Could Grizzlies’ southwest IL home work as St. Louis Cardinals’ alternate training site?
By the start of the third full week of spring training, it’s easy to see the weight of repetition weighing on some St. Louis Cardinals players as they go through another spin of batting practice, another rotation of infield positioning, another set of Tom Emanski’s defensive drills from the outfield, trash can not included.
Imagine how they’ll feel knowing they have 10 more weeks to go.
The Memphis Redbirds announced this week that the starting date of the Triple-A season has been pushed back to a tentative start on May 4, confirming an earlier report by ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
As a result, the Cardinals, along with the rest of Major League Baseball, will return for at least a month to the Alternate Training Site model which housed and trained extra players last summer in order to both maintain their development and supplement the rosters of big league teams, as necessary.
“I hope not. No, I don’t think it’s all that beneficial,” Cardinals President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak said Wednesday when asked about the possibility of the alternate site model remaining in play in future seasons.
“I think from a truly development standpoint, committing two months of strictly just almost like an instructional league type of style is not all that helpful. I think ultimately, you grow as a player when you’re able to play the game.”
First baseman John Nogowski, who made his major league debut last summer, described the alternate site experience as a “mental battle,” explaining politely but firmly that he had no interest in returning this summer. All told, he would much rather be in the majors.
“Not having to take a 3:30 in the morning flight from Reno like you would in AAA is a little bit better,” Nogowski conceded. “But having said that, you miss out on some of the opportunities that you have with your teammates traveling and doing some of that stuff. It’s a grind, but it’s fun at the same time.”
The travel component of the alternate site will play a role in determining where the Cardinals stash their extra players for the season’s first month. While the team used Hammons Field in Springfield, Missouri last summer, that facility is traditionally shared with the baseball program at Missouri State University.
With Missouri State’s players no longer kept at a distance due to the pandemic, the Cardinals may prefer a more isolated environment, and that could lead them to look just across the river.
GCS Credit Union Ballpark in Sauget, the home of the Gateway Grizzlies, is not set to host any game action until the last week of May, well after the date on which the Cardinals are hoping to return to a traditional minor league schedule.
A Grizzlies representative said the organization had no comment.
Even as the team scrambles for a spot to house their reserves, they’re hoping to benefit from the energy which accompanies a ballpark as full of fans as is permitted by St. Louis city. On Thursday morning, the Cardinals announced that Busch Stadium would be eligible to be filled to 32% capacity, starting with opening day on April 8th.
In a statement, St. Louis mayor Lyda Krewson said, “St. Louis at our very core is a baseball town, and I know our fans are ready to get back to Busch Stadium for another exciting season!”
“We’re working with our fan base,” Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said. “They’re the reason, candidly, we have our jobs. And beyond that, it’s just the bond that is Cardinal baseball with Cardinal nation. It’s hand in hand. It’s special. It’s magic. It’s really not duplicated.”
Shildt expressed hope that the return of fans to stadiums would mark yet another important turning point in the ongoing war against the pandemic which has marred baseball as it has society more broadly for going on a full calendar year.
Fans will be seated in pods of four or less and required to wear facial coverings unless eating or drinking. The stadium will also transition to a fully cash-free model, and fans will be assigned specific gates for entry and exit, with re-entry being forbidden.
The ongoing push and pull between the business of baseball and the realities of public health has left the Cardinals, like any other business, in the lurch as they seek to protect those in their care as best they can while simultaneously fighting to return to normal.
To that end, a short-term alternate site camp could prove to be an important de-escalation of baseball’s newly intrusive protocols, assuming the Triple-A season does indeed start at its newly assigned designated time.
“All the alternative camp is going to be used for is really insurance for our major league club,” Mozeliak said. “By the time we get to May, you’re hopefully in full swing with the minor leagues going, whether it’s A-ball, High-A, Double-A or Triple-A.”
“Hopefully,” more than any other, is the word which best defines baseball in spring, pandemic or no.
This story was originally published March 7, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
