When St. Louis Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter surprisingly returned to the mound Friday to make his first meaningful pitches since Game 7 of last year’s World Series, the Cardinals chances to win playoff games jumped substantially – if they get there.

With #29 healthy, the Cardinals could throw a rotation of Carpenter, Adam Wainwright and Kyle Lohse in the playoffs. On paper, that is a better rotation than the Cardinals had even last year when they won the World Series.

Carpenter is coming off of surgery to fix thoracic outlet syndrome that people expected to prevent him from pitching at all this season. But Carpenter threw five innings and gave up two runs on five hits Friday against the Chicago Cubs before the Cardinals blew the lead and lost 5-4 in 11 innings. But if that’s how Carpenter throws the first time out, he could be back to a strong seven innings by the time the playoffs begin.

Since Carpenter is returning from injury, the Cardinals might use him third in the rotation, but that could be a bonus. The team could throw Wainwright or Lohse in any combination of the Wild Card game Oct. 5 against the Atlanta Braves and then the start of the Division Series. Those two pitchers have a combined record of 28-16 with a 3.37 ERA, and Lohse is in Cy Young award contention with his 15-3 record and 2.71 ERA.

All of a sudden the Cardinals could match-up well against teams they might face in the Division Series. The problem is games such as Friday in Chicago when the team can’t score enough runs and can’t protect leads when it has them.

The Cardinals are 20-26 in one-run games this season, and much of that record has come from the bullpen’s inability to hold a lead, as it failed to do again Friday.

That has perhaps been the most frustrating part of the 2012 St. Louis Cardinals. The starting pitching has been superb for the most part and has kept the team in most every game this season. There have been very few games when the Cardinals got crushed because the starting pitcher was terrible. However, the team has not been able to lock down games at the end, and while the bullpen deserves plenty of blame, the rest of the team isn’t helping.

For example, the Cardinals left the bases loaded in the second inning after scoring one run in Saturday’s 5-4 10-inning win over the Cubs. They also left men on first and third in the sixth and eighth innings without scoring a run. In total, they left 13 runners on base.

That lack of the big hit to take control of a game has been a problem all season. Even though the Cardinals ended April with a 14-8 record, they could have had a much better month.

“We could have had an epic month, and it turned out to be a decent month,” Lance Berkman told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “With the potential that this team has, this is a nice month but it’s certainly not our best.”

Unfortunately, that potential never showed up. The Cardinals are still stumbling each time they start to get on a roll. This is the point in the season when opportunities can no longer be wasted because one mistake could allow the Milwaukee Brewers to jump in and steal the second wild-card spot.

But if the Cardinals do make the playoffs, optimism and dreams of another World Series will return when people look at a starting rotation with Carpenter, Wainwright and Lohse. Hopefully the rest of the team can keep up.

This week, the St. Louis Cardinals found out exactly what a full Major League season of Allen Craig looks like. He has now played in 156 games and collected over 500 plate appearances in the big leagues. The numbers are in…and they look pretty good.

In his time with the Cardinals during the regular season, Craig sports a .297 batting average with 25 home runs, 95 RBI, and a better than .880 OPS. He does have 100 strikeouts against only 42 walks, so perhaps his pitch selection could be a bit better. But those numbers are great. Craig is just one of those players who goes out and rakes.

The problem, of course, is that it has taken Craig parts of three seasons to get one season’s worth of stats on his résumé. Injuries have definitely taken a toll on the slugger’s playing time early in his career. The good news is, the biggest injury he sustained was a result of hustling his ass off and crashing into the wall knee first and not some muscle or tendon pull as a result of poor conditioning or other weakness. The time he missed certainly still counts, but a freak accident injury is something entirely different from being injury prone. It will take more time to see if Craig is predisposed to weird injuries or not.

Craig’s true breakout may have come in the 2011 World Series. Though he only hit .263, Craig had three home runs and an otherworldly 1.154 OPS. Pretty much every other performance in that series got overshadowed by David Freese’s heroics, and he certainly deserved the MVP award. But Craig at least had a case to be in the conversation. Many of his offensive numbers were very close to Freese, and he added some flash with the catch over the wall and go-ahead home run in Game 7. In fact, most of his RBI were of either the go-ahead or game-winning variety. Craig was clutch in that World Series. Remember the hits off Alexei Ogando in the first two games? Overall, Craig had just as big a part in the Cards winning that series as Freese, Chris Carpenter, and Albert Pujols.

Not too shabby for a player who one week will play several positions and the next week seem to be a man without a position. Under Tony LaRussa, Craig played everywhere on the field except pitcher, catcher, and shortstop. New manager Mike Matheny has thus far kept Craig in the outfield or at first base, an important position for him to excel in with Lance Berkman’s return uncertain.

But that is a great question: What happens if/when Berkman does come back? Where do the Cardinals play Craig if everyone else is healthy? He was capable playing elsewhere in the infield, but he was not great. With an outfield of Matt Holliday, Jon Jan and Carlos Beltran and everyone’s healthy and producing, who sits? It would be a nice problem to have…unless your name is Allen Craig.

Craig has proven he belongs in the big leagues; now he needs to prove he can stay off the disabled list. He is forcing management on and off the field to take notice by putting up rock-solid numbers. If they continue and his time on the field stabilizes, Craig has a fine career in front of him.

ST. LOUIS – April 11, 2012 – A pre-game ceremony that officially welcomes home the reigning World Champions will punctuate a day of activities celebrating the annual return of baseball to St. Louis on Friday, April 13^th.  The Cardinals will take on the Chicago Cubs in a 2:15 p.m. game.  Following is a schedule of official activities, some fun franchise facts and information to help baseball’s best fans enjoy what has become an unofficial holiday for Cardinal Nation.

