest houses). I ended up having some level of heat-related illness and have not been the same since.

About the fifth inning, I placed myself in front of an industrial fan and was downing water. Clarinda legend and longtime EMT Joe Moore saw what was happening and came over. The high temperature in St. Louis ended up being 94 degrees that day. My heart was racing, my skin was pale, and the hairs on my arm were standing up. Joe said, “I think you’re done for the day, bud.”

Thanks are definitely in order, and it’s just another example of some of the incredible people and resources in the communities across our great country. Yes, we need folks living in high-up penthouses making shrewd decisions in corporate boardrooms, but every bit as important are the men and women who volunteer their time to help make our communities healthy and strong. There was a time when I didn’t see that so clearly.

So while I did come up short of getting several more photos, I was able to get pics of quite a few players. I’m probably done, but I do have a few more photos I could edit up if I looked a little closer.

I got back to Lincoln just in time for a meeting on Monday morning, and then it was back to the grindstone. Some great memories were made, some incredible action was captured, and another great sports atmosphere was felt.