Cardinals Care Winter Warm-Up

Cardinals Care Winter Warm-Up

Essentially a “Cardinals convention,” thousands turned out for the St. Louis Baseball Cardinals annual Winter Warm-Up, a special off-season event for Cardinals fans and a fundraiser for Cardinals Care, the St. Louis Cardinals Community Fund. The three-day festival ran Saturday January 18 – Monday, January 20, 2014 at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis at The Arch.The Winter Warm-Up gave fans an 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 Adults, $10 Youth 5-15, and free for children under 5 permitted access to the ballroom area, where the interviews and autograph signings transpired, the chidren’s room, all exhibitors, and vendors. The following players/coaches required an additional donation to Cardinal’s Care to sign autographs: Saturday-Chris Carpenter, Pete Kozma, Yadier Molina, Daniel Descalso, Jack Clark, Adam Wainwright, Trevor Rosenthal, Oscar Taveras, Donovan Osborne, Seth Maness, Kevin Siegrist, and Jhonny Peralta; Sunday-Mark Ellis, Allen Craig, Tony Cruz, Tony La Russa, Matt Adams, Joe Kelly, Red Schoendienst, Shane Robinson, Mike Shannon, Tyler Lyons, Shelby Miller, Lance Lynn, Jason Motte, Kolten Wong, Matt Carpenter, and Jon Jay; Monday-Mike Matheny, Peter Bourjos, Matt Holliday, Whitey Herzog, Brian Jordan, John Mabry, Michael Wacha, Sam Freeman.

Some current and former players/coaches signed autographs for free: Saturday-Jason Simontacchi, Scott Terry, Ken Dayley, Keith Butler, Greg Garcia, Kerry Robinson, Glenn Brummer, Randal Grichuk, Al Hrabosky, Ryan Franklin, Rick Horton, and Ted Savage; Sunday-Tom Lawless, John Costello, Stephen Piscotty, Eric Fornataro, Ernie Broglio, Danny Cox, Cal Eldred, Jermaine Curtis, and Todd Worrell; Monday– Cliff Politte, Kyle McClellan, Stan Royer, Zach Petrick, Mike Jorgenson, Bill Virdon, and Alan Benes.

The Cardinals had a memorable 2013, winning 97 regular season games, going to the World Series and falling two wins shy of the championship. During the off-season, they signed free agent shortstop Jhonny Peralta and traded third baseman David Freese for centerfielder Peter Bourjos and minor league outfielder Randal Grichuk. With these two moves, the Cardinals upgraded their middle defense and infield power without sacrificing their own depth. Consequently, the Warm-Up provided an opportunity to reflect on the defending NL pennant-winning team and look ahead to the competition expected among pitchers and regulars for roster spots.

Cardinal outfielder Matt Holliday did speak candidly about performance enhancing substances.He believes the majority of players want to see a “level playing field”. While he recognizes new shortstop Jhonny Peralta served a 50 game suspension for a violation last year, Holliday indicated he is “a forgiving person, and he (Peralta) served his suspension. That’s the rules of the game. I’m happy to have him as a teammate.”

All proceeds from the 18th 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 $20 million to area organizations since its inception in 1997.

Part of the proceeds subsidize Redbird Rookies, a youth baseball development league for kids who otherwise might not have the opportunity to play. Last year, the program celebrated its 10th anniversary. 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.