David BrodySt. Louis was at its best Friday night.
Dozens of Washington University students joined thousands of celebratory St. Louisans in the streets of the Arch City just moments after the hometown Cardinals won their 10th World Championship on Friday evening.
The pervasive exuberance which filled the streets of downtown St. Louis was noticeably devoid of violence and destructive behavior, characteristics which have plagued some cities after championship victories.
Fans young and old, black and white, and rich and poor exchanged hugs and high-fives, blared car horns and danced in the streets and at surrounding bars until deep in the St. Louis night.
Jack Rosencrans, a freshman from Greenwich, Conn., hopped on the first available Metro train with a number of friends and headed downtown for the victory celebration. Though a Mets fan, Rosencrans characterized the Cardinals’ win as “amazing.”
“We’re in St. Louis and now we get to celebrate with a city that loves its baseball team,” he said.
Within minutes of the victory, Cardinal Nation had begun to purchase official championship memorabilia and special collector’s editions of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Many fans took pictures in front of the new Busch Stadium’s Stan Musial statue. One man stood on the flatbed of a Chevrolet Avalanche pickup truck holding a sign with the words “If you rebuild it, they will come,” a reference to the title coming in the inaugural season of the new Busch.
“The people are more civil, easier to deal with, more acceptable of outsiders,” said Dan Dwyer, 31, a licensed vendor of official championship merchandise, who hails from Franklin, Massachusetts, noting how much better behaved the Cardinal fans were than those of his native Boston Red Sox when they celebrated a World Series title two years ago.
Mike Farmer, 51, a lifelong Cardinals fan from Springfield, Illinois sat on a bench just blocks from the stadium with his 21 year-old son Nick, a student at Marquette University in Milwaukee who had come to town to join his father for Game 5. Smiling, the pair spoke reflectively on what the win meant to them.
“This World Series means to me the most because I got to share it with my son. This is super special. We love the Cardinals. We love St.Louis. This is a dream come true,” said Mike. “It’s well worth skipping school,” added Nick, as the pair shared a laugh.
Hy Safran, a Detroit native who now lives in Israel and graduated from Columbia University in the spring, came to St. Louis for the World Series and stayed with a friend who is a law student at WashU. He came to America for the playoffs and witnessed every Tigers game in the postseason, both home and away.
He described the Cardinal fans as “hospitable, inviting, warm. Throughout, people have been real supportive. It’s been a great environment,” said Safran who added that when he was watching the Tigers play the Yankees in New York, the fans there poured beer on him.
“I’ve really been blown away. From the World Series, I’ll remember the errors committed by our pitchers and I’ll remember the fans of St. Louis,” he said as a Cardinal fan came over to shake his hand in a conciliatory gesture.
The significance of the victory on the morale of the sometimes denigrated and divided city was not lost on many of the post-game partiers.
Jospeh McKinney, a day removed from his 32nd birthday and a lifelong resident of the city’s South Side put the win in its broader socioeconomic perspective. “We all celebrating. This brings the community together, the city together, the state together. We celebrating big.”
Jim Murphy, a city police officer of 15 years and St. Louis native, said that short of people “doing things really destructive or being an unbelievable nuisance,” fans would be permitted to celebrate.
And celebrate they did. The atmosphere became rowdier as the night progressed, but few incidents were reported and the area in front of Busch Stadium had mostly thinned out by 2:30 in the morning.
Just beyond Mike Shannon’s restaurant at about 12:30, fans danced in the streets to the music of Nelly and other hip-hop artists. Standing just next to a rap-blaring, bouncing GMC sport utility vehicle was a 13-year old who gave only the name Dexter. Perhaps Dexter best summed up the feelings of the thousands in St.Louis and beyond who were celebrating the Red Bird’s tenth title.
“This is tight. Everybody love the ‘Lou, boy.”
-Additional reporting by Brad Nelson