Beyond the scores, Cardinals’ missteps have pushed ‘best fans’ to the fringes
For all the ways the St. Louis Cardinals have fallen behind their peers across Major League Baseball in recent seasons, the organization has done a decent job of holding on to its spot as master of ceremonies. Marketing slogan or not, appreciation given to fans—and that which was returned—showed up in the small details around the game’s minor but essential moments.
That’s why Sunday at Busch Stadium was so bewildering, and why it’s a bright red warning sign on the dashboard of a team that may be looking at a further slide down the standings before it has a chance to bounce back. There’s a risk of dragging fan interest down with it.
John Mozeliak’s last home game as the head of the team’s baseball operations department wasn’t marked by an extended on-field ceremony, warm speeches, or parting gifts. Instead, the team played a video montage of highlights from his career—including twice playing the same clip from the end of the 2011 World Series—interspersed with brief on-camera interviews.
Mozeliak then took the mound, threw an impressive ceremonial first pitch to his son, Will, and posed for photos with his family and Fredbird. He received applause from a sleepy, half-full stadium—slightly better than tepid, and that was it. Ceremoniously unceremonious.
Nolan Arenado, staring down another offseason of looming trade rumors that seem more certain than ever, was initially left out of the lineup in what could have been his final home game as a Cardinal. Then, seconds before the team took the field, he was reinserted.
Manager Oli Marmol came to the mound before Matthew Liberatore threw a pitch, gathered his infielders, and replaced Arenado with Nolan Gorman. The gesture was designed to give the crowd time and space to appreciate a superstar who could soon depart, but until Arenado started to walk off the field, there was only bewildered silence during the unexpected delay.
Much to the annoyance of countless cynics, part of the reason St. Louis fans have earned their reputation is that such moments never passed in silence or confusion. Cardinals crowds of years past would have recognized what was happening, anticipating the right moments and the swell of excitement.
Five years ago, Miles Mikolas would not have needed to prompt the crowd to its feet for his final start with a wave of his cap the way he did Saturday night. That would have happened naturally—despite the scowls of critics pointing to his ERA before they themselves joined the applause, not wanting to be left out of the Best Fans in Baseball.
None of this is the fault of St. Louis’s fan base, which filled Busch Stadium to more than capacity for the Savannah Bananas’ traveling baseball show this summer. The care and passion from the seats haven’t faded—but have been tamped down and dragged through the dirt by lagging results, careless statements, and a sagging style that started as a ripple in the minor leagues and now crashes onto big-league shores, leaving a mess as it retreats.
“The last two nights have been really neat from a fan base standpoint, and it’s closer to what you’re used to seeing here at Busch,” Marmol said. “Just the overall atmosphere, environment, it’s the feel of it. And that’s important for our players, because they’re taking their best shot.
“Are we short in some areas? Yes, but we knew that was going to be the case going into this year. But as far as them playing the game the right way, the way the city is used to seeing them play, they’re taking their best shot every night, and it’s important for them to feel the fan base behind them.”
Marmol has not been shy about noting meaningful environmental factors in ballparks throughout the season as they’ve cropped up, whether in fan engagement, audio cues, or the energy that comes with meaningful baseball. However immeasurable, those things are real, and they have an impact on what happens on the field. The Cardinals are aware of their game-presentation shortcomings and have hired staffers and executives specifically to reset the fan experience, but those efforts can only go so far.
Winning crowds are good crowds. For the better part of three decades, the Cardinals have reliably enjoyed both. Now they have neither—and it’s their own doing.
The energy will presumably return when the results do, but time is not limitless. Anyone who has attended a midweek game in Cincinnati or Pittsburgh in the last decade can vividly describe those empty stadiums haunted by the ghosts of unwatchable baseball.
Busch Stadium has gotten closer to that this season than perhaps anyone—team decision-makers included—might have ever thought possible. That cannot be allowed to continue. It shouldn’t take more prompting to realize that.