Opening Day Ceremony Celebrates World Champions

While Opening Day in St. Louis is always special, this year promises to be extraordinary.  Fans won’t want to miss a single minute of the opening ceremony that will begin at 1:30 p.m. with the Budweiser Clydesdales and will pay tribute to the 2011 World Championship team described as the greatest comeback team in the history of baseball.  The ceremony will feature all four of the team’s Commissioner’s Trophies, as well as representatives of each of those World Championship teams (’67, ’82, ’06 & ’11).  The ceremony will culminate with the formal raising of the 2011 World Championship Banner by the family of U.S. Army Specialist Jeffrey L. White, Jr. of Catawissa Missouri.  Specialist White, who was serving his country in Operation Enduring Freedom, died April 3 in the Khost Province of Afghanistan when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.   Specialist White was an avid Cardinals fan who was home on leave for Game 7 of the World Series last October and was planning to attend Opening Day with his family before he was killed.  Specialist Whites’ mother Paula, father Jeff and brothers Michael and Kyle will raise the championship banner.                                     

Schedule

10:00 a.m. – 1 p.m.          Cardinals Official Opening Day Pre-Game Pep Rally, sponsored by Hardee’s:  The Cardinals will host a pre-game pep rally in the Ballpark Village Lot, located directly across from Busch Stadium, at the corner of Clark Street and South Broadway. Local rock band Trixie Delight will perform from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Fredbird and Team Fredbird will be on hand to give away Opening Day tickets, autographed items and other Cardinals prizes. Fans can stop by the Hardee’s Photo Booth, where they can get their Opening Day picture taken for free and visit the Hardee’s Mobile Diner where, with the purchase of a Combo Meal, they will receive a complimentary Opening Day t-shirt.  Other sponsors include: Budweiser, the United States Marine Corps, the United States Air Force, Dunkin Donuts, Energizer, First National Bank, Fox Theater, Fox Sports Midwest, Girl Scouts, Krispy Kreme, Lumiere/River City, MO Secretary of State, Muny, Papa John’s, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Tan Company and Qdoba

11:45 a.m.                           Gates open

                                                Busch Magnet Schedule Day:  All fans with a ticket ages 21 and over will receive a magnet with the 2012 Cardinals schedule, compliments of Busch Beer.

1:30 p.m.                             Pre-game ceremonies begin with an appearance by the famed Budweiser Clydesdales.

                  Introduce Missouri Governor Jeremiah “Jay” Nixon, St. Louis County Executive Charlie A. Dooley and St. Louis Mayor Francis G. Slay         

                  Introduce Fredbird & Team Fredbird.

                  Cardinals Hall-of-Famers will be introduced via a Ford Motorcade around the warning track, led by the 2013 Ford Escape.

                  Video Tribute to the 2011 World Champions                                  

                  Introduce representatives of the last four World Championships who will escort in the Cardinals last four World Championship trophies….Mike Shannon (’67), Tommy Herr (’82), David Eckstein, Jim Edmonds (’06) and Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan (’11)

                  Introduce the reigning World Champion St. Louis Cardinals via Ford Motorcade (2012 Ford Platinum F-150s and 2012 Ford Raptor F-150s)

                  The family of U.S. Army Specialist Jeffrey L. White, Jr. will raise the 2011 World Championship Banner in Leftfield.

                  Introduce the Chicago Cubs and the starting lineups

                  American Bald Eagle flight, courtesy of the World Bird Sanctuary of St. Louis

                  Color Guard – The U.S. Marine Corps

                                                A moment of silence to former Cardinals pitcher Bob Forsch

                  Shannon Magrane, singer and Season 11 contestant on American Idol, will sing the Star-Spangled Banner.

                                                U.S. Air Force Flyover – Two F-16s

                  Ceremonial First Pitch

2:15 p.m.                             Game Time

Watching on TV

Fans can watch the game and pre-game ceremony in High Definition on FS-Midwest.

Radio Coverage

Fans can tune into KMOX (1120 AM) or one of the 117 stations in the Cardinals Radio Network to hear Mike Shannon & John Rooney call the game.  The expanded pre-game show starts at 12:30pm.

Getting to the Game / Ramp Closures on I-64
MoDOT will not have any lane closures on state highways inside the city limits for Opening Day and Opening Weekend, except for those behind permanent barriers on Interstate 70. The department will start a project to renovate the driving surface of the double deck bridge on I-64 in May. One lane will be closed around the clock on westbound I-64 until late September. One lane will be closed around the clock on eastbound I-64 from late August until late October.  At this time, several I-64 closures are planned for weekends, but will not be scheduled during Cardinal home games.

Alternative Transportation Reminder

MetroLink is a convenient alternative to driving, allowing fans to avoid the cost of parking and game day traffic.  To avoid the cost of parking and game day traffic, fans can use one of nineteen free Park-Ride lots along the MetroLink line and take the train to Stadium Station, right across the street from the ballpark.  Check the Metro website www.MetroSt.Louis.org for schedules and the Park-Ride lot nearest you.  There are also plenty of buses in Missouri and Illinois that will get fans to Busch Stadium including the RedBird Express that departs from the Water Tower at St. Clair Square in Fairview Heights, Illinois.  The first RedBird Express leaves 2 ½ hours before the game and runs every 5-10 minutes.

Ballpark Improvements

As the Cardinals begin their seventh season of play in the new Busch Stadium, the team has made a number of improvements to the stadium during the off-season.

• The Cardinals have updated all of the team’s World Championship signage throughout the ballpark to reflect the team’s 11^th World Championship, including installing an 11^th flag pole on the World Champions sign atop the out of town scoreboard, freshly painting pennants atop the Cardinals dugout and updating the exterior signage on the south side of Busch Stadium facing I-64, as well as other signage.

• The Champions Club has been rebranded the UMB Champions Club.  The UMB Champions Club is the home to all four of the Cardinals World Championship Trophies (1967, 1982, 2006 and 2011) – officially referred to as “the Commissioner Trophies” in new custom built illuminated cabinets.  The Cardinals have the distinction of having both the oldest and the newest Commissioner’s Trophy.  The first Commissioner’s Trophy was awarded in 1967, when the Cardinals defeated the Boston Red Sox.   The Cardinals hold the record for the most Commissioners trophies won in the National League (4), second only to the Yankees (7). Tiffany & Company developed the current trophy design beginning in 1999 for the winner of the 2000 World Series.  The 30-pound trophy stands two-feet tall, has a diameter of 11 inches, and features 30 gold-plated flags – - one for each of the Major League Baseball teams — which rise above an arched baseball with latitude and longitude lines symbolizing the world that contain 24-karat vermeil baseball stitches. The team has also upgraded to new High-Definition energy efficient LED televisions, including the six-screen video array that acts as a major focal point in the club.

