106-year-old Cardinals fan honored, reflects on baseball memories

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Take yourself back in time, sitting in Sportsman’s Park in your Sunday best, penciling in your scorecard and sipping on a red and white striped straw in a glass coke bottle you bought for just a few cents at the concession stand.

That’s what Arnold Vouga did for fans at Busch Stadium Friday evening, embodying the Cardinals’ 2015 slogan ‘Where Tradition Meets Today,’ when he was honored by Edward Jones for his life-long dedication to being a St. Louis Cardinals fan. Vouga is 106-years-old and will turn 107 next month.

He remembers the 1926 World Series between the Cardinals and Yankees, involving Babe Ruth’s famous home run. Ruth, an iconic baseball figure — etched in time, is one of Arnold’s favorite players to reminisce.

“Babe Ruth started as a pitcher, if I remember correctly, before becoming a star home run hitter,” said Vouga.

He remembers running into Stan Musial at the cigar counter at Ladue Pharmacy and doing business with Marty Marion, as the first building commissioner in Frontenac.

“I remember doing a little business with [Marion] when I was building commissioner in Frontenac. He bought some real estate or had something to do with buying some land there,” Vouga recalled. “He was a pretty good shortstop.”

Vouga — son of immigrant parents, who settled in St. Louis after coming over from Europe and going through Ellis Island — was a part of the foundation of the Gateway City.

”They had the first paper route in St. Louis and they saved their money,” Vouga’s son, Jerry, explained, with his sister, Nila Vouga-Morris, adding that her dad had the first car on Conway Road. “Their true love was farming and they came out and bought a lot of property in a place called Frontenac now.” — A sound investment if you are familiar with the St. Louis community.

Arnold’s investment in Cardinals baseball also paid off during his ceremony Friday evening, when he threw out the first pitch and stepped foot on a Major League Baseball field for the first time in his 106 years, with the help of his family.

Also the Hardee’s Star of the Game, Arnold cuts straight to the point and likes to joke about Babe Ruth being chubby and telling Stan-the-Man that cigars are bad for you.

After recounting his memories of Cardinal baseball and his connection to its past, his daughter Nila pointed out that his hearing aids were Whitey Herzog’s sponsored hearing aids.

“Those are his?” Vouga asked. “I put $4,000 in those ears, they ought to be good.”

He sure knows how to make a room laugh — also tug at the heart-strings on the flip of a hat.

“I kind of hope that they’ll play baseball in heaven.”

We do too Arnold, we do too.

~Teryn Schaefer

Teryn Schaefer is a reporter and producer for the St. Louis Cardinals and #CardsInsider