Moved by the energy bare-chested, shirt-waving fans brought to Busch Stadium on Friday night, Cardinals' manager Oliver Marmol plunked down the money for a section of free tickets to games on Saturday and Sunday for the flash mob of boisterous fans.
ST. LOUIS – So moved by the infectious energy brought to Busch Stadium by the cluster of bare-chested, shirt-waving "Tarps Off" fans clustered in multiple right field sections, Cardinals’ manager Oliver Marmol wanted to give the boisterous group a shout out before taking questions in his media session on Friday night.
“Whoever started that in right field, I’ll do whatever I’ve need to do to make sure they come every game … that was awesome,” Marmol said after his Cards beat the Royals 5-4 in 11 innings on Friday night. “Not only them, but everybody who showed up (on Friday night), that was a fun environment. Are you kidding me? Yeah, you could feel it. And it creates an environment where it’s not only filling this place up, but it’s making it a tough place for other teams to come in and play.
“That’s what makes a difference and it was pretty damn cool. So, I’ll sign up for that every day.”
Marmol backed up his claims of doing whatever he could to encourage the noise making, shirt-waving fans to come back to the park by buying up a section of seats for Saturday and Sunday games to be given away to fans for free. The Cardinals posted the link for the free tickets on their social media channels prior to Saturday’s home game against the Royals, and it applies for Sunday’s game as well until the allotted amount runs out.
Club baseball players start flash mob, inspire Cards
In the St. Louis suburban area for a Division II club baseball tournament, members of the Stephen A. Austin’s club baseball team started the scene on Friday night by ripping off their white shirts and waiving them overhead in the second level of seats beyond the right field fence on Friday night. What started as approximately 30 fans filled four sections with approximately 1,000 fans that filled the night with energy.
The Cardinals ultimately pulled off their 14th come-from behind win of the season when Yohel Pozo singled in a run in the bottom of the 11th inning. It was the Cards’ MLB-leading 10th one-run victory of the season. Afterward, Pozo admitted that he was tempted to tear off his jersey and swing it above his head in honor of the noisy section of fans.
“We saw them jumping up and down those last three innings and then more people and more people and more people kept coming,” said Pozo, who delivered the second walk-off hit of his MLB career. “It was amazing and I had never seen that before since I’ve been here last year and this year.
“Everybody (in the Cards’ dugout) was looking at it and we all just loved it.”
No player had a better vantage point of the cheering than Cardinals right fielder Jordan Walker, who hit his 13th homer of the season early in the game to set the fans ablaze with energy.
“Man, that was sick and the support was awesome,” said Walker, who compared the crowd to a soccer-style rowdies. “The guys who were shirtless up there, I saw them giving their support and it definitely helped us tonight. They were right up there (above him) and they were super cool all night.”
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