St. Louis Cardinals: Stadium Concepts; The Busches That Weren't

All over the Internet yesterday: These wonderful Busch Stadium concepts, from the period between Busch Stadium, nee Sportsmen's Park, and Busch Stadium II, the only stadium in St. Louis Cardinals history that doesn't look like it was built in the '20s or '30s. My favorite is this beautiful, streamlined version, which reminds me somehow of the Gateway Arch:

All of them are worth a look—I loved the Busch Stadium II we got, but this one would have resisted being torn down much more easily than our unloved multi-purpose cast-off, and since I do not love Busch Stadium III that strikes me as an entirely desirable compromise.

It says something about the regression in baseball stadium design that we're only now, in the last five years, being treated to ballparks that look as current as this one, like retro resistors Target Field and Nationals Park. The Cardinals appear, in hindsight, to have gotten in on the very end of the Camden Yard retropark trend—much like their pals the Rams, who got their new football-specific stadium at the exact moment retractable roofs came into style. Sorry about that!