O’Fallon man rescues ‘rally cat’ from field during Cardinals game

When a cat ran onto the field at Busch Stadium in the middle of a Cardinals game, Twitter quickly dubbed it “rally cat.”

Lucas Hackmann, of O’Fallon, ended up rescuing the cat from center field, but it wasn’t easy. The cat scratched and clawed and tried to escape as the Cardinals field crew member sprinted him away so the game could continue.

Hackmann later took responsibility for the save, tweeting: “I’m okay. You’re welcome.”

Just after the cat was rescued from the field, Yadier Molina hit a grand slam. Moments later, “rally cat” began trending on Twitter and quickly became St. Louis’ No. 1 trend.

This kitty may have great things in its future — maybe as a new unofficial mascot?

After a squirrel ran across home plate at Busch Stadium during the Cardinals’ 2011 National League Division Series game against the Philadelphia Phillies, it was adopted as the unofficial mascot and nicknamed “rally squirrel.” That year, the Cardinals went on to win the World Series.

This story was originally published August 9, 2017 at 10:41 PM with the headline "O’Fallon man rescues ‘rally cat’ from field during Cardinals game."