Broadcaster Polo Ascensio joins BPIB to (enthusiastically!) call it like he sees it on Cardinals' style of play and more

Best Podcast in Baseball

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Sports, Baseball

4.8 • 673 Ratings

🗓️ 12 June 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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From near his perch at Busch Stadium, where he calls games for the Cardinals' Spanish language broadcast, Polo Ascensio surveys the style of game, the style of play, and, yes, the style of his calls for the 2025 Cardinals.

The nine-game home stand did not lack for some compelling games -- though evidently there is some debate on how entertaining the opening innings of the Cardinals' 2-1 victory against the Dodgers was -- and that had to be reflected in the calls from all of the broadcast booths. Ahead of Toronto completing a series sweep of the Cardinals, Ascensio spoke with Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold about those calls, about the enthusiasm and inspiration he brings to them as well as whether this team has made such energy easier with its style of play.

Ascensio also discusses the catching history of the Cardinals and the catching present, with background on how two members of the current team, Willson Contreras and Ivan Herrera, signed with the Cardinals specifically because of their fondness for former Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina. The podcast explores why Contreras stayed with the Cardinals when the team, pivoting toward youth, offered to trade him to a contender, and there a conversation about Herrera's future at catcher.

Ascensio's broadcasts with former catcher and former Cardinals coach Bengie Molina are available for every home game on WIJR/880 AM La Tremenda. There is hope from many parties in and around the Cardinals that the broadcasts will expand beyond home games, especially if the club continues to contend late into the season.

The Best Podcast in Baseball is in its 13th year as one of the first and most-downloaded baseball podcasts and a leader among the Cardinals-based podcasts. It is sponsored weekly by Closets by Design of St. Louis, and it is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and Derrick Goold. It is part of the constant Cardinals coverage available at StlToday.com and in the pages of the Post-Dispatch daily.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's a brand new best podcast in baseball recorded at Bush Stadium with the great, the enthusiastic, the enjoyable, the wonderful storyteller, Polo Asccio, the Spanish language voice of the Cardinals, who you can listen to on WIJR 880am in St. Louis.
0:18.1	But hold on.
0:18.8	We're going to talk about catchers.
0:20.7	We're going to talk about the style. We're going to talk about the
0:21.8	style of play. And Polo is going to go deep into what it meant for the Cardinals to take two of
0:27.4	three from the Dodgers, who he knows so well. All of that and a brand new best podcast in
0:32.9	baseball. Cue the music.
0:40.9	Hello. What are? Cue the music. Hello, what
0:41.4	all,
0:42.0	well,
0:42.6	to the
0:43.3	podcast in baseball.
0:45.6	My name is
0:46.2	Paul Ossenceo,
0:47.1	and the day of
0:47.7	today I'm the
0:48.1	invite of my
0:49.5	confidre, my
0:50.2	grand
0:50.3	friend, Derek Goulders,
0:51.5	and no
0:51.8	exposed dispatch.
	...

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