Happy Birthday, Fire Marmol: Cardinals fan’s message takes shot at manager

Let's start here. The St. Louis Cardinals returned to Busch Stadium on Friday night to open up a three-game set against the Boston Red Sox. The Redbirds came into the contest at a dismal 18-25 on the season and looking in danger of bottoming out for the second straight season, if they haven't already. But the good news is that they won the game, 10-6.

However, the vibes around the Cardinals are anything but high still. Overall, the offense continues to underperform and the club is barely within sight of the NL Central lead despite being less than two months into the 2024 season. And the calls to fire manager Oli Marmol have only grown louder by the day... so much so that we're even seeing it clearly at the team's home ballpark.

Early in Friday's game against the Red Sox, there was a Happy Birthday message put on the video board inside Busch Stadium. That's pretty standard. What wasn't standard, however, was the addendum to the birthday message sent to now-10-year-old Bethany.

That addendum, naturally, featured the message, "Please fire Marmol."

That's one way to send a message.

Cardinals fan adds 'Fire Marmol' to Happy Birthday wish at Busch Stadium

First off, we can probably bet that whoever didn't fully vet that birthday message is A. Completely on board with firing Marmol and let it slip through because of that, and/or B. May be getting a harsh scolding or even a pink slip for letting this stunt happen while the Cardinals were playing and Marmol was managing.

But once we get past that, this is really damning of the situation that President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak and Marmol have put Cardinals fans in.

Fans can't even send a birthday wish without having to voice their displeasure about the managerial situation. And for all of Marmol's decision-making -- which has been unreasonably poor more often than not -- and lack of self-awareness, he's not helped by the roster that Mozeliak put around him. This team has name brands but it's very clearly not a team built to win, as evidenced by this year and the last.

Both are quite clearly on the hot seat right now and deservedly so. Friday night's win over the Red Sox doesn't change that. The only thing that possibly could would be a dramatic turn in form for the Cardinals which, even when there have been positive moments, has never been a consistent thing we've seen from this ball club.

Happy birthday, Bethany. Sorry your party's so lame (and that Oli Marmol manages your favorite baseball team).