Sports & Recreation >>

• Best Sports Figure Not Named Pujols (1 Comment)
  Stan Musial
  Everyone expected Stan Musial to get more attention during the opening ceremony to the 2009 MLB All-Star Game. Sure, what happened was nice enough — he rode in on a golf cart, the players and coaches waved, Joe Buck described him as "the heart and soul of the St. Louis Cardinals" and he... More >>
• Best Homeless Soccer Team
  St. Louis Roadies
  OK, so St. Louis only has one homeless soccer team. That's the point! Peter & Paul Community Services started the St. Louis Roadies in the spring of 2008 with modest hopes of attracting enough players to field a squad. The game is played four-on-four; the Roadies, coached by David Flomo and... More >>
• Best Wheelchair Athlete (1 Comment)
  Clayton Braun
  In July 2003 Clayton Braun nearly died on a Mississippi River sandbar after he dived headfirst into the water during a day of waterskiing. Three years later, confined to a wheelchair and with extraordinarily limited use of his arms and hands, Braun was something of a reluctant recruit to the... More >>
• Best Rams Player
  Oshiomogho "O.J." Atogwe
  There haven't been many bright spots during the Rams' atrocious 5-27 campaign over the past two seasons, but in that time free safety Oshiomogho "O.J." Atogwe has established himself as a cornerstone of the team's eventual (oh, please, sports gods!) turnaround. The 28-year-old Atogwe enters his... More >>
• Best Coach
  Mike Anderson
  The joke about Mike Anderson on opposing campuses is that the University of Missouri men's basketball coach bears an uncanny resemblance to Sherman Hemsley's George Jefferson character on the '70s TV show The Jeffersons. Like his doppelganger, Anderson and his family are movin' on up in the... More >>
• Best Sports Broadcast Personality
  Joe Buck
  At times Joe Buck comes close to being a victim of his own success. The ubiquitous broadcaster seems to be behind the mic so often that FOX TV viewers can be forgiven for wondering whether the network has any other commentators. But then, calling a game is not like playing one. You don't need a... More >>
• Best Local Boxer
  Ryan Coyne
  Oh-nine was a big year for Ryan "The Irish Outlaw" Coyne. As of late summer the cruiserweight had maintained his undefeated pro record (13-0) and logged a decent string of appearances on the Versus Channel's boxing reality show, The Contender. Coyne never got to spar for the $250,000 grand prize... More >>
• Best Local MMA Fighter
  Jesse Finney
  Though he's fresh off a win at the action-packed June 6 Strikeforce event at Scottrade Center, if you go purely off records, Jesse Finney does not have the most impressive record among local mixed martial arts pros. Hillsboro, Illinois, native Matt Hughes holds that honor, and deservedly so. But... More >>
• Best MMA Event in St. Louis
  Strikeforce: Lawler vs. Shields
  In the history of Missouri, there has never been a better time for dudes who love watching other dudes whale on dudes than this past June 6 at Scottrade Center. And it's not just because Strikeforce: Lawler vs. Shields was Missouri's largest MMA event to date. It's not even because Granite... More >>
• Best Boxing Gym
  North County Athletic Association
  There was a time when seventy-five, a hundred kids worked out every day in Jimmie Howell's gym. Come Golden Gloves tourney time it was all Howell could do to tape the fists fast enough for his boys to get in the ring and fight. Of course, that was ten, twenty, thirty years ago. To keep ten kids... More >>
• Best Public Pool
  The Aquatic Center at The Lodge
  If "I'll be at the lodge" is a phrase you associate with the country-club set, dip your big toe into the impeccably kept pool at the Aquatic Center at The Lodge in Des Peres and feel your net worth swell, if only in your head. Even the staffers look as though they work at a resort: The... More >>
• Best High School Athlete
  Jacob Turner
  While the Cardinals looked high and low for a dominant starting pitcher before this season, one was growing up right in their back yard. Jacob Turner, a six-foot-four right-hander at Westminster Christian Academy, was virtually unhittable in his senior season. He pitched 58 innings, posting a... More >>
• Best Basketball Court
  12th and Park Recreation Center
  The four new basketball hoops at the 12th and Park Recreation Center just south of downtown attract players for much of the center's operating hours, from 10 a.m. till 6 p.m. Even when it's raining, you'll usually find a solitary player practicing free throws. The new courts are equipped with... More >>
• Best Tennis Courts
  Sublette Park
  If you watch enough televised tennis, you might get the impression that it is one of those upper-crust sports like water polo or dressage. All those people clapping politely, dressed in suits and hats, eating strawberries and cream? That's the height of athletic elitism. Luckily, St. Louis has... More >>
