Cardinals-Brewers, Busch Stadium, as the Cards take the field for the top of the 1st.
— Benjamin Hochman (@hochman)
At first pitch Wednesday, the temperature at Busch Stadium was 73 degrees, just a lovely spring-like night under a sky still beaming blue.
It was, quite possibly, the perfect night to go out to the ballgame.
And few people did.
Smallest non-pandemic crowds at current Busch Stadium
Date | Attendance | Opponent | Result |
---|---|---|---|
8/21/2024 | 29,580 | MIL | W, 10-6 (10) |
8/20/2024 | 30,022 | MIL | L, 3-2 |
9/5/2012 | 30,090 | TBR | W, 5-2 |
8/23/2012 | 30,343 | TEX | W, 10-1 |
6/14/2022 | 31,193 | NYM | L, 4-3 |
5/6/2024 | 31,283 | PHI | W, 3-0 |
7/31/2024 | 31,365 | PIT | W, 3-1 |
8/7/2024 | 31,401 | NYM | L, 6-2 |
4/9/2024 | 31,972 | HOU | W, 13-5 |
Fans were scattered about. Full rows empty. Even some sections empty. With the sea of red seats, it looked like a game in Cincinnati.
This is how bad things are. It’s as if there’s a bizarro version of “Field of Dreams.†Maybe a “Field of Nightmares.†I can hear James Earl Jones’ character discussing the 2024 ºüÀêÊÓƵ Cardinals:
“People won’t come, Ray. They won’t come to Busch Stadium for reasons they can't even fathom ...â€
But the reasons are the reality. The 2024 Cardinals aren’t good. And the 2023 Cardinals weren’t good. And the 2022 Cardinals and 2021 Cardinals didn’t win one game in the playoffs. And the Cardinals are in line to miss their fifth postseason in nine years.
People are also reading…
And so in this midweek series against the Brewers, people didn’t come. On Tuesday, the night before, the Cardinals’ announced crowd was 30,022 — the lowest non-pandemic-era crowd since Busch Stadium III opened in 2006.
Wednesday night, attendance was 29,550, another new attendance low for the stadium — and the first time it has ever held fewer than 30,000 fans for a Cardinals game outside of the pandemic era.
On these pages, we’ve been screaming for weeks about the Cardinals’ underachievement. Well, now the fans have spoken.
Enough is enough.
The Cardinals are broken.
Entering Wednesday’s game against the first-place Brewers, the Cardinals (61-64) were 12 games back. And in the wild-card race — and man, a wild-card spot sure seemed achievable for much of the summer — ºüÀêÊÓƵ sat six games back of the final spot.
Yes, it’s fair to point out that the crowds sometimes get smaller in late August and September — kids are back in school, so game nights become school nights. Still, the fact that the crowd set a dubious record shows the fans are disenchanted with this franchise that could once do no wrong.
Fittingly, Tuesday’s game was one you would have wanted to miss. Each loss gets more painful, doesn't it? This was one spectacularly brutal. For the second consecutive game, the Cardinals tallied just six hits (in Tuesday’s game against Milwaukee, though, they drew two walks, compared to one in the previous loss to Los Angeles).
On Tuesday, the Cardinals trailed in the eighth inning, 3-0. Pinch hitter Matt Carpenter hit a two-run homer to play with hearts.
Down 3-2, the Cards loaded the bases in the ninth.
There was only one out.
And huge names were coming up.
But this was simply a sequel to Sunday’s finish.
That day, the great Nolan Arenado came up with a chance to tie the game — and he hit into a game-ending double play.
After Monday’s day off, perennial All-Star Paul Goldschmidt came to bat with the bases loaded.
Struck out.
And then Nolan Gorman came to the plate.
Sure enough, he struck out. Cards lost, again. And it proved to be Gorman’s last at-bat for at least a bit. The once-touted slugger was sent down to Class AAA on Wednesday. This is just the latest signal of the 2024 season’s direction ... and symbol of how much the season is a disaster.
The simultaneous demise of Arenado and Goldschmidt has been stunning, but Gorman’s regression is repugnant. Sure, he was always a homer-or-strikeout guy. But this season, he’s been basically a strikeout-or-strikeout guy. His 37.6% strikeout rate is the worst in Major League Baseball. Meanwhile, his home run rate dropped a full percentage point, and his walk rate dropped nearly three percentage points. Heck, I thought he’d hit 35 homers this year. But now, as he heads to Memphis with 19, one wonders if he’ll even get a chance to crack No. 20?
This season, sheesh. The Cardinals needed to make the playoffs to prove 2023 was an outlier. Instead, that type of year is now the norm.
The fans feel it. They booed president of baseball operations John Mozeliak on opening day at Busch. Now, the fans are expressing their frustration by staying away from Busch.
The 2024 Cardinals, built by Mozeliak, have two superstars playing their worst seasons. The starting pitching ran out of gas a couple of months too soon. Top prospect Jordan Walker was sent down, then called up to platoon for a week, then sent down again, in what appeared jarring and unproductive. Gorman now joins him in the minors. Other key players are having down years. The overall hitting is average under coach Turner Ward — and preposterously worse with runners in scoring position. And on and on and on.
Like I recently wrote — getting swept at Cincinnati last week sure seemed like the mortal wound for the season.
Tuesday’s game — the result and the attendance — sure back that up.
MLB's biggest attendance drops this season
Team | 2024 attendance | 2023 attendance | Change |
---|---|---|---|
New York Mets | 27,940 | 31,772 | -3,832 |
ºüÀêÊÓƵ Cardinals | 36,431 | 40,013 | -3,582 |
Chicago White Sox | 17,421 | 20,613 | -3,192 |
Toronto Blue Jays | 34,225 | 37,307 | -3,082 |
Houston Astros | 34,836 | 37,683 | -2,847 |
Seattle Mariners | 31,232 | 33,215 | -1,983 |
Los Angeles Angels | 30,631 | 32,600 | -1,969 |
Atlanta Braves | 37,794 | 39,401 | -1,607 |
Miami Marlins | 12,887 | 14,356 | -1,469 |
Tampa Bay Rays | 16,893 | 17,781 | -888 |