• The St. Louis Cardinals, in partnership with Sachs Electric, Microgrid Energy and the Electrical Connection and its IBEW Local One / NECA, have installed 106 Solar Electric panels on the roof of the ticket building and a concession canopy in the Ford Plaza.  The new solar array will produce 37,000 kilowatt hours of energy each year, which is enough electricity to power all the retail stores at Busch Stadium for a year.  While the savings achieved through the solar system demonstration project will be modest, the system will serve as an educational tool for renewable energy and become another focal point for sustainable efforts by the Cardinals as part of their “4 A Greener Game” program.  The Cardinals have reduced their energy use by 20% and water use by 10% since the stadium opened.  The team has recycled more than 1836 tons of solid waste, more than 575 tons of yard waste and more than 110 tons of composted organic material since 2008.
• 150 energy efficient LED flat screen HD televisions will be installed throughout the stadium this year, including a new special nine-screen video wall on the main concourse, just to the third base side of home plate.  This array will measure approximately 7 feet by 13 feet, giving fans a great view of game action.  Early in the season, all premium areas of the ballpark will be upgraded to HDTV to take advantage of the 24 HD channel in-house network.
• The Cardinals will be playing on a new infield and new warning track this season.  The infield has a refined new mix of clay and sand to enhance overall playability in good weather, as well as improve its ability to handle more rain and remain playable.
• The Cardinals have added a few hundred seats at the terrace level of the ballpark, as well as painted and made additional smaller improvements to numerous areas of the ballpark during the off season.

New for the 2012 Season

• The team has installed nine ticket kiosks located outside the main Ticket Box Office on 8^th Street.  The convenient touch-screen kiosks allow fans to purchase or print their tickets 24 hours a day at no additional cost than if they were purchasing or picking up their tickets at the box office.  One kiosk is also located within the Team Store at Clark & 8^th Street.  A dozen more kiosks will be installed around the perimeter of the ballpark over the next few weeks.

• While only the players can satisfy the fans’ hunger for another victory, Delaware North Companies Sportservice, the St. Louis Cardinals’ concessionaire for more than 50 years, is satisfying their hunger for great taste sensations by revealing four new live-action stations at the concessions level. Each station offers completely customizable, fresh menu options sure to please every appetite. New concepts include:

• The Asian Café at gate 1, featuring either rice or noodles topped with chicken or beef, fresh veggies and Asian-inspired sauces;
• The Carvery at gate 2, featuring marinated turkey or beef sliced right off bone, then piled high onto fresh-baked bread from St. Louis’ own Fazio’s Bakery;
• Sliders and Fries at section 148, featuring braised beef with au jus, pulled chicken with chipotle mayonnaise, and St. Louis-style barbecue pulled pork with grilled onions; and
• Coke Island at gate 1, popping up several delicious flavors of fresh popcorn, including butter, white cheddar, Cajun and Cinnamon Sweet Cardinal Corn.
• Back by popular demand from the World Series are two favorites: the St. Louis Barbecue Bacon Dog (available in sections 133, 168 and the Redbird Club), and Build Your Own Nachos (available in sections 131, 151 and the Redbird Club).

• The Official Cardinals Team Store features St. Louis’ widest selection of World Series Gold Program apparel – a limited-edition line of gold-lettered Cardinals World Series Championship jerseys, T-shirts, hats and more. Players will wear the commemorative jersey and hat throughout Opening Day Weekend. Fans will also find exclusive expanded lines of merchandise, including player look-alike toys and items for the home and outdoors, such as the “I ‘Heart’ David Freese” street sign. Back for the 2012 season are dozens of $12 and under souvenirs, including, mini-bats, koozies, magnets, baseball cards, jewelry, posters, postcards, foam fingers, foam claws, key chains, lanyards, pennants, player plaques, sunglasses and a pin of the month, now expanded for all 12 months of the year.

• Fans will want to stop by the Cardinals Authentics store in Ford Plaza (cardinals.com/authentics), the only place to get official, game-used, limited edition and autographed Cardinals memorabilia directly from the team.  New this year are a number of exciting 2011 World Championship themed items, as well as items commemorating the 30^th Anniversary of the 1982 World Championship.  Fans can now order an engraved bat from Louisville Slugger, the official bat of MLB.

Cardinals Care Celebrates Fifteen Years of Helping Kids

Cardinals Care, the team’s charitable foundation, is celebrating 15-years of supporting children.  Since 1997 Cardinals Care has invested nearly $18 million in “Caring for Kids” both on and off the baseball field.  Cardinals Care has provided nearly $11 million in grants to over 800 non-profit youth organizations and built 19 youth ball fields in local disadvantaged neighborhoods.  Cardinals Care also runs Redbird Rookies, a free baseball league for kids who otherwise might not have the opportunity to play. In addition to providing all the uniforms, gloves, bats, balls and other equipment needed for each team, Redbird Rookies also provides extensive off-field support in the areas of health, education, mentoring and the cultural arts for each of the nearly 4,500 kids who participate in the program each year.  Last year, Cardinals Care established the Joplin Recovery Fund with over $200,000 in fan donations to help the thousands of Joplin area children recover from one of the most destructive tornadoes in American history.                                    

