One Last Talk With Mo
Blogger Day is traditionally a good time and this year was no exception.
On the first home weekend of the 2011 series, the Cardinals hosted a group of bloggers for the first time. The fact that the Cardinals not only won that day but then went on to capture their 11th World Championship probably was just a coincidence, but it didn’t hurt the cause of making sure this wasn’t a one time thing.
As Terence Mann told Ray Kinsella, “The one constant in all the years, Ray, has been John Mozeliak. Bloggers have rolled by like an army of steamrollers. The ranks have been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt with podcasters, and erased again. But Mozeliak has marked the time.” (Something like that, I’m paraphrasing a bit.) The event has modified and shifted—most won’t remember when the presentations included not only Mozeliak and Bill DeWitt III but also someone from marketing and the head chef showing off the new food items in the ballpark—but every time it’s been held, Mo’s been there answering questions and giving us his thoughts.
As everyone knows, Mo is stepping down at the end of this season. As he noted, it’s rare when you can do that—most of the time, people like him are fired—and even more rare is leaving when the club is in a good situation. The Cardinals will be fine without Mo in the big chair and he’s glad to be leaving it in that condition.
If you want, you can listen to the full audio as part of Viva El Birdos’ podcast or from Dealin’ the Cards. The Cardinals allow for audio recording, not video (which is a little interesting to me, as I could imagine some nuance being lost, but I definitely appreciate not having to try to take notes through it all) and I really appreciate these sites putting it out there for folks. You can also hear the man himself talk about the event on his normal Sunday spot on KMOX.
To me, there was less talk about the current team and the machinations that might be involved with it than there was about Mo’s legacy and career. After all, Carson Shipley (the communications specialist in charge of planning this whole thing) started off the event listing out Mo’s accomplishments, starting when he came over 30 years ago and all that he had done as a member of the Cardinals. So looking back at Mo’s career was a natural focus given it was our last time together.
When we did talk about the 2025 squad, though, you could tell that Mozeliak, like the fan base, has been revitalized by how this team is playing and the fun and excitement that they are bringing to the field every time out. He spoke a lot about their mentality, about how they don’t get down and they don’t give up. The game that came after his talk helped prove his point, of course.
He also was pretty clear that it was way too early to determine what the trade deadline was going to look like. It’s hard to imagine that if they are at all in the race that he won’t want to add to this time, though it’s also hard to see what that actually looks like as they continue to balance the excitement of this year with the development of the next few. Given the warmth that he spoke about how this team is going, though, I don’t think you see players like Ryan Helsley or Steven Matz traded unless the team just tanks in June and, so far, that’s not happening.
He also feels like the depth on this team is stronger than it has been in a while. In the past, if there was the wrong injury, there wasn’t a clear idea of who was going to come up, more of a random point at the 40-man. He also felt like the current 40-man is a good cast without a lot of clear dead weight (my words, not his).
As I said, there was a good mix of questions about Mo’s legacy as well. It was very interesting to me that, when asked about the best acquisition in his time in St. Louis, he talked about Mark McGwire. I have long advocated that the McGwire trade was a seismic shift for the organization and Mo laid out even more reasons for why that was, pointing out that the revenues they gained from his home run chases allowed for future investments in those early 2000s teams that were so good.
He did get asked about regrets and he said it had to be the Marcell Ozuna trade, which was not a surprise to anyone in the room. (Pretty sure he’s said that before to us, honestly.) Losing out on those two pitchers and not getting the results from Ozuna that were expected was a tough pill to swallow.
I didn’t ask the first question at the first event but some said it seemed to be fitting that I asked the last one here. I asked Mo if he’d had a chance to appreciate the “lasts” that were happening to him. As I’ve just gone through the high school senior year of my youngest child, those milestones were always on my mind. I can’t say that I was surprised, though, when Mozeliak said he felt like he couldn’t take his foot off the gas and get distracted with those thoughts while he still had a job to do, that come October or November he’d spend some time reflecting on some of those moments.
The access that the club gives us, a bunch of people with too much time and too much passion on our hands, is pretty remarkable. I’ve recently been hooked up (along with the great Twitter legend Quinn) with the MLB Fan Council and as we’ve gotten to talk with bloggers from other teams, it’s pretty clear that not everyone gets these opportunities.
We also had the chance to express our appreciation to Mozeliak as well. Our resident eccentric Kyle Reis spearheaded getting a bobblehead made in Mo’s likeness and presented it to him at the end of our event. I think he liked it!
It was a good weekend all around, of course. Friday night, I was able to go to the game courtesy of my friend who is the marketing director of FanDuel. He’s ridden this ride from Fox Sports Net to now and I always enjoy getting a chance to talk with him about how the broadcast is doing, how the work is, etc. From all indications, the streaming thing has been a great addition, though he didn’t give me numbers on subscriptions or anything like that.
Both games this weekend were great. As I have been clear before, I am a huge fan of Nolan Arenado and more and more I am enamored with Masyn Winn. Both of those guys were obviously key in Saturday’s win but had great games Friday as well, so that was a lot of fun. Shout-out to my high school classmate Andy who again traded his spare room for two games and some free ballpark food. Always good to spend the time with him, even when we aren’t going to games.
The aforementioned Mr. Reis also got it into his head that, even though it is not until August, there needed to be a significant acknowledgement that I have a milestone birthday coming. Which led to a loud rendition of “Happy Birthday” sung by the group and a Crumbl cookie replacing a cake. While the fuss didn’t have to be made, I really do appreciate the love and support all these folks have given me over the years. I would argue they give me way too much credit for things but I am glad that they offer me their friendship.
Regular readers know that I occasionally mention how my new church is going after the closing of the one I had been a part of for decades. Today is the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came to the first believers, marking the birthday of the church. In honor of the day, we opened our membership rolls and had the first seven people (including me) join the church. We’re averaging about 25 folks a Sunday and, for the fact that this time last year we didn’t even expect to be in a new place, I guess we’re doing OK.
Allen and I didn’t get a chance to record before I took off for St. Louis this weekend but he should be back in the co-host chair this Friday. David and I plan to talk about Mo’s chat and the week that was tonight on Gateway.