Those are saxophones in St. Louis

From St. Louis

By Troy Foster

ST. LOUIS — Daren and I agree: Watching the Cardinals lose to their I-70 rivals Tuesday was about the biggest yawner so far on our BaseCrawl.

In typical BaseCrawl fashion, we were a few innings late to Busch Stadium. When we got there, we couldn’t find our seats because they were on the VERY TOP ROW. And when we finally did find them, they were already occupied by Royals fans.

If you’ve been following my travels, you probably already know that I consider the actual game taking place on the field rather boring. I’m more interested in the culture surrounding Major League Baseball, the people we meet and the stuff we do for our video pods (which you’ll eventually find here). Besides, I don’t really have a favorite team anymore.

I probably only sit in my seat for 25 percent of the game. The rest of the time I’m walking around, talking to people and looking for the quirks that make each ballpark special.

For me, our day in St. Louis epitomizes this pattern. What I’ll take away from the Busch Stadium experience really has nothing to do with the Cardinals, the Royals, steroids or pine tar.

What interested us and occupied our attention as journalists and storytellers were the four gentlemen outside the stadium competing for dollars with their saxophones. That’s right, there were four different sax players, and each had staked out a separate place near the stadium to maximize traffic and revenue.

Daren and I spent the day with my good buddy Will Sites, who hosted us for three nights, fed us and played tour guide. We parked right next to Busch Stadium early on Tuesday, hiked over to the Gateway Arch and rode the washing machine to the top of it. By the time that thrill ride was over it was about 6 o’clock and time to head back to Busch.

On the way, we met our first sax player. He was a tall, animated guy whose lips were chapped as if he’d been playing the sax because his life depended on it. And his instrument looked like it was straight out of a museum. We assumed this would be the first and last sax player we encountered. 

At one point I asked him if he had any competition.

“Man, I have competition for everything, including my own wife,” he said.

He was right, because not five minutes later we heard another saxophone in the distance and decided to go with this theme for our video pod. We saw the guy in the distance, started heading his way and about tripped over another sax player crouched at the base of a staircase.

Unlike the first saxophonist, the guy at the base of the staircase told us he was a professional musician, and playing the streets was his full-time job. He was cool with the other sax players, and told us he even offered them pointers when he had the chance. 

The third sax player was a bit shy, and when we asked him if we could talk he initially said no because we’d cost him business. We offered a tip for his time, and after a little hesitation he opened up just a bit. He was a younger guy who, like the first saxophonist, played as a hobby for extra cash. We could tell he felt uneasy talking — and not playing — as the fans streamed by, so Daren dropped some money in his bucket and we were on our way.

We thought that was it and headed back to our vehicle to drop off some equipment before entering the stadium. Lo and behold, we found another saxophonist playing by our Jeep. He didn’t want to talk to us on camera, but like the other three players he agreed to play “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” 

We’ve seen musicians outside several of the stadiums we’ve visited, but this was the first time we saw four guys playing the same instrument. They had a lot of interesting insights to share, such as:

On a really, really good day a sax player near Busch Stadium can make upward of $100.

Whether the Cardinals are winning can have an effect on the size of the tip.

Playing the sax outside the ballpark is as much about loving music as it is loving money.

This is a part-time job for most of these guys — but not all.

There was a lot more, but because I no longer act like a print journalist I haven’t been writing any of this down. It’s all on film, though, and when I get home and start editing it together I think you’ll be interested in what these guys had to say.

But I’m not really sure I’ll make it home. Gas prices are killing us and right now our project is over budget.

It probably didn’t help that we dropped $30 in tips to four saxophonists.

(There’s more on this and our other adventures at BaseCrawl.com.)