To mark the 15-year anniversary of the foundation, Cardinals Care is urging fans to support their on-going efforts to help children a variety of ways:

• Go RED for the Kids – Businesses, schools and other organizations are being asked to rally behind the team and Cardinals Care by participating in Cardinals RED for Kids.  Piloted during the 2011 postseason, Cardinals RED for Kids is the team’s version of an office “dress down” day in which participating organizations make a donation to Cardinals Care in exchange for the opportunity to sport their Cardinal colors around the office on Opening Day. To participate, local businesses and organizations can visit cardinals.com/red
• 6K Run Home for Kids – lace up your jogging shoes and join the team for the 3^rd annual run & walk on Sunday, September 16th.  Learn more and sign up at www.cardinals.com/6K
• Donate directly at cardinals.com/community

Some Fun Franchise Facts

• ·          The Cardinals were founded in 1882 as an American Association Team called the St. Louis Brown Stockings. 
• ·          In 1892, the team moved to the National League and changed the team name to the St. Louis Browns.  In 1899, the name was changed to the Perfectos, and in 1900, the name was changed to the St. Louis Cardinals.  
• ·          From 1902-1954, an American League Team called the St. Louis Browns also played in St. Louis.  In 1954, they moved to Baltimore and became the Baltimore Orioles.
• ·          The Cardinals have won more than 9,300 games, 11 World Series Championships, 18 National League Pennants, 3 National League Eastern Division Titles, and 8 National League Central Division Titles.
• ·          There are more than 40 former Cardinal players and managers enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York.
• ·          In March of 1996 a group of investors led by Bill DeWitt Jr. purchased the Cardinals from Anheuser Busch.
• ·          Over the last 16 seasons, the team has finished in first place eight times, won three NL pennants and two World Series while drawing over 50 million fans
• ·          Baseball America named the Cardinals the 2011 Baseball Organization of the Year for the first time, recognizing that the team’s big league success was built upon a strong foundation of a restructured organization that claimed two minor league titles in 2011 and that since 2005 has among the most team-drafted players debut in the majors.
• ·          The Cardinals bring more than 3 million fans downtown each year, with more than a million coming from outside of the state of Missouri.  90% of fans come from outside the City of St. Louis.
• ·          In 2006 the Cardinals moved into the new $411 million Busch Stadium in downtown St. Louis on April 10, 2006 (beating the Brewers 6-4). The team covered nearly 90 percent of the cost of the project, including infrastructure.
• ·          Nearly 21 Million fans have attended Cardinals games in the new Busch Stadium since it opened on April 10, 2006 (20,130,635 regular season attendance; 839,583 post season attendance).
• ·          There are approximately 3,000 day-of-game employees at Busch Stadium.
• ·          The St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association (RCGA) estimates that the economic impact of the 2012 Cardinals’ season on the St. Louis region will be approximately $322 million, with an estimated $160 million this year in direct impact and $162 million in in-direct regional economic activity.
• ·          In 2011, the Cardinals drew 3.093 million fans, with 27 sellout games – ranking 7^th in MLB in attendance.
• ·          In 2011, the Cardinals had 36 Promotional Giveaways, ranging from magnet schedules and wall calendars to bats, hats, pennants and bobbleheads.
• ·          In 2011, the Cardinals implemented a new value-based ticket pricing system called Dynamic Pricing that allows the team to more accurately price single-game tickets on a day-to-day basis.  The dynamic system was a success in helping achieve the goals of broadening the ticket-buying fan base, rewarding fans for buying earlier in the season, and protecting season ticket holder value.  80% of the games in 2011 were priced lower than in 2010.  65% of the games had tickets available for $10 or less.  35% of the games had tickets available for only $5.
• ·          Over the last 16 seasons, the Cardinals have donated nearly 4 million tickets to children and charities
• ·          Cardinals Care has distributed more than $18 million to area organizations and built 19 Youth Baseball Fields since it was founded in 1997.
• ·          Redbird Rookies now has 20 leagues, serving more than 4,500 kids in the St. Louis metropolitan area, as well as parts of rural Missouri and Illinois. In addition to organizing leagues for kids, Redbird Rookies provides services to kids such as youth mentoring programs, health screenings, and scholarship opportunities.
• ·          In 2011, Cardinals telecasts on FOX Sports Midwest generated the 2^nd highest local market television ratings in Major League Baseball, the 12^th straight year in which the Cardinals ranked among the top three teams.  FOX Sports Midwest-produced Cardinals telecasts are shown in nine states and available in millions of homes.
• ·          The Cardinals radio network is the second largest in baseball with 117 stations in nine states (Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Tennessee) with the potential to reach over 21 million listeners.
• ·          In one year, the Stadium sells:

o    540,000 hot dogs;

o    181,000 pounds of nacho chips; and

o    32,000 gallons of nacho cheese.

• ·          During a typical season the Cardinals go through:

o    7,315,200 ft of paper towels

o    15,373,800 ft of toilet paper

• ·          The Cardinals’ “4 A Greener Game Program” launched in 2008 is credited with recycling more than 1836 tons of solid waste, more than 575 tons of yard waste and more than 110 tons of composted organic material.
• ·          The Cardinals have reduced their energy use by 20% and water use by 10% since the stadium opened in 2006.
• ·          The team’s concessionaire Delaware North Sportservice has donated more than $159,000 worth of food to Operation Food Search, with a waste diversion rate of 29%.
• ·          The Cardinals Web site (cardinals.com) is very popular with fans, drawing over 32.7 million visitors in season and over 13 million unique visitors a month.
• ·          The Cardinals have also been active in social media.  The team has more than 1.2 million fans on Facebook (facebook/cardinals), and more than 120,000 followers on Twitter (@cardinals).  In 2010, the Cardinals launched a social media based “Stand for Stan” campaign to celebrate Stan Musial that culminated in President Barack Obama awarding Stan Musial the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
• ·          In 1998, the Cardinals opened the $28 Million Roger Dean Stadium and Sports Complex in Jupiter, Florida.  In 2002, the team purchased the Charlotte Rangers, renamed them the Palm Beach Cardinals and moved them to Jupiter.
• ·          Since 2005, the Cardinals have owned and operated the Class AA Texas League Springfield Cardinals franchise that plays at the new Hammons Field in Springfield, Missouri.
• ·          The St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum (www.cardinals.com/museum) collection is the largest team-held collection in Major League Baseball and is second only to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in terms of size with over 16,000 memorabilia items and over 80,000 archival photographs.

BUSCH STADIUM – POLICY REMINDERS

Bag Inspections Policy

§  The standard game-day bag inspection policies for Busch Stadium will be in effect. Bags will be allowed that meet Major League Baseball’s standard size restriction (16”x16”x8”), and all bags will be inspected prior to entry.

