Cardinals' strong first impression shows how to grow a team. Can they regrow the crowds?

Best Podcast in Baseball

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Sports, Baseball

4.8 • 673 Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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It would be difficult for the Cardinals to script a better opening weekend for their "transition" year that an emphatic sweep of the visiting Minnesota Twins. The Cardinals got sturdy performances from the starters, stellar play from the defense, and 19 runs in three days from the offsenese. Lars Nootbaar ignited the weekend with a run scored in three of the Cardinals' first four games, and Victor Scott personified the three-game series sweep of the Twins with a dynamic catch in the opener, two stolen bases in the middle game, and the decisive three-run homer in the series finale.

The Cardinals put on a show.

And some of the smallest crowds in Busch Stadium history were there to see it.

How can the Cardinals grow a team and regrow the crowds? Will one assure the other, or are the Cardinals entering more than a "transition" year in the front office and actually embarking on a whole new product to sell fans?

Maybe reset wasn't the word after all. This is a rebranding.

Post-Dispatch sports columnist Jeff Gordon joins Best Podcast in Baseball host Derrick Goold to discuss the first four games of the Cardinals season and how they came a late-game bullpen leak away from starting 4-0. The Cardinals established their identity early, and the question becomes whether they can maintain it to be competitive in the National League Central. But that isn't the only question. Competitive is quaint. Competitive is the expectation. Moving merch is essential. Will a style of play be enough? Will winning be enough? After several years of selling nostalgia to fans, the Cardinals need more than a clear message about the future.

They need a brand new way to market the team.

The Best Podcast in Baseball, sponsored by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and Derrick Goold. In its 13th year, BPIB drops weekly and is eager to hear from listeners about what it does well and what it can do better. Yes, we're especially talking to you -- the listener we have in Ireland.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The best podcast in baseball is brought to you by closets by design.
0:05.6	Update your closet, garage, office, pantry, and more.
0:09.0	Imagine your home totally organized with closets by design.
0:12.6	Call 1-800 by design.
0:14.4	That's 1-800 by design.
0:17.0	Hello, and welcome to a brand new best podcast in baseball.
0:19.6	You never get a second chance to make a first impression.
0:22.1	And this was what the first impression of the 2025 Cardinals.
0:25.0	They go three and oh against the Minnesota Twins.
0:26.7	They take a lead late into the game against the Los Angeles Angels with a chance to stay unbeaten.
0:33.1	After the season's first weekend, Jeff Gordon, they were one of four unbeaten teams,
0:39.2	and the other three are predictably the Padres, Dodgers, and Yankees.
0:44.6	So, Heady Company, we've been able to see how the Cardinals are going to grow a team,
0:48.8	but can they regrow a fan base?
0:51.5	And that's what we'll talk about in a brand new episode of the best podcast in baseball.
0:55.5	Cue the music.
1:07.0	Hello, everybody, and welcome to the best podcast in baseball brought you by Closet by Design of St. Louis.
1:10.9	I'm St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derek Gould, joined this week by sports columnist, tip sheet, author,
1:15.9	an all-around instant offense at SGL Today.com, and in the pages of the Post Dispatch, it's Jeff Gordon.
1:21.9	Jeff, what a weekend for the Cardinals? Who had a better weekend? You or the Cardinals?
1:33.8	All the Cardinals, you know, I'm pretty much just on autopilot here. My family had good attendance at my house. I mean, people believe in me, but people did believe so much of the Cardinals,
1:39.6	so there's work to do on that front. But they certainly did come out and make a statement with how they play.
	...

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