As fans return en masse to Busch Stadium, the St. Louis Cardinals are having fun again
“You know, we need to enjoy ourselves a little bit more,” St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said when asked about the most fun he’s ever had at a ballpark. “Sometimes it’s harder than others.”
Shildt’s team recently pulled out of a six game tailspin that emphasized fun can be in short supply, even in the glorified amusement park that is a Major League stadium.
This weekend at Wrigley Field, the Cardinals are experiencing a capacity crowd for the first time since they were swept off the field at Washington’s Nationals Park in the 2019 National League Championship Series. Starting Monday with a visit from the Miami Marlins, fans will once again be able to fill every seat at Busch Stadium.
It’s been a long time coming, but the fun is back. And win or lose, players with experiences that cut across the game can point to moments — some specific, some stretched over a period of time — which highlight the childlike enjoyment which brought them to the ballgame in the first place.
After all, who could be having more fun than Cardinals outfielder Tyler O’Neill? The Canadian slugger carried the team lead in home runs into the weekend series in Chicago despite two separate stretches on the injured list. O’Neill’s speed and power have merged with his Gold Glove defense, and he looks now like the player for whom the Cardinals made consistent and calculated gambles over a period of years, clearing the way of others who have made contributions elsewhere, much to their chagrin.
“I think this year, I’ve really started to embrace the game and relay it back to kind of the passion I had as a kid,” O’Neill said. “Just playing little tournaments, traveling and things like that, and bringing that to the big leagues.
“It’s helped me a lot just in my mentality, and just trying to enjoy every day, really. I know it’s cliche, but starting to figure that out this year, how to mediate that.”
O’Neill explained he notices a marked difference between this year’s enjoyment and the stress of prior years, when he found himself fighting to stay in the big leagues and, at times, struggling to display the skills which earned him his place to begin with.
Fellow youngster Sosa playing for pure joy
Shortstop Edmundo Sosa, on the other hand, doesn’t have much Major League experience with which to compare his current success. He made brief appearances — a total of 13 plate appearances — in 2018 and 2019, and lost the entire shortened 2020 season to a bout with COVID-19.
Now 25 years old and out of minor league options before he had the opportunity to prove himself as a Major League player, the Cardinals stuck with Sosa, even in limited action at the start of the season. When Paul DeJong broke a rib nearly a month ago, Sosa took over as the everyday shortstop, and the energy and enthusiasm he’s brought to the field has been hard to miss.
Sosa pointed to two diving catches made in a series against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Busch Stadium on May 18 and 19. He had three hits in those two games, and followed up that effort with seven base knocks in his next three against the Cubs. The second catch saw Sosa, after diving with full extension, pounding the outfield grass with an open palm, his tongue sticking out as he grinned and laughed maniacally.
He looked like a kid, playing for pure joy.
“That’s the most fun (I’ve) ever had,” Sosa said through team translator Antonio Mujica, “because it was the first time (I’ve) been able to do two plays like that, and have the entire stadium and fans behind (me) and cheering (me) on.”
Veteran Cardinals hurler Miller weighs in
Andrew Miller hasn’t had quite as fun a season, but his track record is significantly longer, giving him a well of experience from which to draw. The lefty reliever is in his 16th season in the big leagues and has three times pitched in the LCS, though in only one World Series.
He’s still chasing his first championship, but he remembers his most fun moment as precisely as where he was when his first opportunity to play for a title was finalized.
“I was sitting down below because I couldn’t handle it,” Miller said, describing the visitors’ clubhouse setup at Toronto’s Rogers Centre. “There’s a little video room on the outside, right behind the dugout and then I went out to the dugout, and we ran on the field.”
Miller’s Cleveland club lost to the Cubs in that 2016 World Series, breaking an historic stretch of futility which set off a party that, in some circles, might still be continuing. This weekend marks the return of Wrigleyville from the pandemic, as Friday marked a state-sanctioned reopening for the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois.
The last time the Cardinals played in front of those fans was in September of 2019, and the occasion marked a four game sweep of the Cubs that saw a subdued but savored celebration in Wrigley’s famously cramped visitor’s clubhouse.
Shildt, team looking for some more fun moments
It was that celebration and those like it which celebrated achievements and championships throughout Shildt’s own climb to a Major League manager’s chair he identified as his most fun moments, coming around to the purity of a well-earned job well done.
“Pretty fun being able to celebrate when we clinched,” Shildt said. “I love the pictures that we’ve had the last few years. I’ve got multiple ones also in the minor leagues with a team that celebrates an accomplishment.
“You try to enjoy it along the ride, but the satisfaction of having that moment of being able to really just enjoy yourself like a small child.”
The larger children are out in the streets this weekend, but their fun is back all the same.
