Cardinals Care Winter Warm-Up 2016

Essentially a “Cardinals convention,” thousands turned out for Cardinals Care’s Winter Warm-Up 2016, a special off-season oasis for Cardinals fans and a fundraiser for Cardinals Care, the St. Louis Cardinals Community Fund. The three-day festival, the 20th anniversary event, ran Saturday January 16 – Monday, January 18, 2016 at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis at The Arch. The Winter Warm-Up gave fans an up-close and personal opportunity to meet many from the Cardinals organization, including most of the players, team owners, and Fredbird. It also featured numerous interactive or Q&A presentations from those inside the Cardinals organization, a fun room for kids with abundant booths and games, a huge vendor and shopping area, and ballpark food to eat.

The admission price of $40 16 and older, $10 Youth 5-15, and free for children under 5 permitted access to the ballroom area, where the interviews and autograph signings transpired, the children’s room, all exhibitors, and vendors. The following players/coaches required an additional donation to Cardinal’s Care to sign autographs: Saturday– Jaime Garcia, Greg Garcia, Tommy Pham, Matt Carpenter, Marco Gonzales, Brandon Moss, Seth Maness, Lance Lynn, Jose Oquendo, Tim Cooney, Matt Adams, and Charlie Tilson; Sunday– Tyler Lyons, Red Schoendienst, Matt Holliday, Adam Wainwright, Mike Shannon, Randal Grichuk, Michael Wacha, Stephen Piscotty, David Eckstein, Jeff Suppan, Mitch Harris, Brayan Pena, and Sam Tuivailala; Monday – Jhonny Peralta, Mike Matheny, Whitey Herzog, John Mabry, Yadier Molina, Carlos Martinez, Jedd Gyorko, Bill Mueller, Kevin Siegrist, Mike Leake, Tony LaRussa, Kolten Wong, and Trevor Rosenthal.

Some current and former players/coaches signed autographs for free: Saturday-Scott Terry, John Costello, Ken Dayley, Al Hrabosky, Kerry Robinson, Anthony Reyes, Ted Savage, and Dean Kiekefer; Sunday-Jason Simontacchi, Kyle McClellan, Tom Lawless, Luke Weaver, Dean Anna, Mike Ohlman, Brad Thompson, Jacob Wilson, Rick Horton, Andy Benes and Alan Benes, Austin Gomber, Carson Kelly, and Patrick Wisdom; Monday– Rich Hacker, Cliff Politte, Stan Royer, Glenn Brummer, Scott Cooper, Mike Tyson.

The Cardinals endured another injury plagued season, losing Adam Wainwright, Matt Holliday, Matt Adams, and Yadier Molina to significant percentages of the season. Despite their absences plus even some of the replacements, the team adopted a “Next Man Up” mentality, which took them to a 100 victory season. Unfortunatley, the challenges of a tough division resulted in the team succumbing to the rival Chicago Cubs in the playoffs.

The Cardinals approached the off-season with some lofty goals, namely re-signing outfielder Jason Heyward and pursuing free agent pitcher David Price. Both received very lucrative offers from the Cardinals but decided to go with the Cubs and Boston Red Sox, respectively. Unless something changes before preseason opens, it appears the Cardinals are looking internally at rising stars Randal Grichuk and Stephen Piscotty to perpetuate the team’s winning tradition.

The same attitude that pervades the major league club has filtered to the minor league affiliates. They players there understand if they work hard and prepare, they have the possibility of advancement.

Cardinals Care Winter Warm-Up originated to give everyone assoicated with the Cardinals organization-the players, the owners, the front office staff, the broadcasters, and most important, the fans-a way of coming together in the off-season to help kids.

All proceeds from the 20th annual Winter Warm-Up benefit Cardinals Care, the team’s community foundation supporting kids. Thanks to the generous assistance of the fans, players, staff, and sponsors, Cardinals Care has distributed more than $21 million to area organizations since its inception in 1997.

In 2015, Cardinals Care invested over $700,000 into refurbishing ball fields, running the Redbird Rookies program, and providing cash grants to over 140 organizations helping children. The Redbird Rookies, celebrating its 12th anniversary, comprises a youth baseball development league for kids who otherwise might not have the opportunity to play. Besides providing all the uniforms, gloves, bats, baseballs, and other equipment needed for each team, Redbird Rookies also offers extensive off-field support in the areas of health, education, mentoring and the cultural arts for each of the nearly 4,500 kids who participate annually.

The Winter Warm-Up represents the largest single fund-raiser for Cardinals Care, which supplies grants to non-profit agencies in the St. Louis area that help kids in health, education, mentoring, and the arts.