Photography by William Powell
Senior editor William Powell will be reporting live from Busch Stadium throughout the day. Check back for regular updates as the Cardinals open their home schedule against the Brewers.
Hello St. Louis, and happy Opening Day! As I type this, the first pitch is still about 45 minutes away. If you're looking for some light reading to pass the time, here are a few suggestions:
- Our own Alvin Reid recounts his favorite memories from Opening Days past. (If you want to reflect fondly on last year's festivities, check out my first annual live blog.)
- From the April issue, we profiled the Rally Run, who circles Bush Stadium to bring the Cardinals good luck.
- Our friends over at the Riverfront Times don't often write about sports, but they recently assembled lists of the 10 best and 10 worst Cardinals of all-time. I disagree with a few of their selections, but that's a debate for another time.
- Benjamin Hochman of the Post-Dispatch penned a column about "Here Comes the King," the official song of Opening Day in St. Louis. It's sure to make you feel sentimental about America's pastime. (And here's my profile of Hochman.)
- And of course, here's your annual reminder to never, ever, under an circumstances do the wave.
Pregame Pageantry (2:55 p.m.): Nobody does it better than the Cards. Of course, the Clydesdales led off, pulling their red wagons around the outfield grass. Ten members of the Cardinals Hall of Fame, including the newest inductee, Ted Simmons, gathered at home plate. (A six-time All-Star, Simmons is probably one of the most underrated Cardinal greats.) This year is the 10th anniversary of Busch Stadium III, so a video montage on the new HD scoreboards showed the greatest moments in the stadium's history, from international soccer matches to David Freese's epic Game 6 heroics in the 2011 World Series. Then the members of the current team made their entrance, one by one, riding in the beds of Ford trucks—perhaps the most peculiar (and time consuming) Opening Day tradition/sponsorship. Every year, I cringe, waiting for a player to be injured falling off the side of a truck or tripping when jumping off the tailgate, but in my experience, not even the least athletic middle reliever has proved to be quite that klutzy. Soon, it will be time for the ceremonial first pitch, the national anthem, and some aerial acrobatics from a bald eagle.
Classy Cardinals (3:05 p.m.): Also before the game, a moment of silence was observed in honor of two men who died in the past year: Post-Dispatch columnist Joe Strauss and former Cardinal and St. Louis native Joe Garagiola. The ceremonial first pitch was thrown out by Lou Brock, who's recovering from a leg amputation. The crowd thundered "Loooouuuu" when he appeared.
First Pitch (3:18 p.m.): Michael Wacha struck out Domingo Santana to ring in the 2016 season in St. Louis. Later in the inning, he induced a double play to escape a jam unscathed.
Hazelbaker Strikes Again (3:33): So far, the story of the season for the Cardinals has been Jeremy Hazelbaker. The unheralded prospect, a 28-year-old rookie, came into today's game hitting .400 with two home runs through six games this season. And in the bottom of the first inning, he cracked a triple, then came in to score the first run of the game on a Matt Holliday double. It made him the first Cardinals rookie to hit a triple in his first home at-bat since 1974, which is a stat that means nothing but is still sort of fun. If you're a fantasy baseball player, you might consider picking up Hazelbaker to ride his hot start.
Weather Report (3:30 p.m.): Last year, it rained in the morning threatening to wipe out Opening Day, but the weather cleared in the afternoon, and the game was played under sunny skies. This year, it rained in the morning threatening to wipe out Opening Day, but the weather cleared in the afternoon, and the game is yet again being played under sunny skies, though it's a brisk 57 degrees.
On Facebook this morning, a friend commented, "Doesn't it pretty much always rain on Opening Day?"
I was curious whether she was right, so I looked it up. Here's what I found:
- April 11, 2016: High of 57, morning showers
- April 13, 2015: High of 71, morning showers
- April 7, 2014: High of 53, daylong rain
- April 8, 2013: High of 79, sunny
- April 13, 2012: High of 57, "rain-soaked," as the AP put it in a game story
- March 31, 2011: High of 54, clear
Takeaway: It often rains on opening day, since Opening Day is often in April, and it often rains in April. But it doesn't "pretty much always rain." Also, the Cardinals have started the season on the road every year since 2011.
Speedy Yadi (3:45 p.m.): When Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina, one of the slower players in the Major Leagues, stole a base as part of the Cardinals' three-run first inning, the crowd couldn't tell whether to cheer or laugh. They settled on chanting, "Yadi! Yadi!"
Citywide Obsession (4:15 p.m.): A few years ago, I moved to St. Louis from Cincinnati, where the Reds, having been the first professional baseball team, claim to be the inventors of Opening Day. They even have a downtown parade to celebrate the occasion. But if the Reds did it first, the Cardinals do it biggest and best.
Before the game today, I went into the office for a few hours. Our building has doctors' offices, an insurance company, a testing center, and so on. Nearly everyone was wearing Cardinals gear, and I passed several folks in the hallway or elevator who were cutting out early on their way to the ballpark. My wife took our newborn daughter to a moms' group at Mercy Hospital, and she was the only one not wearing a jersey. We met for lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Maplewood, and everyone there, too, seemed to be headed to the game. Of course, downtown was a sea of red pregame, with Ballpark Village and Citygarden both overrun with fans. Colleges encouraged students to skip class and go to the game.
