HISTORICAL COINCIDENCE

The St. Louis Blues were established in 1967, when the National Hockey League grew from six to twelve teams. By coincidence, that is the year I left NYC and showed up at St. Louis University. Fifty two years later, the Blues finally won the championship and I'm trying to retire. I'm not sorry life set me down here.

Running low on material. Got a theatrical production to shoot tonight.       

THURSDAY ARCH SERIES

Blues fans on a gray day. The semicircular structure on the lower left is the entrance to the Arch's wonderful underground museum.           

ALL THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT

https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/all-things-come-to-those-who-wait.html. Maybe. If you know something about probability, some events may take an awfully long time to come around. But it's wonderful, though, that this happened here, now.             

Viewpoint

It was impossible to get a spot on Market Street to view the Blues championship parade unless you arrived many hours early. Some people improvised, standing on the portico of what we call the Old Courthouse. It's part of the Gateway Arch National Park. Normally, park staff would have shooed them away quickly. Others avoided the problem by just hanging out in Kiener Plaza, soaking up the party atmosphere. Nobody got drunk and disorderly. There were no arrests, a bit surprising given the size of the crowd and river of beer.            

YAY FOR US

The crowd, as they say, went wild. I can't imagine, though, that this was really about a couple of dozen mercenary athletes paid to represent our city. I like to watch well-played sports (with the exception of football, the sanitized modern version of the Roman arena) for its beauty, skill, daring and competition. This vast street party, however, was about us, the people of the St. Louis area.

We are mid-sized and Midwestern, sometimes sneered at by the coasts and much bigger cities. There is a self-esteem problem. But look at us - our team went from worst to first, kicking the pants off every other team in the US and Canada. Yeah, St. Louis was the best of them all.

The memory will fade, but for this one brief shining moment we towered over all. And, as I have pointed out several times, The Lou loves an excuse to drink in public during the day.   

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS

As most of the US and Canada know, the St. Louis Blues improbably won the Stanley Cup, professional hockey's championship trophy. They had the worst record in the league on January 3, got a new coach and performed an amazing recovery. There was a huge victory parade and party yesterday, with the sound of Freddy Mercury's voice ocasionally hanging in the air. 

The authorities estimated that a half-million people turned out and I believe it. I couldn't get near the parade route itself but there was plenty of good people watching. The most common musical theme was a peppy 80's pop song, Gloria, that became the team's anthem. The Blues have been around for 52 years and never before won the championship. The city was bursting with joy.          

LET'S GO BLUES

I'm not a big fan of hockey but I'm aware of it. When I was young I used to go to occasional New York Rangers games. Right now, though, STL is gripped by hockey fever. Our team, the St. Louis Blues (good name, and the Blue Note is one of the best logos in sports) has made it to the championship finals for the first time in 49 years. The team had the worst record in the league on January 3, and now look. The town has gone absolutely nuts.

Our opponent is the fearsome Boston Bruins. Some sports writer described the match-up as Cinderella against Godzilla. Boston won the first game but the Blues were victorious last night, winning in overtime. I will be in Boston on the day of the fifth game, June 6. If I wear the appropriate hat, would the locals beat up an old guy with a cane?