Courtesy of www.stl-sportszone.comFor the sports fan in all of us, the quest for the World Series is an exciting one, and being in the right environment during October baseball makes the experience all that much better. For the population of baseball fans at Washington University, the options for great places to watch playoff baseball-and especially the hometown Cardinals-is out there. Even if you think Duffy’s is the coolest place on Tuesday nights, you may want to venture out into the surrounding city to find some truly unique places and people.
St. Louis can’t rival other cities like Chicago, Boston or New York for stadium hotspots, but come playoff time there are some pretty good places to catch playoff fever.
Ozzie’s
Obviously known for famous Cardinal shortstop Ozzie Smith, this place isn’t one to do a back flip over. Located in Westport Plaza, out in the middle of suburbia, you will find a packed house on game days with a plan menu and large TVs. However, you do have a good drive ahead of you and if you plan on going that far, there are plenty of places closer and much better.
Fairmount Park
OK. You’re wondering why the hell a horseracing track is on this list. Well, the way I see it, some people like me aren’t the biggest baseball fans and think games can be rather slow or boring. If you travel east to Illinois, you will find Fairmount Park right off I-64E. For baseball games on Thursday and Friday nights this is the pick of the bunch. For the 21-and-over crowd, a $10 cover gets you admission into the Black Stallion room, an all-you-can-eat buffet and $1 Bud Light or Mich Ultra all night. This clearly has the best of both worlds where you can gamble, eat, drink and maybe catch a few innings of the game.
St. Louis Sports Zone
Located southwest of campus, this place is arguably one of the best places to watch a game. With a wall of TVs that include four 96″ TVs, seven 42″ HDTV’s and a grand total of 50 TVs in the 7,500 square foot space, this place is most definitely the “Sports Zone.” They also have darts, games and billiards. However, I would caution fans that plan on rooting against the Cardinals of going here. This is Cardinals territory. To make it all that better, on Monday nights they have Ultimate Fighting paired up with Monday Night Foofball, along with $2.50 “You-Call Its.”
Al Hrabosky’s Ballpark Saloon
Besides being an essentially over-sized tool shed and boasting a name that isn’t really involved in ownership, this place is pretty good. Events at the Saloon have included Illinois Basketball Headquarters at the Final Four and a filming of Girls Gone Wild last summer. This place has quite a diverse offering. Cold Budweiser, a large patio and its location make it a popular destination for the Cardinal faithful. Located just three blocks south of Busch Stadium and across the street from Paddy O’s.
Paddy O’s
This is by far the best place to watch a game. They are only scheduled to be open game days for Cardinals because the other 250+ days they are counting all the money they make. It’s a plain bar with nothing special about it except the volume of the people that frequent it. Three back bars serve up some of the largest volume of A-B products and other mixed drinks. They shut the street down and turn Paddy O’s into a block party on game days. Arguably the most exciting aspect of Paddy O’s is the frequent visits of Cardinals players after the game. If you’re lucky, you might be able to party with Chris Carpenter, Albert Pujols and the rest of the gang.