Told this story but it has been a few years ago. I am a Cardinals fan. When I was a little boy growing up in mid missouri back in the 1960's the Cardinals ruled. The voice of Jack Buck, and back then Harry Carey, were commonplace in our home during the season. My dad took me to my first Cardinals game and when I walked into Busch Stadium it was the coolest thing I thought I had ever experienced. They were playing the Braves and Hank Aaron hit a grand slam in the game. When we got back home I was just hooked for life on Cardinal baseball. I thought if going to one Cardinals game was cool then a whole bunch would just be that much better. So I saved and saved, all my lawn mowing money, snow shoveling money, etc.Plus I already had a bike and ball glove so I needed nothing for christmas so I asked for some cash. The next year when the schedule came out I went over it and picked out 12 games. I said nothing to my dad about any of this. I wanted to surprise him. I took my money I'd saved and went up to City Bank in Moberly and met with Mr Graves, the bank president who knew my folks. I needed a money order to send the Cardinals. I showed Mr Graves the schedule and the 12 games I had picked out and handed him my cash. I was about 11 years old. I remember Mr Graves grinned and asked if Leon knew about my plans? I said, no, I was wanting to surprise him. He just grinned real big and said he was certain my dad would be very surprised. So with this done all I had to do was watch the mailbox like a hawk. Finally one day a large package came stuffed with box seat tickets to 12 Cardinals games. I was sitting at the kitchen counter with the package when my dad came home for lunch. He said what ya doing bud, I said hey pop, remember the Cardinals game and how much fun we had. He said sure, we will go again sometime soon. I grinned and said no problem, I took care of it all. He looked at me kind of strangely and said what do you mean? I handed him the package from the Cardinals, grinning from ear to ear. He said, oh, Cards tickets. Then he got to looking at saw it was for game after game after game, etc. He got the strangest look on his face. You have to understand we lived in Moberly which is about 150 miles from St Louis so round trip for night games was no small thing. Well the bottom line is my dad took me to every single one of those games. He could have said we will go to some and sell the other tickets but he didn't. We went to every game. Mostly night games. It would be very late when we got home and poor dad would have to get up early to work. But I will never forget that season and all the time dad and I spent going to Cardinals games. We always called that our Cardinals summer. It was also the last time I ever got any cash for christmas. I told this story when I spoke at dads funeral. Kind of summed up what kind of dad I had. The story was also featured in a book by the author Rich Wolfe about Cardinals fans. Good memories.
Anyway, that is my story of becoming a St Louis Cardinals fan.