Larry Crites, park superintendent for the city of Festus, looks over the item listing while sitting in a baseball glove-shaped chair in the Coca-Cola Redbird Roost. (ROBERT COHEN/P-D)

For some reason, the icemakers were the hot item.

Forget the Diamond Vision video monitor the length of a house, the scoreboard that recorded Big Mac's record-breaking homers, the batting cages where dozens of Cardinals sluggers honed their craft.

No, in the first frame of the Busch Stadium going-away sale, the catch of the day seemed to be the dozens of icemakers at the ballpark. They are, shoppers say, perfect for a party at the lake house or the snack bar at a minor league field.

"You can never have enough small icemakers," said Dennis Bastien, the former general manager of a Cardinals minor league team who was shopping for a baseball complex he now operates in Elkville, Ill.

As the Cardinals rush to complete their new ballpark by April, they are also unloading most anything that will fetch a dollar at their current roost before it is reduced to rubble.

Tuesday was the beginning of a silent auction where stadium fixtures - from nacho pots and luxury box furniture to tractors and rakes - were available for bid.

Fans looking for memorabilia - that's nearly everything with a Cardinals logo - will have to wait for another auction this fall.

The seats, too, already have been sold. Tuesday's sale, which continues today, attracted business owners, government officials and fans from around the region who wanted to take home a piece, albeit an obscure one, of a baseball institution.

A dirt grinder anyone? A piece of the press box buffet? How about the official team forklift?

Gary Burke was batting cleanup for his team, the St. Louis Brews, a home-brewing club. He was shopping for one of the many beer pouring and cooling setups around the stadium.

"That way you can have beers on tap at your house," said Burke, of Oakville.

If that's not your slice of nirvana, there are plenty of other Busch gems available: mascot Fredbird's car, the scoreboard, outfield signs, field bleachers used by the old football Cardinals, the "Pitcher's Dream" game in the Family Pavilion.

Foot traffic was light enough that the firm managing the sale, Schneider Industries, is encouraging potential bidders without an appointment already to visit the stadium today.

"Come on down," said Bruce Schneider, the firm's president.

Bids, which also can be placed online at www.bidonbusch.com, will be accepted through next week. Winners will be notified by Sept. 9.

By asking for a $5,000 fully refundable deposit at the gate, Schneider was looking to discourage anybody from turning the stadium walk-through into an opportunity for a VIP tour.

But, in some ways, that's exactly what it was - a chance to see parts of Busch that few in the public have seen, ones that will never be seen again after the end of the season.

The exquisite, field-level corporate luxury boxes. The cleat marks in the center-field wall. A batting cage near the clubhouse where on Tuesday a tabby cat was taking his afternoon nap. Gazing out at left field through rows of empty seats, Rob Libera acknowledged there was something slightly macabre about bidding on the guts of a doomed stadium with 21 regular-season home games left.

Like dividing the estate of a living relative, he said.

"Still on life support, and we are picking through the belongings," said Libera, a third-generation Cardinals fan who runs an organization that employs developmentally disabled adults.

The sentimentality, though, was fleeting enough to give way to bargains. Libera is preparing his bid for a hot dog stand, dining room furniture and, of course, a Fredbird menu board.

Reporter Jake Wagman
E-mail: jwagman@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-622-3580