Tend and St. Louis, St. Louis and Tend; the Cardinals will be in town for whatever half of 162 regular season games turns out to be. The pundits have the Cards being a winning ball club in the NL Central this year with some trouble from the Milwaukee Brewers but ultimately the predictions have them landing on top. Tend is partnering with the St. Louis Cardinals to provide premier hospitality staffing to fans and attendees at Busch Stadium all season long. To get an understanding of the baseball landscape in the areas surrounding the ‘Gateway to the West’, we must first know the history of its ballpark, Busch Stadium, and its longtime resident in the St. Louis Cardinals.
Stepping to the plate is 2006, a historic year for St. Louis baseball. ‘06 saw the opening of Busch Stadium with a victory over the Brewers in April and culminated in a World Series victory over the Detroit Tigers in game five of the 2006 Fall Classic. The 2006 Cardinals were loaded with talent from World Series MVP David Eckstein to the central core of Albert Pujols, Chris Carpenter, and Yadier Molina, even extending to long-time manager and baseball persona, Tony La Russa. This core continued to lead the Cardinals through the early 2000’s and deep into the playoffs for the early years of Busch Stadium. These same Cardinals icons were joined by the playoff heroics of David Freese (all October long) to capture another World Series title in 2011.
Pujols hit the first home run in the inaugural game of Busch Stadium and just this past season hit his 700th of his career in the confines of (fittingly) Dodger Stadium where he enjoyed the beginning of the twilight of his career before rejoining the Cardinals in 2022. The 2022 Cardinals were all about seeing the end of an era with Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina in their swan song years. As we look ahead, the 2023 Cards are led by their infield in Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, and Tommy Edman. They picked up Catcher Willson Contreras, one of two brothers in his family wreaking havoc on the MLB this past season with their bats. The Cards also feature a recent World Baseball Classic champion, and El Segundo, California native in Lars Nootbar, the first foreign born Japanese player to play for Team Japan in the WBC. The Red Birds are looking somewhat like a phoenix as they molt their feathers to tout a new look ball club that gives Tenders the opportunity to see the post Pujols, Carpenter, and Molina Cardinals as they take the field from Opening Day and onward in 2023! Here’s to happy Tending.