Cardinals fans get a lot of attention for being humble and smart and classy, the whole Best Fans in Baseball thing. And everyone knows that St. Louis is a dedicated, diehard baseball town. But I think an underrated aspect of that hype is the electricity in this city on Opening Day. Neither Cincinnati nor anywhere else can compete.
Yadi Doubles (4:18 p.m.): In the third inning, as the Cardinals were extending their lead, Molina hit his 123rd double at Busch Stadium III, tying him with Albert Pujols for the most ever at this park. The route is officially on, with the Cardinals already up 9–0, at the end of the third inning.
Diaz Delivers (4:40 p.m.): The Cardinals signed Cuban defector Aledmys Diaz to a four-year Major League contract in 2014, investing $8 million in the young infielder. But he quickly seemed to fall out of favor in the organization. Last year, he was cut from the 40-man roster, before eventually being restored.
This spring, when starting shortstop Jhonny Peralta went down with a thumb injury that will keep him out half the season, Diaz seemed like a sensible replacement. But the organization first looked elsewhere, moving Jedd Gyorko, a second basemen who was inexperienced at shortstop, over to the vacated position. The Cards also signed free agent shortstop Ruben Tejada as an insurance policy. It seemed Diaz would never get his chance.
But then Tejada got hurt, and Gyorko struggled in his first few games, so Mike Matheny finally turned to Diaz. So far, he's come through, giving the Cardinals offense, which was dormant in the opening series in Pittsburgh, a needed boost. In two at-bats today, he's hit two doubles. That brings his batting average on the young season to .583. That's not a misprint.
We All Scream for Meatballs (6:00 p.m.): Sorry for the delay! It's a time-honored tradition of our Opening Day live blog to try out the new concession items available at the stadium. One of those new items this year is a helmet full of donuts, but unfortunately, the machine was on the fritz today. I waited in line for three innings—three innings!—only to be told when I was the second person in line that all the donuts were gone. Gone!
Undeterred, your humble correspondent battled on. Showing great persistence and determination, I instead procured a different new item: the meatball cone. That's right, it's a large ice-cream cone, only it's made out of Italian bread, and it's stuffed with meatballs swimming in sauce, topped with two cheeses. I didn't have high hopes. But I was shocked to find that it was actually quite tasty. The meatballs weren't too spicy, but had a nice peppery flavor. And the sauce was sweet but not too sweet. The cone was a little chewy but stood up nicely to the sauce without becoming soggy. And the sprinkling of Parmesan really put it over the top. The bottom of the cone is cleverly stuffed with mozzarella. It's a bit pricey at $14, but if I had to choose between eating a meatball cone and waiting in line for the rest of my life for donuts that never materialize, I'd take the meatballs every time.
Hopefully the Busch Stadium chefs figure out the donut machine quickly. In their defense, because they felt bad about making me wait so long for nothing, they gave me a free sample of the new fruit and brownie kabobs, which are as delicious as they are unhealthy.
Clearly, concession stand food has really jumped the shark.
Record Hitting (6:05 p.m.): Meanwhile, in the baseball game, the Cardinals have absolutely slaughtered the Brewers. The Cards' 19 hits set a record for the most ever on Opening Day. It's remarkable that the big question about this team before the season was whether it would have enough offense. Of course, beating up on the Braves and Brewers doesn't necessarily portend success against the Cubs and Pirates. In that regard, only time will tell.
Game Over (6:19 p.m.): The Cardinals won, 10–1, to improve their record to 4–3 on the year, moving above .500 for the first time. Stick around, because I'll update with a few quotes shortly.
Potent Quotables (6:48 p.m.): If one were going to pick three stars of this game, the best (and most obvious) choices would be starting pitcher Michael Wacha, who tossed six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts; rookie sensation Aledmys Diaz, who had three hits including two doubles; and even more sensational rookie Jeremy Hazelbaker, who went 4-for-4 with a triple. For the rookies, not too shabby in their first game ever at Busch Stadium.
Here's what some of the principal players (and their manager) had to say about the big win:
Mike Matheny called the atmosphere "electric," using the same word I did earlier in this live blog. Perhaps he was reading in the dugout. "We always talk about how we know what Opening Day is like here, but then you get in the middle of it, and it's pretty special." In particular, it seemed like the players really relished the pregame opportunity to meet and greet the Cardinals' legends at home plate.
Michael Wacha made an off-hand comment, actually a cliche that pitchers use quite often, that made me think about pitching in an interesting new way. He said he was "just trying to get back in the dugout as fast as possible." In that way, pitching is a rare profession where success is partially defined by putting in less time at the office. Strike everybody out, and we'll be headed home in no time.
And finally, what a day for Jeremy Hazelbaker. Just imagine. You're 28 years old, which is actually quite ancient for a Major League rookie, after toiling in the minor leagues for what felt like an eternity. When the Dodgers cut you loose, you considered the likelihood that you'd never make it to the Majors, that your dream would never come true. Nobody expected you to make the Cardinals' roster out of spring training, but you did it. Then you come out for the home opener, and before the game starts you meet Lou Brock and Bob Gibson. You're batting second, your parents are in the crowd, and you go out and crack a triple. Then you rack up three more hits. I'm taking a guess here, but I bet today was the best day of Jeremy Hazelbaker's life. Or, as he put it, more simply and straight to the point, "keep swinging." Wise words.
