April 2^nd, 2012

Springfield, MO – The defending World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals returned to the state of Missouri for the first time since their seven game series win against the Texas Rangers.  But it wasn’t at Busch Stadium; Hammons Field in Springfield was the spot and fans came out in full force to show their support for the champs.

The crowd of 10,079, the third largest in Hammons Field history and biggest since 2006, were starved for offense early as both starting pitchers, Tyler Lyons for Springfield and Trevor Rosenthal who are scheduled to both be in the Springfield rotation, each threw four scoreless innings.  Lyons matched Rosenthal’s four strikeouts and allowed just one hit.  Rosenthal threw four perfect innings.

After a scoreless inning from Sam Freeman out of the Springfield bullpen, St. Louis plated two runs against reliever Eric Fornataro.  Vance Albitz led off with a single and moved to third on a single by Matt Carpenter.  With runners at second and third, Tony Cruz grounded out to second scoring Albitz and Erik Komatsu followed with an RBI sacrifice fly to give the “Big Birds” a 2-0 lead.

St. Louis added another run in the 7^th off of Keith Butler when Palm Beach shortstop Ronny Gil hit a long home run to right to make it 3-0.

Springfield, who had just two hits both off of Kyle McClellan in the 5^th, got lead-off batter Kolten Wong on base thanks to a walk.  He would come around and score on an RBI triple by top prospect Oscar Taveras.  An RBI ground out by Xavier Scruggs put Springfield within just a run.

The 2^nd best prospect in the organization, Carlos Martinez who will begin the season in Palm Beach, pitched four sharp innings for St. Louis to earn the save.

Springfield received scoreless frames from Nick Greenwood and Jorge Rondon out of the bullpen.

As for the Cardinals Superstars, David Freese and Matt Holliday each played four innings.  Holliday was 0-for-1 with a walk and Freese was 0-for-2, but reached on an error.

Springfield will open the 2012 regular season schedule Thursday, April 5^th, as they take on the Frisco RoughRiders at Hammons Field.  5,000 fans will receive a Great Southern 2012 Magnet Schedule/Picture Frames. It’ll be the first of nine “Buck a Brat” $1 Johnson Bratwurst nights and everyone will enjoy a post-game Fireworks Spectacular thanks to AM Pyrotechnics.  Game time on Thursday is 7:08pm and tickets are available by visiting the Hammons Field Ticket Office, online atspringfieldcardinals.com or by calling (417) 863-2143.

Escape to Cardinals Baseball!

Cardinals Announce Exhibition Game April 2, 2012 at Hammons Field
Double-A affiliate Springfield Cardinals welcome 2011 World Champions back to Missouri

ST. LOUIS, MO., November 2, 2011 – – The St. Louis Cardinals announced that the team will play an exhibition game against the Springfield Cardinals, their Double-A affiliate, at 6:00 p.m. on Monday, April 2nd, 2012 at Hammons Field.

“We are honored to be the first to welcome the reigning World Champions back to the state of Missouri in 2012,” Springfield Cardinals Vice President and General Manager, Matt Gifford said.

The Cardinals wanted to play two exhibition games in Springfield as part of their 2012 spring training schedule partly to make up for the weather-related cancellation of a sold out 2011 exhibition game. The Cardinals regular season and Spring Training schedules, which are set by Major League Baseball, prevent two exhibition games from being possible this year. The Cardinals will open the regular season on Wednesday, April 4th with a unique single game series against the Miami Marlins to open their new stadium in Florida.

“We owe it to the great fans of Springfield to come home to Missouri to play this exhibition game despite the travel challenges presented by our schedule” said Cardinals General Manager John Mozeliak. “While we are disappointed we can’t play two games, this will be a welcome trip home for many of our players who really enjoyed their playing time in Springfield.”

Fans that retained their tickets to the 2011 Cardinals/Cardinals Exhibition Game and did not receive a refund will receive replacement tickets for the 2012 game in the spring. As was the case earlier this year, tickets to the exhibition game will be extremely limited and priority for any available tickets will be given to Springfield Cardinals Season Ticket Holders. For information on 2012 Season Tickets in Springfield, please call (417) 863-0395, or visit www.springfieldcardinals.com. The Cardinals Spring Training schedule of games in Florida is expected to be announced in December once it has been finalized by Major League Baseball.

Twenty-five years ago today, the Cardinals lost the World Series, and bragging rights for the state of Missouri, because of one call made by a first base umpire.

Wait, what?

Allow me to break away from my Cardinal brethren and stand out on the limb here and say that the opening statement of this article may be the biggest lie in Cardinal Nation.

Cardinal fans will always remember that call. The call at first base is emblazoned in my mind. The images, the commentary, the arguments and the replays play vividly in my memories. I was angry when it happened. I am still angry now. I think it is time for fans of both teams to live in reality here.

First of all, it was not a deciding out. It is not like “The Call” would have ended the game and handed the Cardinals the championship. The Cardinals had every opportunity to finish that inning, produce in the next inning, or show up at all for game seven of the series. They failed.

Secondly, the Cardinals were a young ball club, and they were subject to the mistakes on the field causing things to unravel. If that play would have ended in an error, would they be so adamant about that being the turning point in the game? Would any player on that field be put through the scrutiny that the umpire, Don Denkinger, was?

Finally, the Royals seized a moment in time to overcome adversity and put together a win. That, by definition, is what a championship team does.

Perhaps it is time to bury “The Call.” It is time for Royals fans to embrace a World Series win and continue to remind Cardinal fans that, when it came down to a Championship, they had a better team in 1985.

Cardinal fans can take solace in the fact that other than 1985, their team has been better since the existince of two teams in the state of Missouri came in to being.

When it comes down to it, Jeffery Maier, Steve Bartman, Don Denkinger and countless other bystanders on the baseball field should not be held responsible for the loss or win of a baseball game. Ultimately, it comes down to the players on the field being able to produce the results a professional is paid to produce at the end of the day.

After all, we all know that the Cardinals lost the World Series in 1985 because of a freak accident with a tarp in the National League Championship Series. Rookie of the Year Vince Coleman would have made all the difference.

But I could probably go on for quite a while with multiple excuses.

It is time to simply congratulate the Kansas City Royals on a phenomenal 1985 season.