• Best Urban Bike Ride
  River Des Peres Trail
  For as long as anyone alive can remember, River Des Peres has had very little going for it as an actual body of water. An overgrown storm drain, the river is often cited as an object lesson in poor urban planning and water pollution. But by turning lemons into lemonade, city planners used the... More >>
• Best Run
  Great River Road Run
  Each year on the Saturday following Thanksgiving, hundreds of fleet feet descend upon Illinois' Great River Road to work off the holiday calorie uptick. Is it an organized "race" with clocks and timers and officials in neon vests? Yes. But the spirit here is much more, "Hey, let's go for a run!"... More >>
• Best Place to Jog
  Al Foster Memorial Trail
  Depending on whom you ask, the Al Foster Memorial Trail is anywhere from 2.5 to 5.5 miles long. For the purposes of this honor, we're going with the Meramec Greenway's version, which pegs the 2.5-mile stretch of trail between the Sherman Beach Trailhead and the Glencoe Trailhead (off Highway 109... More >>
• Best Yoga Studio (1 Comment)
  Marbles Yoga Studio
  We're all for the seemingly exponential increase in yoga studios and yoga practitioners. After all, who's going to quibble with more people getting good exercise, decreasing their stress level and finding a greater mind-body balance? But with more choices comes more confusion — like the... More >>
• Best Public Golf Course
  Spencer T. Olin Golf Course
  A lot of people think of golf as a pretentious pastime, but the St. Louis region is lucky enough to lay claim to several really fine courses that require neither a platinum card nor the putting on of airs to go with it. Exhibit A: the Spencer T. Olin Golf Course across the river in Alton,... More >>
• Best Hole at a Golf Course
  No. 12
  What do we like about this hole? For one, its name. They call No. 12 "Gambler." Any golf hole named after the best damn song Kenny Rogers ever sang is a birdie on the scorecard of life. We also like that despite its name, "Gambler" is a thinking-man's hole that rewards smart play over big risk.... More >>
• Best Miniature Golf
  Tee Time Family Fun Center
  Landlocked as we are in St. Louis, we don't have the faded boardwalks, funhouses and amusement parks that dot the Eastern seaboard. Those ramshackle buildings stand as a testament to a simpler time, one of fantasy and eternal summers. Think of the miniature golf course as a Midwestern stand-in... More >>
• Best Bowling Lanes
  Olivette Lanes
  You know you're in the right place when you see the black-and-whites of the Rat Pack in front of the Sands hanging in the entryway. Actually, that just confirms it; you were pretty sure this was the right place when you espied the purple exterior of Olivette Lanes amid all the strip malls and... More >>
• Best College Athlete
  Theresa Lisch
  Apparently, the knack for knocking down three-pointers runs in the Lisch family. Theresa, younger sister of Saint Louis University men's basketball star Kevin Lisch, led the A-10 conference in scoring, averaging nineteen points per game last year and breaking the school's single-season record... More >>
• Best Place to Skate
  Ramp Riders Skatepark
  Those seeking new thrills in inlines or on skateboards or RipSticks should pay a visit to Ramp Riders Skatepark, an enormous brick warehouse located less than a mile from where Interstate 55 crosses Gravois and filled to the brim with a new layout of sturdy wooden ramps. The skatepark offers one... More >>
• Best Batting Cage (1 Comment)
  Tower Tee
  Whether you're looking to test your mettle against 90 mph fastballs or crank slow-pitch softballs off a distant wooden Cubs logo, Tower Tee is a hitter's paradise, equipped for just about any batting option one could possibly desire. For slow-pitch softballers Tower Tee offers three different... More >>
• Best Public Park (1 Comment)
  Lafayette Park
  Sometimes you don't feel like running, or boating, or bird watching, or playing golf or tennis, or taking in some enlightening cultural activity. Sometimes you just want to spend a quiet afternoon plopped under a tree with a book. Lafayette Park, at the center of Lafayette Square in the... More >>
• Best Place to Bird-Watch
  Castlewood State Park
  Local birders know that in the fall, the bald eagles hover along the Mississippi, and in the spring, the songbirds bustle in Tower Grove Park. But there's another spot due west of town that's perfect for appreciating our avian friends year-round: Castlewood State Park in Ballwin. Castlewood's... More >>
• Best Fishing Hole
  Fairgrounds Park Lake
