I'm outside of Chicago right now, in town for the Cards/Brewers series. Tonight is my first Cards game of the season, my first time at Miller Park and my first time in several years seeing the Cards in their away jerseys. Here are some scattered thoughts about the game:

- Miller Park is an interesting place. The giant, steel geisha fan of a dome was closed tonight, I guess it must have been raining somewhere else. The parking lots have a midwestern musical amphitheater feel to them: connected to the venue, $6, incredibly big and full of folks drinking. So far, I like this place.

- We were late to the game. Hey, you try driving for 6 hours and then feeding a 1.2 year old a jar of turkey/vegetable paste and still get to the game on time.

- Saw Pujols hit his solo HR through the cracks as we circled Miller Park to find our seats. I was surprised by how may Cardinal fans represent. Proud to be wearing the red tonight.

- I'm all in favor of the Cards returning to their away powder blue uniforms. The grays just look like my old white T-shirts, you can't really tell if they're clean or dirty or what color they really are.

- Ben Sheets: Great thrower of the ball over a tiny plate with a batter guarding it, horrible thrower of the ball to 1st base. But you definitely take runs off this guy any way you can get them. Should have also charged Jenkins with a throwing error.

- Some stats from the Miller Park big screen:

Albert Pujols is the 7th youngest player ever to hit 500 RBIs.
Reggie Sanders has 12 career World Series hits.

and you thought you knew the Cardinals.

- If you've been following this blog, you may have read about my fantasy footrace between Pagnozzi and Pujols. Well, after watching Molina try to beat out a well-hit ball into the SS/3B hole tonight, I'd say he'd lose to both those guys. Yes, even a present-day Pagnozzi.

- After Eckstein walked, in what was a great example of a quality plate appearance, he sprinted to 1B. I dig the meaningless hustle.

- In Yady's defense, he blocked at least 2 nasty pitches in the dirt. I'm happy with him behind the plate and believe, with some hard work and a little luck, he'll pull his current offensive numbers up to the golden crest of Mike Matheny.

- Is the gun at Miller Park calibrated properly? Derrick Turnbow is throwing 97-98mph heat. The hottest smoke off Izzy's fingertips was more like 94.

- Suppan through 8: 93 pitches, 33 balls, 60 strikes. Cardinal's Soup is Mmmm, Mmmm... Good.

- Rolen's numbers this season are sad. As a fantasy fanatic, I couldn't tell if it was a slow start, a flukey start or what. In person, he looks like he's really fighting himself at the plate. Rolen doesn't have the prettiest swing around, but it's compact and he's as strong as an 8-cylinder hemi. Now he looks confused and awkward, like he's swatting flies with boat oars.

- Some more about Miller Park, then I'm out until tomorrow. On the inside, and compared to the Metrodome, MP is a shrine to baseball. There's grass, the walls are blues, the park is comfortingly typical. I'm sure on nice days, with the sun out and the steel blinds drawn, it's gorgeous. With tickets stepping up the 5/10/12... dollar range, who can argue? But it's a little too bland for me. The main CF scoreboard is ridiculously plain and gigantic, and at least to me slightly confusing to read. I also feel as if the game itself is competing for the fans' attention with the video shenanigans. Baseball Powers that Be, please realize this is not a necessary ballpark feature to get new fans -- the game is already inherently interesting. I'm also not a fan of sticking the manual league-wide scoreboards in the outfield walls themselves, but that's just me.

Overall, tonight's game was a sleeper, fast in time, slow in action. Two great pitching efforts by a great and an average pitcher, and not much else other than a solo shot by the modern game's greatest hitter, plenty of drunk chatter, a sausage race, some cheerleaders and a beer polka rather than "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". But it was my 1.2 year old nephew's first Cardinal game ever.

He clapped a lot, and he couldn't see the TV.