Reusse: Opening Day is about the Cheap Pohlads vs. Cheap DeWitts

The representatives for two disgruntled fan bases will open the baseball season in St. Louis’ third version of Busch Stadium on Thursday afternoon. The contrast in the unhappiness is that in St. Louis it is taking place with what has been the game’s most loyal following for generations, and in Minnesota, the attitude toward the Twins is take ’em or leave ‘em more often than not.

The Cardinals won 105 and 100 games (World Series in ’04), the last two seasons in Busch Stadium II. Attendance was over 3 million in those last two seasons, and then they moved into the new Busch — a real ballpark — in 2006.

Take away the two COVID-impacted seasons and the Cardinals shot past 3 million in attendance for 16 consecutive seasons.

Example of this fandom:

The Twins made a 2009 visit to Busch on the weekend of June 26-28 for a three-game series. It was steaming — including a high of 98 for a Saturday afternoon game.

Eighty percent of the Cardinals fans were wearing jerseys, and 90% were in honor of Albert Pujols. On that Saturday, Pujols homered off Kevin Slowey in the first and then again in third. I imagine still hearing that Cardinals crowd accompany Albert’s line drive to left center — first the anticipation, then the build-up, and then the explosion of sound when the ball was gone.

The Cardinals eased through the NL Central in 2011, then won the World Series over the Texas Rangers when Nelson Cruz failed to catch a ball in right field — proving his status as a DH.

And then came the shock: St. Louis allowed Pujols to leave as a free agent, signing as he did a 10-year, $240 million contract with the Angels.

Winning the World Series offset losing Albert. The fans kept coming — until last season.

“The Cardinals had won only one postseason series since 2014,” said Bernie Miklasz, a long-time sports reporter in St. Louis. “The farm system always had been the strength of the Cardinals. They had lost that. They would give a prospect a buildup and he would be mediocre.”

The Cardinals had a $189 million payroll in 2024 and finished 83-79. That was 10 games behind Milwaukee in the NL Central. In August, the team announced a paid attendance under 30,000 for the first time in a non-COVID year in this Busch.

The official 2024 attendance was 2,878,115 — a figure the Twins and 20-plus franchises would sell their souls to reach in baseball’s current climate, but a shock in Redbirds Country.

“The DeWitts [owners] announced they would be cutting back on big-league payroll to invest many more millions into player development,” Miklasz said. “This will be John Mozeliak’s last season as general manager. He’s been receiving a lot of criticism for the terrible player development — justified in my opinion, since I’ve been on him for quite a few years.

“The DeWitts brought in Chaim Bloom, from the Rays, then the Red Sox GM, and had him go to work building up the player development. He’s going to be the GM.”

The Cardinals payroll to open this season is $125 million. They would’ve cut it further if third baseman Nolan Arenado had agreed to a trade.

“Fans are all over social media saying, ‘I’m never going to another game until the DeWitts sell the team,‘” Miklasz said. “I remind them when our Rams fans were mad at Georgia Frontiere, saying she should sell the football team to a local person. To Stan Kroenke, a local guy. Yeah, how’d that work out?”

Well, the Rams did win another Super Bowl with Kroenke, but that was in Los Angeles.

Opening Day in St. Louis has been a festive event. There still will be crowds downtown early and Busch will be full, but the Cardinals actually had to do some promotion to get the traditional sellout.

Not hustling like the Twins require to get sellouts for their openers, of course.

We’re also mad at the owners here, who are trying to sell. That’s because we know if the Twins only had popped for another pitcher and a batsman last summer at the trading deadline, those Dodgers and Shohei would’ve been in trouble against us in the World Series.

Opening Day in St. Louis: Cheap Pohlads vs. Cheap DeWitts. What a battle.