For most WashU students, there are just eight miles and a short metro ride that separate campus from Busch Stadium. For 2021 graduate Ryan Loutos, the journey was a little more complicated. 

In 2021, WashU’s pitching ace turned down a software engineering job to play minor league baseball. Three years later, he’s beginning to reap the rewards of the decision to chase his dream.  

The St. Louis Cardinals began last season with postseason aspirations, but sputtered early and never recovered en route to a last-place finish and a 71-91 record.

If you’re spending the summer in St. Louis, you’ll find plenty of fun activities to keep yourself busy. Here are some of our favorites.

After a wild 162 game season, the Major League Baseball playoffs return to their normal format, as 10 teams will once again compete for the championship.

Rising senior Caleb Durbin was drafted for the Atlanta Braves in the 14th round and May graduate Ryan Loutos signed with the St. Louis Cardinals as an undrafted free agent.

The last time I was intimidated by somebody I was interviewing, I was a wee freshman walking into the office of Larry Kindbom, the head coach of the Washington University football team; it was my first ever interview for Student Life. But as I sat in my office, about to make the call that would be my last interview as editor-in-chief of StudLife, I was also sweating.

On a shelf of my bedroom in West Los Angeles sits a Manny Ramirez World Series MVP bobblehead. Somewhere buried in my closet are a Boston Red Sox championship hat and marginally hideous T-shirt featuring the Boston Globe’s post-victory newspaper front page.

Anybody but Boston. As a Yankees fan whose team tragically missed out on the playoffs, “anybody but Boston” was the team I was rooting for to win the World Series once the postseason began.

TREEmendous Join the folks at the Missouri Botanical Garden and Gamma Tree Experts for the ultimate outdoor activity: an arboreal scavenger hunt. From now until the end of September, you are invited to visit mobot.org, where you’ll find the coordinates for 30 of St. Louis’ most spectacular trees in parks all around the county and Illinois.