The club formally announced the demolition date for the old ballpark on Friday, and it's coming soon. On Monday at 3 p.m. CT, crews will take a wrecking ball to the façade of old Busch, beginning a process that is expected to take 60 days -- and that is necessary in order for new Busch Stadium to be completed.

"Monday at 3 o'clock, there will be a wrecking ball that will be dropped onto the southwest corner of the top of Busch Stadium," said team president Mark Lamping at a news conference on Friday, "and that will begin the final phase of the demolition of Busch Stadium."

Two wrecking balls will then fan out from the initial spot, demolishing the old stadium. Approximately half of the park needs to be destroyed and cleared out in order for the new one to be finished, and the timetable for that is 60 days from Monday.

From there, the remaining construction on the new ballpark can get rolling. The contractual "delivery date" of new Busch is April 1, 2006, which will allow nine days before the first Major League game. The Cardinals christen the stadium on April 10 against the Milwaukee Brewers.

John Lloyd, the team's liaison with the construction companies working on the new facility, estimated that new Busch is "approximately 70 percent complete." The remainder of the demolition is to be completed by June 30, 2006.

Lamping said Friday that there will be no Major League exhibition game in new Busch before the 2006 opener, thanks to a schedule that takes the Cardinals to Philadelphia on the season-opening Monday, April 3. However, at least one public open house, and possibly a Minor League exhibition game, will take place before the formal kickoff.

The Cardinals announced plenty more on Friday, and among other things they likely made one fan very happy. As the culmination of a months-long raffle, the club announced that Glenda Postin of Lewiston, Ill., won the chance to trigger the first wrecking ball shot. Her name was chosen from 250 finalists, all of whom are invited to a demolition party on Monday. The proceeds from the raffle, $66,210, will be distributed to Cardinals Care, the United Way and hurricane relief efforts.

Last-minute schedule changes forced an alteration in the plans. Initially, the club had intended to have all 250 finalists view the drawing for the winner in person, but when the demolition date was moved up by a day, that plan was scrapped -- and it left club officials scrambling.

"I will get on my cell phone as soon as we are over and tell her that she is the winner," team vice president Tim Hanser said after Postin's name was announced.

In a wide-ranging news conference, the Cardinals formally unveiled their plans to auction off a great deal of memorabilia from the old stadium, and they made plenty of other announcements as well.

• Half of the furniture from many of the premium suites at the old ballpark will be donated to Habitat for Humanity, and the remainder will be distributed to other charitable organizations in the area.

• The center-field manual scoreboard and out-of-town scoreboard from old Busch will be transported over to the new ballpark, used as an exhibit and a barrier from Interstate 64.

• The statue of Stan Musial will receive a prominent placement under the Spruce Street bridge at the new park, and the Gussie Busch and Jack Buck statues will be displayed at the new park as well. The remaining statues, including those of Bob Gibson and Lou Brock, will eventually be displayed in Ballpark Village, and development will follow the construction of new Busch Stadium.

• Approximately 25 or 26 items from the old stadium will be donated to the Missouri Historical Society, and many others will go into a revamped Cardinals Hall of Fame and museum in Ballpark Village. One notable item headed for the Hall of Fame is Darryl Kile's locker from the home clubhouse.

• The club will hold a "Final Farewell" sale at the Americas Center in downtown St. Louis, Nov. 26-27. Items not sold in the auction will be available at a wide range of prices, starting at $10 and going on up.