§  Fans will be permitted to bring small personal cameras and will be subject to inspection.  No professional-sized photography equipment will be allowed except for members of the media with proper MLB credentials.

§  Non-alcoholic beverages such as water & soda in open cups or in clear plastic bottles no larger than 2 liters are allowed.

§  Alcohol, bottles, cans, thermoses, hard-sided coolers; hard plastic cups/mugs are not permitted.

§  Small banners and signs are allowed.  Banners may be displayed as long as they do not hinder or interfere with a ball in play or distract or interfere with the view of another guest. Banners may not be displayed in fair territory, be obscene or in poor taste, attract abuse or cause a disturbance among other guests. They should be baseball-oriented and not commercial in nature.

§  Please minimize items you bring into the stadium to speed up the inspection process.

§  Expect long lines upon entry and allow yourself plenty of time to go through the inspection process.

Exit/Re-entry Policy

Standard Exit/Re-entry Policies are in effect.  Guests wishing to leave the stadium, but planning to return during the same game must have their hand stamped at Gates 1, 2 or 4 as they exit the stadium. Guests must show ticket upon re-entry. Inspection policy will also be enforced.

No Smoking Policy

Standard Busch Stadium Smoking Policy is in effect.  Busch Stadium is a smoke-free facility. Exit/Re-Entry turnstiles will be set up at Gates 1, 2 and 4 to allow fans access in and out of the stadium if they wish to smoke. Fans will get their hand stamped as they exit the stadium. Guests must show ticket upon re-entry. Inspection policy will also be enforced.

So far, the St. Louis Cardinals are making it look easy in 2012. And while no one would say anything in 2011 was easy—maybe when they put Game 7 of the World Series out of reach…maybe—the Cards are playing a lot like they did at the end of last season.

And that’s no small feat, for a couple of reasons. Mike Matheny and his revamped coaching staff may not have been tested with any chess match-type of games, but so far the rookie manager has not made any mistakes either. The Cards are 2-0 facing two different teams in their home openers and against their aces: The Miami Marlins threw Josh Johnson, and the Milwaukee Brewers sent out Yovanni Gallardo. The Redbirds handled them both, and without the benefit of having an ace on the mound either time.

There are a lot of similarities between this year’s squad and last year’s World Champs. The Cards have gotten two really solid starts from their rotation already. The team plays good defense, and the middle of the order is hitting the ball well. Even David Freese looks the same; every time he comes up with runners in scoring position and two outs, he gets a hit. It’s getting to be a shock when he does not. But the 2012 Cardinals are doing some things a little differently, too. They already have three stolen bases this season, and one was (gasp!) while the #3 hitter was up to bat. And for the second game of the season, Matheny trotted out the exact same lineup he used in the first game of the season. It’s almost as if he is just taunting Tony La Russa now…

But the first big test comes Saturday in Milwaukee. Adam Wainwright makes his regular season debut just 13 or so months after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Wainwright will probably be his old self, but his stats at the end of the game will not be the whole story. What really matters on that mound Saturday is how many pitches he’s able to throw before he tires. And then the next story will be how he feels on Sunday. The Cardinals have no idea when Chris Carpenter will be back; they need Wainwright to be the go-to guy indefinitely this season. And that may require him to throw fewer innings based on how he recovers after each start. In the meantime, it will be great to see him on the mound.

The Cardinals are coming out of the gate with guns blazing, but it can’t last. Their stats will fall back down to near their averages. But this is so much like what happened in the 2011 season end and postseason. Imagine that: solid pitching, timely hitting, and good defense lead to wins. Still, the Cardinals have to be careful not to kick back and think they have things in the bag. That is one reason the stolen bases are so significant: they represent a bit of a culture shift. The Cards are exploring new—or, at the very least, expanded—ways to “get ‘em on, get ‘em over, get ‘em out” and there is nothing wrong with that.

Couple it with the “never say die” attitude of last year’s team and maybe the Cardinals will be as good as the team that won it all last year. Maybe they will even be better.

Will David Freese build off his postseason success?

Had things gone slightly differently last season, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.

Had the world champion St. Louis Cardinals not clawed back from 10½ games behind in the wild-card race with 31 games to play — or 8½ games back with 21 to play, or three back with five to play — to sneak into the playoffs on the last day of the regular season, David Freese wouldn’t even be a topic of discussion as fantasy owners prep for draft day.

David Freese earned MVP honors in both the NLCS and World Series, but is that enough for fantasy owners to make him a top option at a weak third base position?

Entering 2011, Freese barely cracked the ESPN top-20 rankings at third base, and he did little during the regular season to boost his stock, finishing outside the top 250 on the ESPN Player Rater and ranking just 22nd among third basemen by hitting .297 with 10 dingers and 55 RBIs in 333 at-bats.

Oh, what a difference a few extra weeks can make. Freese looked like a different player over the course of the Cardinals’ 18-game postseason run, batting .397 with five home runs and a playoff-record 21 RBIs and earning MVP honors in both the NLCS and World Series. Not only that, but his game-tying, two-run triple in the bottom of the ninth inning (with two outs and two strikes, no less) and his game-winning, walk-off homer in the bottom of the 11th in Game 6 to force a Game 7 will go down as two of the biggest postseason hits of all time, which could inflate Freese’s draft day price tag by themselves.

The first problem with gleaning too much from Freese’s postseason outburst is obviously the small sample size. An 18-game hot streak in June or July, no matter how impressive, would go largely unnoticed in the grand scheme of a 162-game season, so we shouldn’t put extra stock into a hot streak that happens in October. One can argue that a hot streak late in the season is more telling than one in the middle of the year, as I suppose it’s more likely to be a sign of growth, but there isn’t precedence for players showing new skills in October and having them carry over into the following season. In 2008, for example, B.J. Upton hit just nine home runs in 531 regular-season at-bats and then went on to hit seven homers in 66 at-bats in the postseason, causing many to predict that we’d see a power surge in 2009. Upton did eventually cash in on some of his untapped power potential, but it didn’t happen in 2009, when he hit just 11 dingers in 560 at-bats.

