cubbynole

I've been to STL thrice, three different decades, and the purpose of each trip involved baseball games. First went in the early 90s, wasn't well traveled, but downtown seemed like any "big city" at the time to a kid from a city of 50k. Took another trip in the late 00s, still a decent atmosphere with folks going to the game, but being a bit more traveled, noticed it was clearly a lower tier city; most recently visited in early 2022, parking in a garage between Busch and the Enterprise Center and it was eerie. Very few people and it just felt sketchy (and these were afternoon games), it was fine once you got immediately to the stadium, I don't know if Ballpark Village just sucked the life out of everywhere else for gameday traffic or what, but other than Arlington (which didn't feel eerie, just desolate), I'd never seen such a dead area near a big league ballpark.

ETA: despite username, no real bias against the city, I was a WGN kid so no Chi vs Stl city rivalry for me. People were always nice inside the stadium, and aside from the past couple of seasons, they've always had great home crowds.

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What’s like independent minor league like? Bottom of the barrel? Are most good prospects in a league affiliated with a MLB team?

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There's a reason the Savannah Bananas don't play "real" baseball, and that is the answer to your quesiton.

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The existing carriers have attempted to expand service in BTR over the years & can't fill a 50 passenger plane. AA has cut back the DCA flight to just a few days a week. I doubt Southwest ever starts service here. MSY is just too close to much of the BTR market. I've always been curious as to what % Southwests MSY passengers are actually from BTR.

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This. Southwest leans heavily into leisure travel. All of the panhandle airports (PNS, VPS, ECP) have Southwest and they load up on weekends during the summer months (PNS has daily flights to/from BNA, HOU, AUS, DAL, STL, MDW, MCI, and DEN during the summer, I imagine its the same at VPS and ECP) Knoxville is at least a gateway to the Smokies, whereas nobody is flying into BTR for leisure with MSY right there.

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Following and appreciate all this information as well, we plan to go towards the middle/end of June for about 4-5 days in Chicago (River North), Cubs game, drinking and eating around the area, then Amtrak to Milwaukee for about 4 days, Brewers game and eating drinking, Summerfest for a day then Amtrak back to Chicago for a day then fly back out of O'Hare.
From everything is read we should be able to use public transportation for everything except the Amtrak. Blue Line from O'Hare to downtown, Redline to Wrigley Field, area is safe and walkable.

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Advice I'll always give, especially those who wisely use public transportation, fly into Midway if you can, much closer to the loop and much easier than O'Hare. Edited to add: Union Station is about a three block walk from the Quincy loop station, so easy public transportation use there as well (provided you don't have a ton of luggage).

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Been to Sloane to see the Cubs, got there early, walked around the complex and saw players on all the different fields doing their thing. Did the outfield berm for the game, bring a blanket and stake out a spot. It ain't cheap, but if you can get past that - it's a cool experience.

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Went out a few years ago and chased the Cubs around for a week, got to see most of the parks, liked Sloan (they had Old Style) and Salt River (or whatever D-Backs/Rockies facility) were the nicest. The Cubs (and Dodgers) premium is a real thing. It was wild seeing tickets for $10 for the other games and having to pay $50 to the Cubs.

Rose Bowl is the best bet for a Saturday game against the NFL because unlike all of the other sites in the rotation, no NFL team plays there. The championship games are played on Monday, for sure because of TV, but you can't discount stadium availability for potential NFL home playoff games. That said, wrap it up before the NFL regular season is over and angle for the Saturday of week 18 as the NCG.

Miami probably doesn’t get in if Virginia wins the ACC.

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Florida State was #4 in the BCS, needed #2 UCLA and #3 Kansas State to lose that day.

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And the transitive property Gods were on their side, Texas A&M (who they beat) knocked off K State and Miami (who they beat) knocked off the Bruins.

Very myopic views. The games this year were closer than last years first round. And of course, the four team playoff was blowout fest, 14 of the 30 games were decided by 20 or more.

Tulane joins these schools in getting beat by 20+ in a playoff game:

Florida State
Oregon (x2)
Oklahoma (x2)
Michigan State
Ohio State (x2)
Notre Dame
Alabama
Clemson
Cincinnati
Michigan
TCU
Washington
SMU
Tennessee

James Madison actually lost by less than the average college football playoff game since its inception

The average margin of victory in this year’s first round, featuring 2 G5 schools, was 16.25, which is 3 points closer than last years first round margin of victory which included all p4 schools (and Notre Dame). The average margin was also closer than the average college football playoff game as a whole since the inception in 2014 (which averages a 17.4 point margin of victory)

If this was "last Sunday" meaning the 7th - that was fog on the gulf coast. Was flying into Pensacola, we were ten minutes from landing (just before 4:00 PM) and diverted to Atlanta, Southwest finally cancelled the flight around 9:00 PM, didn't leave until Monday morning. Weather issue, not the fault of the airline. You can always ask, but they can't do shite about the weather.