Sublette Park aka The Social Evil Hospital – Revenge is sweet!

One week to the day from our Benton Park mixed doubles match we decided to hold a rematch at the courts at Sublette Park located near The Hill in the City of St. Louis.   Before the match Scott, Toni and Laura decided to meet at Park Avenue Coffee and not go to the courts until Stan arrived and called wondering where they were.    As a realtor Stan is usually rushed on weekends and is often late so it was time to turn the tables.  At 10 minutes past the appointed time a text was received from Stan who knew instantly he’d been tricked.

A few minutes later all were at the park.   Sublette Park was originally the site of the Social Evil Hospital constructed to serve St. Louis legal prostitutes!  Yes prostitution was legal in St. Louis for a short period in the 1870’s.   The Social Evil Hospital changed to a women’s hospital after the prostitution law was repealed.  In 1906 a young woman named Josephine Baker was born on this site.   Josephine is one of the most famous St. Louisans of all time.  After the building was demolished a park was constructed and named for William Sublette who was a prominent fur trader.

On first appearance the courts were really rough.  Large cracks were visible and the entire surface is almost totally gone.   The park does have some bathrooms which were open.   The X-Balls were opened and Scott/Laura won the toss and elected to receive.  Right of the bat Stan aced Laura with a serve that took a funky crack bounce.

Eventually Stan and everybody else lost their serve for the first five games.   At 3-2 Scott finally became the first person to hold for a 4-2 lead.   Laura was hitting strong forehands up the middle and Scott successfully beat Toni down the line for a 6-4 1st set win.

The second set was a disaster for Scott/Laura.   Toni began placing her volleys perfectly and also pounded Laura in the thigh with a high volley (see pic above).  Now this was War!  But she continued and  took a really high lob and hit a one bounce overhead winner to negate a great Scott defensive retrieval.   Stan was serving well in the second set hitting at least 4 aces.   Stan and Toni rolled to a 6-1 victory.

As it was a hot day it was decided to play a USTA 10 point tiebreaker to finish.   Scott/Laura won a comical first point at the net finally getting Toni to hit into the net.   They continued to win points and got out to a 9-4 lead.

On match point Toni served to Scott’s forehand and Scott hit a short chip wide to Toni’s backhand.  She hit a short ball up the middle and Scott seeing the hole left when Toni moved wide ripped a winner up the middle to seal the match.  6-4, 1-6,1-0

Location is a 10 and court condition is 4 for an average of 7.  In 2009 the Riverfront Times named these courts some of the best in the city.  A lot of wear and tear has obviously occurred.

The courts location close to the Hill leads to an abundance of great places to eat.  Some of our favorites which could accommodate  sweaty tennis players are Gioias Deli, Steve’s Hot Dogs and Milo’s Bocce Garden.