So if we remove last year’s postseason from the equation and take a step back to get a big-picture, helicopter view, what do we see? Despite turning 29 years old in late April, Freese has just 604 big league at-bats under his belt over three seasons. And that leads us into the major concern with Freese: his ability to stay healthy. The Cardinals third baseman missed more than half of the 2010 season with an ankle injury, and a left hand injury sidelined him for 51 games last year, not to mention a concussion that forced him to miss time in August. We currently have him projected for 470 at-bats — a plateau he could very well reach — but if we’re simply going off his big league track record, expecting even that many may be optimistic.

Injuries aren’t the only problem when evaluating Freese. Despite the .794 slugging percentage in the playoffs last year, there are questions about how much power potential he really possesses. While Freese hit 26 home runs at Triple-A in 2008, he hasn’t hit more than 13 homers in a season since and has just 15 dingers in 604 big league at-bats. Yes, part of that is attributed to his inability to stay healthy, but the metrics don’t say there’s a ton of power upside here. Last year’s fly ball rate was just 23.1 percent — down from 29.1 percent in 2010 — and his 16.7 percent HR/FB rate could regress in 2012, which obviously doesn’t bode well for a future power spike.

That said, we shouldn’t completely rule out the possibility for some future power growth, either. At nearly 29 years old, Freese is in his hitting prime, and it’s fair to assume that his power numbers last year were at least somewhat negatively affected by his hand injury. He wouldn’t be the first player to have some of his power sapped by a hand or wrist injury, after all.

As mentioned, Freese hit 26 homers in 131 Triple-A games in 2008, so it’s not like he’s never shown the ability to hit for power. And while his isolated power (which measures a player’s raw power in terms of extra-base hits) last year was just .131, he posted a .238 ISO in 664 Triple-A at-bats between 2008 and 2009. That’s not to say his minor league power will ever fully translate, but let’s face it, he probably hasn’t even been in the big leagues long enough for us to make that determination considering we’ve basically seen only one full season’s worth of playing time from Freese. Heck, it took former top prospect Alex Gordon nearly 1,500 big league at-bats before he finally put things together last season, and Freese wasn’t even half the prospect Gordon was. A full season of at-bats — still far from guaranteed, obviously — could result in a level of power production we haven’t yet seen from him at the big league level.

If all else fails, there’s one thing Freese has already proved he can do, and that’s hit. Despite a less-than-ideal contact rate (77 percent) in his big league career, he boasts a .298 batting average in 604 career at-bats, he improved his strikeout rate last year, and had he qualified, his 24.6 percent line-drive rate would’ve ranked fifth in the National League. He was also a career .307 hitter with a .384 OBP in the minors. Perhaps his batting average last year was aided by his .356 batting average on balls in play, but he’s been a high BABIP guy his entire professional career, so that’s not a huge concern. Projecting Freese to settle in as a .280-.300 hitter seems like a safe bet.

However unlikely it may be, the absolute best-case scenario with Freese in 2012 is that he stays healthy all year, shows growth in the power department and continues to hit for average. Should all of that happen, the result could be something close to a .300 average with 20-25 homers and 90-100 RBIs. Those numbers would mirror the season fantasy owners just got from Aramis Ramirez, who hit .306-26-93 last year and was a top-five fantasy third baseman. The odds are that Freese will fall well short of those numbers (particularly the home run total), whether because of injury or simply failing to produce, so don’t draft him with that kind of production in mind. Still, it’s reasonable to think there could be some untapped potential in Freese’s bat, with the upside being a top-10 fantasy third baseman, and potentially more given the lack of many high-end options at the position.

Based on current ADP data at Mock Draft Central, Freese is being drafted 162nd overall and 11th at third base. That’s several spots higher than our ESPN rankings, which rank him 16th at the position. (Note: ESPN live draft data will be available in early March.) This means that, in a standard 10-team league, Freese can generally be drafted in the 17th round or later. For the injury risk involved, that’s not a bad spot. If you’re going to draft Freese, it’s best to plan for some time on the disabled list and not expect more than the 10-15 home run power he’s displayed thus far. That way you won’t be disappointed if the injury bug bites again or he fails to make strides in the power department, and you still have some potential upside built into his draft slot if everything goes right.

David Freese is the subject of the April 2012 Computer Desktop Calendar from D-Two.net.  Get yours here.

This past weekend I watched my first spring training games, courtesy of the MLB Network. Naturally the first game I saw included the St Louis Cardinals – they played their complex-mates, the Miami Marlins, on Saturday.  Kyle Lohse started, there was a rain delay, and the Cardinals eventually lost 3-1.

After Lohse worked his innings Lance Lynn came on to throw.  Lynn has changed his number from 62 last season, now 31. Normally that fact would just be trivia,  but the number 31 struck a chord this time.  It once belonged to Bob Forsch.  Now, it is not the first time someone has worn #31 since Forsch was traded to Houston.  Six other men (5 pitchers and Bo Hart) have worn the number.  But Bob Forsch died last fall, six days after throwing out the first pitch of Game 7, so this time it was different.

Cardinal teams after 1974 and before Whitey Herzog took over in 1980 generally were not very good.  From the start of 1975 through the end of the 1980 season the club was 40 games under .500 (466-506).  They had a few interesting pieces – a sublime catcher, a ‘mad’ relief pitcher, a future MVP – but the starting staff had a lot of turnover and not much lasting talent.  Except for Forsch.

Did you know Forsch was the winningest pitcher at Busch Memorial Stadium (1966-2006)?  He won 93 games there (Bob Gibson is second, with 72).  Forsch also appeared in the most games as a pitcher (231), threw the most innings (1395), had the most losses (59), and struck out 576 hitters, second only to Gibson’s 933, at Busch.  You definitely know he is the only Cardinal pitcher to throw more than one no-hitter, that he won 20 games in 1977, and famously hit Jeffrey Leonard ten years later to, perhaps, change the psychological nature of that rather contentious NLCS.  Cardinals went to the World Series.

