— President of baseball operations Chaim Bloom in a brand new shirt that still had the package lines on it
— Matthew Liberatore’s entire family
— Jordan Walker’s Charizard hat which has been advertised to me on the TikTok Shop endlessly for months
— JJ Wetherholt’s Tecovas cowboy boots
— A mountain of Laffy Taffy in the press box
— A leaping home run robbery at the wall in left field after a full spring of wondering who would play left field
— A first career hit manifest as home run, complete with curtain call
— A 51, minute, 14-run, 15-hit sixth inning which entirely reset the energy and vibes at the ballpark and turned an entirely deflated club on the verge of being dinked and doinked to death into one which breathed life into a sold out ballpark, capped by a home run by a team that doesn’t hit home runs, and the second curtain call of the day, which did not quite wake up Alec Burleson’s infant son until his mother thrust him into the air in celebration
“Think it's a perfect example of it. We promised the louder game, relentless approach to what we do, and we're going to continue to hold ourselves to that for 162,” manager Oli Marmol said. “Today’s day one. It was a lot of fun to watch.”
“I was sitting down and I was really thinking, like, damn, we just got punched in the face,” said JJ Wetherholt, he of the first career hit and home run. “And then the boys just started getting it going, getting it going, getting it going, and I was able to contribute a little bit, but it was just a great inning by the team.”
It would be hard for anyone with a stake in that game to pick a favorite moment from what could be a bedrock inning. Bloom attempted to beg off, asking if he really had to pick one moment, before a sly smile crept across his face.
“Burly’s at bat was sick, right?”
It was, if nothing else, the exclamation point. Maybe the power will not come in sufficient quantity, maybe it will come in fits and starts, maybe it will disappear for weeks at a time. On Thursday, it was all it needed to be, both to start and to finish. Burleson was amazed that a ball located where it was to Wetherholt could reach the spot in the ballpark it did. His own, measured by a moment to step back and admire, was an absolute no doubter, capped off by incoherent screaming from everywhere around him.
Thomas Saggese thought he might be tapped to pinch hit, but was so dialed into watching the action on the field that he stayed in the dugout rather than slipping down to the cage. Matthew Liberatore, who provided five stout innings, was in the video room with Andre Pallante, and quickly came to the realization that he couldn’t possibly move from where he was, lest the runs quit coming.
It was only after, joking about having provided the least interesting part of the game, that he came to appreciate how much Thursday’s action could mean in the broader scope of the season. It feels hyperbolic, of course, after game one, but without easily identifiable superstars, without a post to which to hitch their confidence when things get rocky, these Cardinals are a team which would benefit greatly from a lodestar to guide the way.
Beating the Rays in March seems mightily insignificant when multiplied by 162, but to distill the feelings of that victory could make all the difference when the months get long.
“That kind of win can carry for a while, and can definitely be something you fall back on,” Liberatore said. “When you’re questioning the identity piece, that’s a really good grip to pull you back to baseline.”
— Victor Scott II rushing to faux-interview Nathan Church
— Iván Herrera scrolling through game highlights on his phone
— Wetherholt’s first home run ball, tucked into a ziplock bag for safe keeping
— Disco lights flashing around the ceiling of the clubhouse, just enough light to illuminate smiles as well as relief
— So, so many smiles