By John Jarvi
Local Sports Journal

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Just add one more experience to a life of attending sports events.

We’ve been to and covered the 1982 Super Bowl — number XVI — “the other day” in Pontiac, and now we’ll be trying something different tonight. The new event will be Game 4 of the World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox.

It became possible when our son, Steven, and his wife moved here this summer. Then the Cardinals cooperated by reaching the series, although the Detroit Tigers forgetting to move on didn’t help. Still, we’ll sacrifice and go.

The funny thing is the amount of sports-related activities going on here this weekend.

The Rock ‘N Roll St. Louis Marathon and its thousands of runners are shutting down a number of downtown streets today, and the National Football League’s Monday Night Football game also is here. But still, the World Series will go on. Who cares about the Rams and Seattle Seahawks playing football? The Cardinals won Game 3 and lead the series 2-1, and weather permitting, Game 5 will be played here Monday.

St. Louis now has separate stadiums for its major league baseball and football teams, but it would have been funnier to see the scheduling war had both been using the old Busch Stadium, multi-purpose venue built in the late 1960s or so.

The impact shows up in little ways everywhere. Saturday you could see a blimp flying over the downtown area in the afternoon and at night. We attended the St. Louis Symphony concert and couldn’t guess at the number of people following Game 3 action on cell phones or whatever during the concert. During breaks, somebody always had the latest score to pass on to audience members sitting nearby.

I think the St. Louis Blues may have a home National Hockey League  game sometime this weekend, too, so that would be one more entertainment option, if anyone has the time to remember that game.

The funniest part is the effect elsewhere in the community. Even musical groups have gotten into the baseball promotion.

For the classical music lovers in the Local Sports Journal’s audience, go to YouTube’s site on the Web and type in “World Series Fever: BSO vs. SLSO.” Yes, it’s a new rendition of  “Take me Out to the Ball Game” and features the brass sections from the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra.

When I checked this morning, the view count was up beyond the 194,000 mark.

The really good news? The first speaker for the SLSO in the “shout-out” portion did play her trumpet solo and the winner of the “beard contest” — he’s from St. Louis — also played his trombone in the Saturday symphony concert. In other words, they stayed to do their jobs in the orchestra instead of going to the ballgame. Then again, both don’t have to work tonight or Monday night.

We’ll let you know Monday more about life at a World Series game. Go Cardinals!