Cardinals: So-called best fans in baseball disappear from Busch Stadium

Sunday’s matchup between the Cardinals and the Mets was played in a near-empty Busch Stadium. Where are you, Cards fans?

There was plenty to ooh and aah about in the final game of the Cardinals-Mets series on Sunday. Too bad no one witnessed it.

In the Cardinals‘ 7-3 victory, St. Louis managed to avoid a four-game sweep at the hands of the Mets in what turned out to be a solid offensive showing for the Cards. Unfortunately, it turns out no one wanted to see these two woeful teams play each other.

This was no football score line like the Braves-Mets humiliation, but the Cards put on a show for the sparse clumps of fans that came out to watch the team play in Busch Stadium.

In a photo that surfaced online, Busch Stadium contained only smatterings of fans making up for a tiny fraction of its 46,000 seating capacity. The St. Louis ballpark was no more lively than a ghost town, which was fitting considering the lifeless 54-70 record the Cards held going into Sunday’s game.

Take a look below and try to hear the chirping crickets:

Have Cardinals fans stopped caring about 2023 season?

Somehow, the listed attendance for this game was 37,470 at Busch Stadium.

Listed as one of the top-ten most valuable franchises in the MLB, the Cardinals hasn’t attracted a huge market compared to more nationally popular teams, but the local fanbase they do have has in the past been categorized as loyal and appreciative.

The Cards boast generations of talent, stemming from the roots of Dizzy Dean, Stan Musial, Ozzie Smith, and others. Albert Pujols loves them. And year after year, the franchise has more or less stayed competitive, carefully manicuring a winning lineage.

Just not this year. Sitting last in the NL Central and having already lost the series to the Mets, Cards fans may have preferred to watch Sunday’s game from the comfort of their own living room.

And what a game it was: Paul Goldschmidt hit a homer and drove in three runs, Richie Palacios made a home run-robbing catch, and the likes of Nolan Arenado, Willson Contreras, and Jordan Walker all contributed in the win.

Mets’ Pete Alonso launched a 423-foot homer in the fourth, but it was St. Louis who would have the last laugh with an onslaught of hot bats in the seventh.

Just a day ago, Alonso taunted the Cardinals by throwing rookie Masyn Winn’s first career hit into the stands of Busch Stadium. Were the Cards fans not entertained enough that game? Was there a city-wide event going on, something far more riveting than America’s — and supposedly St. Louis’ — favorite pastime?

If that’s going to be the turnout for the rest of their home games this season, the Cardinals have a long and miserable road ahead of them.