  For all you urban anglers, the nine-acre Fairgrounds Park Lake in north St. Louis is a solid bet. Here's why: Carp, bluegill, crappie and largemouth bass reproduce naturally there. But that's not all. The Missouri Department of Conservation drops about 300 channel catfish into the water roughly... More >>
• Best Picnic Spot
  Tower Grove Park
  Tower Grove Park's calendar of events reads like a picnic protocol, so it's best to check it in late spring and plan your summer accordingly. Uncork a bottle of wine from your basket on Monday evenings by the Music Pavilion during the Compton Heights Concert Band series, where you'll be regaled... More >>
• Best Place to Hike
  Cuivre River State Park
  For hikers longing to escape northern Missouri's rolling plains, Cuivre River State Park is the closest you can get to an Ozarkian oasis north of the Mississippi: a mere 50 miles from downtown St. Louis. Hike the rugged terrain of any of the nine winding trails along the park's forested hills;... More >>
• Best Stroll
  The Central West End
  The French pride themselves on speaking a language far more elegant than ours. True, they are a people who regularly deploy phrases such as zut alors! — but sometimes they have a point. Who wouldn't rather be a boulevardier or a flâneur than a loafer or a malingerer? A flâneur... More >>
• Best Weekend Getaway
  The Original Springs Hotel
  The head says: Wow, what a neat old hotel! It was constructed in the 1890s and offers comprehensive spa services in a completely unpretentious atmosphere rife with small-town country charm. The heart says: All that is true, but it does not address the fact that this place is thoroughly haunted.... More >>
• Best Reason to Look Forward to Summer
  Loyal Family Production Parties
  Loyal Family brings a variety of up-and-coming artists to local venues Pops Blue Moon, Off Broadway and the Old Rock House all year long, but when they roll out the tents for a summer production outdoors, it's on. Dancing's always better when there's a breeze evaporating the sweat off your brow,... More >>
• Best Blues Player
  T.J. Oshie
  It needs — it demands — a name, but what? The Move? The Deke? Fans on the official NHL website voted it the "Goal of the Year," and for now that will do. Really, though, words don't do justice to the goal Blues rookie T.J. Oshie scored against the Vancouver Canucks on March 26 of... More >>
• Best Reason to Look Forward to Winter
  Cold Weather
  That's right, bring it on. Red faces and frozen toes, snowboards and skis, slick, icy streets and crunchy frosty grass, everything misty and quiet as the days slow down. The early darkness, all wrapped in layers, the chill winds make summer seem like it was make-believe. There's a beauty in... More >>
• Best Sports Bargain
  Nails
  Look, the great credit-crash/oh-shit-everybody-lost-their-job crisis might be ebbing a bit, but one thing remains the same: Tickets to sporting events are expensive, and buying them is a lot more like commodities trading than it is a kick-back afternoon with the fellas. So, you can watch the... More >>
• Best Cardinals Player
  Albert Pujols
  As we compose this ode, September lies before us, and the road to the postseason seems lined with lovely fall colors. Will we indeed be able to look back on '09 as a glory year for the St. Louis Cardinals franchise, one in which all aspects of the team clicked into sync in late summer and drove... More >>
• Best Move
  Ryan Franklin from Cardinals Setup Man to Cardinals Closer
  Around mid-July John Mozeliak must have been thinking: "The RFT will be cranking up its 'Best of' machinery soon, and I want to make things difficult for them in the Best Move category." Not coincidentally, it was around this time that the St. Louis Cardinals general manager went out and got... More >>
• Best Busch Stadium Amenity to Die in the Past Year
  Best's Kosher Hot Dog Stands
  CHICAGO, November 19, 2008—Sara Lee Corp. today said it will close its kosher hot dog and meat-processing plant on the South Side of Chicago. Best's kosher beef hot dogs were staples at U.S. ballparks, including Wrigley Field in Chicago and Busch Stadium in St. Louis. But Sara Lee says the... More >>
• Best Sports Bar
  Highlander Pub and Grill
  Near the footprint of the old arena, the not-yet-two-years-old Highlander Pub and Grill is a sports institution in its own right. Cards games are punctuated with cherry-bomb shots, Blues games with blue curaçao shots, Mizzou games with pints of "Black and Gold" (the Highlander's take on... More >>
• Best Soccer Bar
  Amsterdam Tavern
  Soccer may still be catching on in the rest of the country (for the past 30 years and counting), but St. Louis has long been infatuated with the beautiful game. Amsterdam Tavern opened earlier this year on Tower Grove South's bustling row of bars and restaurants, and it's a stellar addition to... More >>