Near as I can tell, there is no plan in the works to honor Forsch, and there should be.  He will never make it into the Hall of Fame; his only year on the ballot (1995) he received 2 votes.  He likely will not have his number retired by the Cardinals, either.  But he deserves to be remembered, and not just with Bob Forsch Day.  Sewing a 31 patch on everyone’s uniform would be a little awkward, seeing as Lynn currently wears the number.  RHF on a sleeve, or even an old-school black armband, would not be too out of place or ostentatious.

Honor the third winningest pitcher in St Louis Cardinal history.  Honor the man who pitched in 3 World Series.  Honor Bob Forsch.

Mike Metzger is a freelance writer who also blogs about the Padres.  Follow him on Twitter.

A man who wears a mask the majority of the time we see him may have just become the new face of the St. Louis Cardinals franchise.

Yadier Molina, who broke into the big leagues with the Cardinals back in 2004, will keep the bird on the bat logo across his chest through the 2017 season, with an option for 2018, at which time Molina would be 36 years old. The five-year extension is expected to pay the game’s best defensive catcher $75 million dollars, with a $15 million option for a 6^th year.

And with that, Cardinals fans, you can drop your guards. You will not have to spend the next 10 months fretting over whether or not another one of St. Louis’ baseball icons will leave the team at the altar.

In the wake of Albert Pujols’ abrupt move to the Los Angeles Angels, Cardinals general manager, John Mozeliak, insists he didn’t feel any added pressure to get a deal done for Molina. If he really didn’t, he probably should have. Molina is the single most admired, appreciated, and beloved member of the Cardinals organization right now. Cardinals fans in minor league cities from Palm Beach to Memphis watched him grow up. Fans in St. Louis watched him persevere at the plate, where he started his first season as the Cardinals’ starter in an 0 for 25 slump before eventually breaking through. His confidence at the plate continued to rise, and eventually Molina turned himself from an offensive liability into one of the best hitting catchers in the game today. In 2011, he hit .305 with a career high 14 HRs and 65 RBI.

Along the way, Molina provided Cardinal fans with exhilarating moments, from game-changing pickoff throws to his game-winning home run in the 9^th inning of Game 7 in the 2006 NLCS. Molina has been a key part of two World Series Championship teams, and is a four-time Gold Glove.

With Tony La Russa and Albert Pujols out of the picture, this is now Molina’s team. He and Chris Carpenter share the title as longest tenured Cardinal, both joining the team in 2004. But Carpenter is in the twilight of his career, and his current 2-year deal may very well be his last.

So yes, he wears a mask, but Yadi is the new face of the franchise.

Somewhere in the whirlwind that is known as the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals off-season, a very key piece of the organization left the club without much fanfare. Events quickly moved from World Series parade, to Tony LaRussa’s retirement, to the Albert Pujols negotiations, to Dave Duncan’s leave of absence, to the Winter Warm Up. I can not think of another team that had so much turnover  immediately following a World Championship as the Cardinals experienced. In the midst of the flurry of off-season activity it is certainly understandable how a key move made but a small splash.

Lunhow,

Cardinal Nation barely had a chance to catch its breath from World Series Game 7 before Tony LaRussa announced his retirement. In the following weeks Albert Pujols, Joe Pettini, and Dave McKay all moved on to other clubs. Cardinal pitching coach Dave Duncan announced that he would take a leave of absence to be with his wife as she continues her battle with cancer.  When the Cardinals take the field against the Miami Marlins on April 4, 2012, Jose Oquendo will be the only uniformed coach that has been with the team since 2009.

Despite all of the turnover within the club, there is great optimism within the Cardinals front office, the team, the coaches, and a majority of the fan base at the prospects for the 2012 season. Before completely shifting focus to 2012, I want to reflect on a 2011 departure that gets less attention, but has tremendous organizational impact. On the very same night the Los Angeles Angels were finalizing a deal to sign Albert Pujols, the Houston Astros named Jeff Luhnow their new general manager.

Jeff Luhnow was the head of the Cardinals scouting and drafting department. He established a strong presence in Latin America for the team, and brought the Cardinals into a new era of player development that used both scouting and analytics.  He worked for the team from 2003 until this past December. Since 2005, Luhnow turned the Cardinals farm system from one of the worst in baseball to arguably one of the top five in the league. This was done in spite of the fact the Cardinals never had a top ten pick during any of the drafts he oversaw.

Luhnow is not a “baseball insider” that worked his way up through the ranks. He was more comfortable with spreadsheets than with scouting reports when he was hired by the Cardinals. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with degrees in economics and engineering, and earned his MBA at Northwestern University. Prior to joining the Cardinals in 2003, he worked in mechanical and chemical engineering, spent five years in management consulting, did entrepreneurial work, and served as a vice president of marketing for Petstore.com.

In the early part of the last decade, teams had to quickly adapt to the new emphasis on analytics brought about from the release of the book “Moneyball”. The book highlighted the Oakland Athletics success, despite an incredibly small payroll, using advanced statistics to find market inefficiencies in player evaluation. Luhnow was one of the early baseball analytics experts given a front office job. He was hired to make sense of the new analytics and improve the Cardinal’s international scouting. He quickly integrated database analysis into personnel decisions.

Said more simply, Luhnow drafted and developed enough talent to allow the Cardinals to win two World Series titles in six years. He leaves the club well positioned to compete in 2012 and beyond. The Cardinals can not pay top dollar for more than four or five players every year, due to being a bottom-third market city. To have Matt Holliday, Lance Berkman, Chris Carpenter, and Carlos Beltran, they must find production from young, cost-controlled players to have a competitive team year in and year out.

Beyond just analyzing numbers on a page, Luhnow implemented “bio-mechanics” within the Cardinals player development process. Pitchers were taught the mechanics, rhythm, and tempo that aid them in remaining injury free. Former big-league pitchers worked with young Cardinal pitchers on the mental aspects of the game needed to be able to compete at the highest level. Hitters worked with video not only as a means to scout opponents, but to improve their swing and approach at the plate. This does not seem to be such a big deal in 2012, but not many other teams were using video to this level in 2004.

