Cardinals Caravan makes a pit stop at Mizzou Arena
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Cardinals Caravan made a stop at Mizzou Arena, ahead of the Tigers' game against South Carolina, on its annual tour of the state of Missouri, on Saturday.
Current players Lars Nootbaar, Matthew Liberatore, John King and Michael Siani made the trip to CoMo, along with Red Bird alums Bernard Gilkey and Gary Bennet. Legendary broadcaster John Rooney was also with the group.
Players were able to get up some shots in Mizzou Arena, before meeting with the media and signing autographs.
"You could say I led like the rec league in points and rebounds," Nootbaar said about his basketball expereince.
You can watch the full interview with Nootbaar in the video player below.
The players are gearing up to report to spring training down in Jupiter, Fla. in Feb., as St. Louis will be looking to bounce back from a lackluster 2023 campaign. The club finished 71-91-0 and clocked a fifth place finish in the National League Central division.
"I think that's what we did this offseason with additions that we made to the team," Liberatore said. "I think that good veteran leadership is gonna be a huge presence in the clubhouse and it's gonna be really good for a lot of these young guys that we have coming up that are still, you know, learning the ropes, getting their feet wet and getting comfortable, including myself."
You can watch the full interview with Liberatore, as well as Siani in the video player below.
STL made some additions to the pitching staff in the offseason, including Mizzou alum Kyle Gibson and veteran tosser Sonny Gray. Players hope that will bring the extra juice the birds need to take a step forward in 2024.
Nootbaar said the clubhouse has tackled that need for improvement head-on in the offseason.
"We know that we had a disappointing season last year," he said. "I think a lot of the guys, myself included, we were pretty disappointed with ourselves and so going into the offseason we had a lot of motivation to work hard this offseason."
The Cardinals' first spring training game is on Feb. 24 against the Miami Marlins.
