Final Opening Game
April 8, 2005
A Panoramic View at Busch Memorial Stadium – The Rob Arra Collection

After 40 years of great baseball memories, the useful life of Busch Stadium had come to an end. Built as part of the regrettable generation of multi-purpose roundhouse stadiums of the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was nonetheless the best of its breed, and after its 1996 renovation, became a very attractive and comfortable ballpark. Nonetheless, the need for more luxury suites, better sightlines, and warmer accommodations for the players and staff, led to the building of the new Busch Stadium next door, to open for the 2006 season.

With picture-perfect clarity, The Rob Arra Collection presents the historic final Opening Day at old “Round” Busch Stadium. As with all prints in Arra’s vast collection of panoramic sporting stadium prints, every detail is in perfect focus, and as you pan across the wide-angle panoramic image, you feel like you are there, under the bright blue spring sky, on a legendary day at the ballpark. From the finely groomed field, to the standing-room-only red-clad crowd on its feet, to the scoreboards and billboards, to half of the 96 arches crowning the stadium – and the one arch that really matters towering above the right-field bleachers, it’s all here, in brilliant color and crystal-clear clarity. Whether you were at the game that day to see Mark Mulder’s debut and an exciting comeback victory, are a long-time Cardinals fan who grew up watching baseball at Busch, or are simply a fan of ballparks and baseball history, this remarkable print is for you! A must-have collector’s item for the wall of any fan, perfect for a nice frame and a prominent place on the wall of home or office.