Luhnow was hired by Bill Dewitt against the wishes of then GM Walt Jocketty. It was a front-office riff that would eventually lead to Jocketty’s departure following the 2007 season. Little did Jocketty know at the time just what Luhnow was building between 2005 and 2007. The 2005-2007 drafts produced Allen Craig, Daniel Descalso, Jaime Garcia, and Jon Jay. Also in those drafts were players used in the trades for Matt Holliday, Rafael Furcal, Octavio Dotel, Edwin Jackson, Marc Rzepcynski, as well as Luke Gregerson and Chris Perez.

There are an abundance of prospects in the system that project to be impact players: Shelby Miller, Oscar Taveras, Tyrell Jenkins, Carlos Martinez, Matt Adams, Ryan Jackson, Kolten Wong, Zach Cox, Trevor Rosenthal, John Gast, Jordan Swagerty, and Joe Kelly, among others.

As the 2012 season fast approaches, there will be a lot of new faces for Cardinals fans to get used to. One of those faces is the man hired to replace Jeff Luhnow, Dan Kantrovitz . If he performs his jobs well, Cardinals fans won’t feel the loss of Luhnow. He has big shoes to fill. Matheny has already made clear that he will place a large emphasis on advanced scouting and metrics.

Any success Kantrovitz has will be built upon the foundation of integrating scouting and analytics that Luhnow brought to the organization. Luhnow should be remembered as a key piece to a great era of Cardinal baseball. I am glad the Cardinals will not have the Astros as division foes but for another year. Although they are a very bad baseball team at the moment, I fully expect them to be a force to contend with under Luhnow’s leadership.

A CHAMP’S PERSPECTIVE PRESENTED BY BUDWEISER TO AIR LIVE ON MLB.COM AND CARDINALS.COM
Tony La Russa to reflect on 2011 season from Peabody Opera House on January 13 at 7:00 p.m. (CST)

NEW YORK, January 12, 2012 – Tony La Russa, in conjunction with the Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF), will host “A Champ’s Perspective” presented by Budweiser from the Peabody Opera House in downtown St. Louis on Friday, January 13 at 7:00 p.m. (CST). The live commentary with La Russa and special guest Bob Costas will air online at MLB.com and Cardinals.com and cover baseball strategies, including those implemented during the St. Louis Cardinals 2011 season from Spring Training to Opening Day to the dramatic run to the National League Wild Card and ultimately to Game 7 of the World Series, where the Cardinals won their 11th World Championship.

“A Champ’s Perspective” presented by Budweiser also will include video highlights from the 2011 season and an audience Q&A session with La Russa. Proceeds from the event will benefit ARF and 19 animal rescue organizations in the greater St. Louis area. Visit MLB.com, Cardinals.com or ARF.net for complete details.

Optimism reigned the day following the St. Louis Cardinals’ 11th World Series championship, but three months later that optimism might turn to skepticism.

The Cardinals had just won one of the most dramatic World Series ever played on October 28, and it looked like the team might bring back the entire coaching staff and nearly the entire roster.

At that point St. Louis celebrated the championship with a parade on the Sunday following Game 7, and many people thought things would only get better in 2012 because the team had gelled so well toward the end of the 2011 season.

The next morning everything changed, and the fallout has continued all the way into the first week of January.

Tony La Russa announced his retirement Oct. 31, leaving the Cardinals in a spot where they had to find a new manager for the first time in 16 years.

So one big piece of the 2011 championship puzzle left, but surely the Cardinals would make a smart decision and find a new manager who fit in well with the current structure of the team and everything would still be all right.

I’m not saying hiring Mike Matheny was a bad decision at all. The Cardinals made a smart, calculated decision when they hired him and any criticism of that move before the season starts is unfounded.

But, then Albert Pujols left to sign with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Dec. 8, leaving a gaping hole in the middle of the Cardinals lineup and on their team. Pujols had been the premier Cardinals player for a decade. That type of player doesn’t get replaced immediately no matter what move the team makes the rest of the offseason.

With Allen Craig out for the start of the season because of offseason surgery, the Cardinals suddenly had a hole in right field with Lance Berkman moving to first base.

The team used the money it saved by not signing Pujols to sign outfielder Carlos Beltran, 34, and resign shortstop Rafeal Furcal, also 34.

While those moves may have filled the positions on the field, it is a real stretch to say the Cardinals should be better in 2012. Remember, this team didn’t even win its division last year, and now possibly the best pitching coach in the history of the game, Dave Duncan, has taken a leave of absence.

That means the Cardinals will return on Opening Day with nearly an entirely different coaching staff and middle of the lineup.

Sure, starting pitcher Adam Wainwright will be back to lead the rotation, but there are other teams in the NL Central that are younger, have good starting rotations and have more potential than the Cardinals in 2012.

This isn’t to say the Cardinals won’t be highly competitive this coming season. The Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros and Pittsburgh Pirates will likely still lease the bottom half of the division for another year. The Milwaukee Brewers also have lots of troubles with first baseman Prince Fielder expected to leave and left fielder Ryan Braun out for the first 50 games because of a suspension for using a banned substance.

All things considered, the Cincinnati Reds might be the team that walks into the season as the favorite in the division. This is a young team with a powerful middle of the lineup, and MVP at first base and a pitching staff that continues to progress.

The Reds are just one year removed from winning the NL Central in 2010, their core players have another year of maturity under their belt and the pitching staff looks better on paper for 2012 than it did in 2010.

The addition of Mat Latos and maybe Aroldis Chapman to the starting rotation along with the returns of Johnny Cueto, Bronson Arroyo, Mike Leake will almost certainly keep the Reds in strong contention throughout the season.

Plus, a rotation with Latos and Chapman looks better than the one that included Aaron Harang, Homer Bailey and Travis Wood in 2010 when the team won 91 games.

With hitters such as Pujols and Fielder leaving their respective teams, the NL Central will likely be down on power in 2012. The Reds have a solid rotation but will also likely send out a more-powerful lineup than the rest of the division.

That could put the Reds in a better position than anybody in the NL Central, including the defending world-champion Cardinals, to make a run to the postseason.