It's hard to believe Minute Maid Park/Enron Field is in its eighth season, but it's true. And despite the fact that in my head, it's a house of horrors for the Cards, they've managed to post a 30-28 regular season record down there in its lifespan. Unfortunately, in the postseason, it hasn't been so rosy; the Astros swept the Cards 3-0 in the 2004 NLCS, and if it wasn't for a certain Brad Lidge-served moon shot by Albert Pujols, they would've been swept 3-0 in the 2005 NLCS as well. Still, that's one win in six postseason games down there, which is awfully ugly. It's enough to forget about the couple of times the Cards swept series down there during the regular season.

Despite all that trauma still somewhat fresh in my mind, your intrepid TBW.com travel correspondent ventured into the lion's den last weekend for the Cards' first road series of 2007. It was a fun weekend, as they took two of three from the hated Astros, despite some unseasonably awful weather (highs were in the low 50s Saturday and Sunday, with rain). Observations, opinions and displays of photographic skill are shown after the jump.

Friday night's game actually took place on a beautiful spring night, and was a special occasion: Jeff Bagwell Appreciation Night. From all of the wrath Bags imposed on the Cardinal franchise throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, I still had a healthy respect for the guy as a player and a person (the same goes for Craig Biggio). So naturally, I was on my feet applauding for the guy when he came out of the Astros' dugout.

The Astros' public relations/graphics/whatever departments were pretty clever, too; on Friday for Bagwell Night, each player in the starting lineup got a Bagwellesque goatee photoshopped onto their face on the scoreboard. Some were funnier than others (as many of them almost looked natural), but this one was easily the best:

Also, the Astros' 2007 slogan was Return of the Good Guys, an homage to Westerns, I guess. Pictures everywhere showed the likes of Oswalt, Biggio, Berkman, and Lee in menacing poses with bats on their shoulders, and it was a consistent theme. They went a little overboard with the enormous banners on the exterior walls of the ballpark, I think, but their displays on the scoreboard when the Cards came up were also pretty clever:

From the outside, Minute Maid Park is actually not all that bad looking. The steel beams painted green offer a nice contrast to whatever portion of the facade they are paired with (i.e. glass walls, brick areas, and white roof), and the landscaping around the park is very nice. (I didn't take any good pictures of the exterior, mostly thanks to the weather.) The Astros also included a Houston landmark into the design of the ballpark by using the old Union Station building as the club's offices out beyond the left field facade; however, it's not quite as prominent a feature as the Western Metal Supply building in San Diego.

As for the interior of the ballpark, it's been labeled as ridiculous by some, and I for one have been an outspoken opponent of the Crawford Boxes being so close to home plate (case in point, the Berkman home run in Game 5 of the '05 NLCS). But being at a game there, especially when you're sitting down the first base line on a night with the roof open, it's not quite as obscene:

Still, the Chick Fil-A foul poles, the hill, the flag pole, the Crawford Boxes, the giant gas pump, the locomotive complete with tender full of oranges for God's sakes... it's very gimmicky, but most new ballparks are. But the roof... oh dear, the roof. As an open-air ballpark, Minute Maid actually wasn't that bad. But with the roof closed, it's very odd. Especially when it clears out towards the end of games - you can hear a lot of things that you normally wouldn't hear, even in an empty open-air ballpark. Plus, the lighting is really, really strange during the day.

Pictured above is Kip Wells, who was absolutely dealing in the series finale on Easter Sunday. Wells only allowed three baserunners (one hit, one walk, one hit batsman) in seven shutout innings while striking out eight. Brad Lidge, however, was not dealing; his wildness and resulting blowup on Sunday in mop-up duty caused Phil Garner to remove him from the closer's role despite only getting one save opportunity in the Astros' first five games. It's always nice to see Lidge face Albert Pujols, although on this particular occasion Brad got the better of the matchup, forcing a grounder to short (which Adam Everett made an tough-luck error on). The best part about Lidge's appearance, however, was his battle with Yadier Molina:

Ball, Y Molina doubled to deep center, S Rolen and S Spiezio scored, D Borkowski relieved B Lidge

The "ball" was a fastball up and in that knocked Yady to the ground. Whether it was intentional or not is questionable, as Lidge was all over the place with his fastball, but it's nice to see Yady get back in there turn on the very next pitch for an extra-base hit.

Other notes:
• The lines at the concession stands were as slow as any ballpark I've ever seen. On Friday night, I missed seeing the Wainright-Molina double play while waiting at a stand and on Sunday I spent two full innings out in the concourse in line. Also, I saw the longest non-postseason line at a men's room I've ever noticed at a ballpark, which went about twelve people strong out the door.

• The food, however, was excellent. They have stands called Rose's Taqueria that have fairly inexpensive ($4.25!) chicken and/or steak fajitas. The chili cheese fries from the regular stands, albeit more expensive ($6.25) are very good as well. If only they had T-bone steaks... after all, it is Texas.

• The Crawford Boxes don't feel quite as much on top of left field as I expected. Still, they weren't bad seats, if you can get 'em.

• Astros fans... uh, I think I'll be nice and say they suffer from entertainment-only syndrome. Guys like Brad Ausmus and Chris Burke got, inexplicably, some of the loudest ovations I heard all weekend. Craig Biggio's "hit counter", located on the left field wall next to the giant gas pump (and in front of the windmill), also appeared to be the most popular feature of the ballpark for these fans. Not once did I hear the words "Hunter Pence" uttered.

All in all, it was a good weekend (how could it not be if the Cards take the series?), but I was overall disappointed by Minute Maid. I prefer my ballparks to be a little less gimmicky than your average fan (New Busch as well), so perhaps I'm more sensitive than others, but Minute Maid just appeared to be much more over the top than other new ballparks I've seen. If I had to rank it, I'd put it a notch below the class of PNC, Petco, and Camden Yards, perhaps slotting it beneath Great American and Citizen's Bank but ahead of the likes of New Busch and New Comiskey.