Baltimore Orioles fans earned some attention on Sept. 3 when they gave Red Sox catcher Adley Rutschman a standing ovation in his first at-bat back at Camden Yards, then kept cheering after he launched a solo home run. Baseball podcaster Jared Carrabis said he had never seen anything like it.
“Honestly, shout out to O’s fans. They gave Adley Rutschman a standing ovation when he came to the plate for his first at-bat since returning to Baltimore and then continued cheering after he hit a home run. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. pic.twitter.com/dEc76Z77ia”
For Cardinals fans, though, that kind of reception is hardly shocking. St.
Louis has been doing versions of that for years, and the most memorable example came on June 22, 2019, when Albert Pujols returned to Busch Stadium in Los Angeles Angels colors and got a booming welcome from the crowd. After already receiving a game’s worth of cheers, Pujols crushed a ball over the left-field fence and was then pushed into a curtain call by the home fans.
“It’s not every day that you see #STLCards fans request a curtain call after an opposing player's home run. But Albert Pujols is no ordinary opposing player.
The Cardinals and Angels are playing now on FSMW and FSGO. pic.twitter.com/Y2XjrkmEM9”
That night had been eight seasons in the making. Pujols had left after the Cardinals’ 2011 championship, and his move to the Angels left plenty of St.
Louis fans feeling hurt. A return in 2012 might have looked very different.
By 2019, time had done its work, and the result was an ovation-heavy homecoming capped by a home run.
Pujols’ first game back in St. Louis drew 48,423 fans, the second-largest crowd in the history of Busch Stadium III.
The atmosphere then was different from what Cardinals games look like now. In 2024 and 2025, attendance has fallen to levels the ballpark had never seen before, and opposing broadcasts have noticed.
Even so, the standard in St. Louis has not changed.
Busch Stadium has still welcomed former Cardinals such as Willson Contreras, Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt with warm ovations. Brendan Donovan would have had a similar reception against the Seattle Mariners in late April if he had been healthy.
That’s part of why the “best fans in baseball” label has stuck around. It was never a nickname Cardinals fans gave themselves.
It came from Cardinals people and even opponents who saw how the St. Louis crowd handled the game and the players in it.
And while a return like Pujols’ comes around only once in a while, the expectation remains the same: former Cardinals who come back should be appreciated. So far, Cardinals fans have kept that tradition alive.
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Thomas Saggese Is Making The Cardinals Reconsider Third Base
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Saggese has also added some real pop lately, with home runs in consecutive games helping turn a short-term fill-in into a more interesting roster conversation. If he keeps producing and stays on the field, the Cardinals may have to look past the emergency plan and consider a much longer look at third base. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Rookie Wave Is Changing More Than This Year's Playoff Race
A season that was supposed to be about subtraction has turned into one of the more encouraging developments in recent Cardinals memory. St. Louis moved quality players, signaled a rebuild and still found itself outperforming expectations, helped along by a rookie class that has given the clubhouse and fan base something real to watch in the middle of the summer. Joshua Bez and JJ Wetherholt have both made notable debuts, adding to the sense that this is more than a temporary detour from the plan.
Bez, in particular, has already stamped the year with a kind of instant history by becoming the first MLB player to hit three home runs in his debut game, the sort of burst that can change how a season feels even before the standings do. With the Cardinals still hanging around the playoff race, the bigger takeaway may be what these first looks say about what comes next, because the young core is starting to make this feel less like a teardown and more like the opening of something sturdier. [Read more 🡒]