Benjamin Hochman | Post-Dispatch
Sports columnist
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It wasn’t only a baseball game — it was also a Rorschach Test. How did you see Sunday at Busch Stadium?
This way?
Before Sunday’s game, the Cardinals honored departing executive John Mozeliak, the architect of many great Cardinals teams. Then the team honored Nolan Arenado, cleverly pulling him from the field before first pitch, so the future Hall of Fame member, likely in his last game in St. Louis, could get an ovation from the fans.
Or this way?
Before Sunday’s game, St. Louis said goodbye to Mozeliak, who in recent years lost his fastball as the team lost its way. Then the team honored Arenado, a former Cards All-Star whose past two years were particularly poor at the plate, coinciding with the team’s offensive demise. And while the ovations were loud and respectful for the once-great exec and slugger, they came from a smaller crowd than usual at Fan Appreciation Day.
Any way you look at Sunday, it was a symbolic day in the history of the beloved and currently beleaguered St. Louis Cardinals franchise. It was the last home game of the “transition” year — Chaim Bloom will soon take over for “Mo,” while Arenado will likely be traded, albeit for less of a haul he would’ve earned an offseason ago.
The Cards did win the ball game — St. Louis 5, Milwaukee 1 — and Ivan Herrera homered yet again, while Alec Burleson singled again. Both batted balls were symbols of what the Cards have in these rising stars — Herrera homered for the seventh time in the past 21 games, while Burleson’s batting average jumped to .289, sixth-best in the National League. Both dudes have an OPS in the .800s.
But the crowd, man. It’s been the overlying story all season. The Sunday attendance was 32,723. Last year, the last game drew 39,100, and in 2023, which was a horrible season, there were 44,614 for the finale. But there were just so many empty seats Sunday on a day tailored to the fans — normally a ceremonial day for St. Louis to say goodbye to the Birds.
“My favorite thing about being a Cardinal was probably just Albert (Pujols) just going off and playing in front of a packed Busch Stadium,” Arenado told reporters following Sunday’s game. “When you come to the games now and you see there are seats open, it just doesn’t even feel like Busch, you know. When you think of Busch Stadium, you think of a packed house. To not have that anymore it’s been disappointing. But at the same time it’s not their fault, it’s ours. We’re not winning enough for them. I miss a packed Busch.”
The Cardinals are famous in baseball for often cracking the three-million mark in season attendance. Well, the total attendance for 2025 was 2,250,007. That’s 19th in Major League Baseball (last year, St. Louis was seventh … and fourth in 2023 … and second in 2022).
During a much-cited interview from May of 2024, Cardinals president Bill DeWitt III put his foot in his mouth when speaking with reporter Martin Kilcoyne: “The thing I sometimes chuckle about is when I see sometimes comments [like], ‘we’ve got to not show up to send a message that this isn’t acceptable to the owners.’ I find that one somewhat illogical reasoning, because we just turn this revenue machine into a payroll machine. I mean that’s what this is, this business. We try to drive as much revenue as we can, and then it gets put on the field, for the most part.”
In later interviews and news conferences, DeWitt showed more awareness and understanding of the fans’ mindset. But the words were uttered.
And no one is chuckling in 2025.
Twenty-eight of the 81 home games featured announced crowds less than 25,000. And Since July 7, 15 of the 38 games had 20,999 or fewer — including a dubiously historic night on Sept. 2, when the attendance was 17,002 against the A’s.
This season has been exhausting in so many ways.
But it didn’t sneak up on us, like 2023 did. Before 2025, the Cardinals signed just one free agent — reliever Phil Maton — as they looked to slow spending, build the minor league system and play the young guys in the majors. Yet by June 29, the Cards were nine games over .500 and seemingly saving the summer. But they began to slip. And soon, a downward spiral. St. Louis traded three relievers at the deadline — including Maton — and now sit at 76-80.
“As far as the year,” manager Oli Marmol said, “I think there’s some obvious ups and downs, but we went into it knowing that would be the case, as far as just trying to hold consistency. There’s some answers to questions that we went into the season (with) that are good. There’s some that, I mean, we have answers that aren’t ideal. And then still some that there’s not a ton of clarity on, and we need to continue to figure out. But that’s the way this normally works.”
Marmol didn’t name specific players. But it’s fair to point out the stunning regression of Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman, who both looked to have turned their careers around by August … only to fall apart since. Heck, Gorman struck out again while you read this sentence. Bloom sure has a lot of decisions to make. And one of the larger ones is — how will he address the Cardinal fan base in his first news conference as boss.
Messaging is major.
So, Mozeliak took over in October of 2007. It’s been such a long time since a new boss. Bloom must speak honestly to the devoted fans. If it’s going to take more than one year, explain how and why. The fans must feel like they’re part of this journey, this rebuild, this emotional and financial investment — and not feel like they’re being yanked around or taken for granted.
Because right now, the Cardinals are no longer the Cardinals. You know who are the Cardinals? The Brewers. They’re the forward-thinking franchise that doesn’t out-spend teams but still develops players and wins National League Central titles. Even on a day they lost, they clinched another division title on Sunday.
In fact, as I write this column from the Busch Stadium press box, there are the Brewers, taking a team picture on the Cardinals’ field. Now that’s some symbolism.
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Benjamin Hochman | Post-Dispatch
Sports columnist
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