Coronavirus aside, Busch Stadium’s Camp Cardinals has been ‘a lot of fun,’ players say
If you were to squint, ignore the calendar, and do your best to forget the 151-stair climb to the top level of Busch Stadium, the activity on the field Friday would closely resemble the activity on a spring training field a few weeks into camp.
“In some cases it felt like once you get out there it’s like you never left and you pick right back up, and in some cases it felt like fifteen years,” Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said.
His team conducted its first scheduled full-squad workout of Summer Camp on Friday, sending pitchers to the mound to face hitters in live batting practice and running through rotations of other drills.
In his first at-bat against lefty Austin Gomber, infielder Tommy Edman sliced a line drive to the wall in right-centerfield. Shildt, watching from near the first base dugout, jogged to the outfield to retrieve the ball.
It’s a new, distanced world and everyone has to pitch in.
“It’s funny because I used to come, I’d park, I’d come into the building and walk upstairs to my office and usually never see a soul,” president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said. “And today I actually had to wait to get into the parking lot.”
“I think it was my 115th day coming to this ballpark, and so it’s been very different in what I’ve experienced to what we see today. Needless to say I’m thrilled we’re at this point.”
Mozeliak was unable to confirm whether all players who were expected to be at camp were in attendance, but Shildt acknowledged that four players who returned to the United States on flights chartered by Major League Baseball — pitchers Génesis Cabrera and Carlos Martínez, catcher Ivan Herrera and infielder Elehuris Montero — would have to wait for a second round of coronavirus testing before joining the team.
Relief pitcher Giovanny Gallegos was also not present and remains in his native Mexico. “Right now it’s travel issues,” said Mozeliak.
He also confirmed that the team’s lone positive result in virus testing occurred at a location away from Busch Stadium, but was not able to say where.
In conjunction with the Players Association, MLB announced on Friday afternoon that the league had collectively received 38 positive test results from the 3185 samples collected and tested to date during intake testing. Thirty-one of those results came from tests of players, while seven were from coaches or staff.
MLB’s 1.2% positivity rate is far lower than recent rates for either the public at large or from comparable groups such as the NBA, which had a positivity rate in excess of 7% in its most recent large scale collection. While the number and spread of cases remains a foremost concern, players seemed relieved to be on the field and able to focus on baseball.
“It’s fun to be back,” first baseman Paul Goldschmidt said. “It’s fun to get out there and play baseball and see everyone. Just get to work. I guess that’s kind of the attitude, just try to be ready for three weeks or so from now and just prepare and try to be ready.”
Starting pitcher Miles Mikolas echoed those sentiments. “It was tons of fun,” he said. “It’s a group of your best friends, and you’ve been away from them for too long. It feels good to joke around with everybody and run around on the field with them.”
Mikolas missed time in spring training with a strained flexor tendon in his throwing elbow, but said that he’s currently throwing at full strength and expects to be ready for the start of the regular season.
Shildt and Mozeliak confirmed there were no new injuries detected among the players who have reported to camp thus far, placing the Cardinals in the position of being able to arrive at game readiness with due haste.
“The blend of getting guys ramped up appropriately individually is important,” Shildt said. “That’s making sure that we and the players are having dialogue. We don’t want to ramp it up too fast. And then we also want to make sure they’re ready for when it starts.”
“Clearly we’ll take care of the pitching. The other side is the position players. They always say that spring training’s too long, so they’re getting their wish a little bit right now.”
Shildt said the Cardinals will have one off day worked into the schedule, allowing for 19 days of preparation before the season begins on July 24th. Of those 19 days, as many as eight will be reserved for scheduled intrasquad games, including the last three days of camp.
That schedule is designed to prepare players to leap into a midseason rhythm which may be typical for July but is anything but under the circumstances.
“We were able to pick back up in the unity of this group and the rhythm clearly in a different circumstance,” Shildt said. “The rhythm of how people interact and related to the baseball and getting back to be on the same page and getting after it, and the work, and the mentality, that didn’t skip a beat.”
“Felt like we didn’t miss a day.”
This story was originally published July 3, 2020 at 12:00 AM.