{"id":96074,"date":"2025-02-21T12:45:52","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T17:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=96074"},"modified":"2025-02-21T12:45:52","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T17:45:52","slug":"cardinals-manager-fans-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/02\/21\/cardinals-manager-fans-players\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals Manager Calls on Fans to Show Up for Young Players"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Louis Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol calls on fans to show up in force this season despite the uncertainty about the team’s direction. Marmol<\/a> commented on Wednesday on the Cardinals Territory<\/a> podcast when asked what his main message was to fans heading into the season. He said it was important to show the young players the potential of the fanbase as the organization enters a new phase focused on youth development<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cardinals Manager Calls on Fans to Show Up for Young Players<\/h2>\n

Marmol Wants Young Players to Experience Cardinals Nation<\/h3>\n

The younger players have yet to experience the daily sellouts the Cardinals organization has enjoyed in years past. Frustration over the team’s mediocrity over the last two years has driven attendance lower. Marmol said that as the organization focuses on developing its young talent, playing in high-energy environments will help achieve that goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cFilling up that stadium regardless of what is going on so that these young players know what it feels like to play in St. Louis, so they understand what it feels like to play in front of Cardinal Nation,\u201d Marmol said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Marmol was an infielder in the minor leagues for four years. The last three of which he played in the Cardinals organization with their Single A club. Marmol talked about the Cardinals flying him in to see World Series games in 2011. He said he was taken with the energy he saw in the stadium during that title run.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember looking at my wife like, this is all I want; this is what it\u2019s about right here; I want to do this. And it makes you strive for that exact thing,” Marmol told Cardinals Territory hosts Katie Woo and Trevor Rosenthal. \u201cI want them to experience that version of Cardinal Nation. We\u2019re shooting for that, this style of fanbase, packed house, that excitement, that energy, because it\u2019s an exciting group.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Attendance Numbers Have Dropped in St. Louis<\/h3>\n

The Cardinals are coming off the season<\/a> with their lowest average attendance in any year without pandemic restrictions since opening Busch Stadium III in 2006. Busch Stadium<\/a> averaged 35,532 fans per home game in 2024. The average stadium average in the last 18 years, if you remove the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, is 42,011. It was the lowest attendance since 1997.<\/p>\n

Even with those lows, the Cardinals had the seventh-highest average attendance per game in the League in 2024. The team missed the postseason for a second straight year in 2024. This year, the organization has yet to sign a Major League free agent and has let several veteran players walk. Marmol acknowledged that this will be a different season for the roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I think about St. Louis, when I think about what the norm is, the difference is this youth play. It will be a youthful team; it will lack some experience to the degree we\u2019ve seen in past years,” Marmol said. \u201cThat\u2019s different, but that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s a bad thing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Marmol is hoping attendance will rebound despite that. He also says he’s confident it will be a team that competes to return to the Postseason in 2025.<\/p>\n

Younger Team, Still High Expectation<\/h3>\n

The goal for Marmol is two-fold this year: to win and set up a foundation for the future. He thinks his team has a good blend of veteran players<\/a> and high-potential young players<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m excited about our group, I think they are thinking about this the right way,” Marmol said. <\/span>\u201cI think guys are in the right mindset and are approaching this the right way to build something that is truly lasting.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Marmol and his team have maintained all offseason they expect to win games this year. However, the tricky thing for the skipper will be to win and set up his younger guys to be successful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be different because you want to make decisions to win a game, but you\u2019re also thinking of the long game here of setting a foundation for some of these young guys to gain experience and fail, succeed and fail again. But to know what that feels like,” Marmol said. <\/span>\u201cThere\u2019s decisions that will be made that are long-term decisions that in the short-term may not make the most sense.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Players like Willson Contreras, Sonny Gray, and Nolan Arenado<\/a> know how to win at a high level. The club hopes younger players who have the potential to be cornerstone pieces like Masyn Winn, Brendan Donovan, Alec Burlson, Jordan Walker,\u00a0and others can learn that now, early on in their careers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre they going to make mistakes? Absolutely. But these guys are hungry to leave their mark on this franchise and I think we’re going to see a decent amount of them do just that,” Marmol said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credits: Jim Rassol-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St. Louis Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol calls on fans to show up in force this season despite the uncertainty about the team’s direction. Marmol commented on Wednesday on the Cardinals Territory podcast when asked what his main message was to fans heading into the season. He said it was important to show the young players […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5111,"featured_media":96079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25,1071],"tags":[28578,2213,5815,6383,3711,213,6420,650,168,622,1478],"class_list":["post-96074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cardinals","category-mlb","tag-alec-burleson","tag-attendance-issues","tag-brendan-donovan","tag-jordan-walker","tag-masyn-winn","tag-nolan-arenado","tag-oliver-marmol","tag-sonny-gray","tag-st-louis-cardinals","tag-trevor-rosenthal","tag-willson-contreras"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96074"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96081,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96074\/revisions\/96081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}