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Cardinals games will be faster and the food more local at Busch Stadium this year - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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Media day at Busch Stadium

Busch Stadium food service staff move supplies to stands on the Budweiser Terrace in Busch Stadium on Wednesday, March, 22, 2023. 

ST. LOUIS — Baseball games will be faster at Busch Stadium this year and the concession stands will have a more local flavor.

The St. Louis Cardinals, with an eye toward opening day, announced on Wednesday a series of changes on the field and in the kitchens.

The team opens at home this year on March 30 with a 3:10 p.m. game against the Toronto Blue Jays. Tickets are still available, beginning at $44, said Martin Coco, the director of marketing — though some tickets for other games that weekend are available for as low as $10, he said.

Media day at Busch Stadium

Dan Looney widens the first base chalk line on Wednesday, March, 22, 2023, as he and other Busch Stadium field crew members ready the playing field as the countdown to the Cardinals' opener on March 30 continues. 

At certain times during the season, some tickets will sell for as little as $6.

Baseball fans already know about the on-field changes: A pitch clock will reduce time between pitches, and speed up the game. The bases themselves are getting larger, allowing for more stealing and scoring. And the league is eliminating the “defensive shift” — when an infielder shifts to one side of the field. All of that will encourage more action, speed up games and make the players more safe, the league says.

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The concession-stand changes are more local in nature. Three new stands will feature food from a popular local restaurant chain, a locally made doughnut used in a fried-chicken sandwich, and a national chain with 15 area locations.

Media day at Busch Stadium

Uncle Jerome's chicken is served at Shaq's Big Chicken in Busch Stadium, as photographed on Wednesday, March, 22, 2023. It has a Vincent Van Doughnut Cardinals Red Maple Bacon bun.

But the changes on the field may be the most dramatic. For the first time on the Major League level, the pitchers and batters will be on a clock. The pitchers will have to pitch within 15 seconds of getting the ball unless there is someone on base; then they will have 20 seconds. The batter must be at the plate and ready with at least eight seconds left in either case.

If the pitcher is not ready within the allotted time, a ball is automatically called. If the batter is not ready, he is automatically given a strike.

The batter can only ask for one timeout each time he is at the plate. The pitcher can only “disengage” — step off the pitching rubber, as if to throw the ball to a base — twice for each baserunner. If the runner moves to another base, the pitcher is given two more disengagements.

The changes have already been felt at spring training, said the Cardinals’ vice president of stadium operations, Matt Gifford. On average, the games have been 25 minutes shorter than last year’s spring training games, he said.

The pitch clock has been studied in more than 8,000 games at all levels of the minor leagues, he said, as a way to determine the best time for each pitch. One surprising aspect of the studies is that beer and food sales do not seem to be affected by the shorter games.

“There is more action, more fun and people are staying the whole game,” he said.

Part of the increased action comes from the bases themselves, which are larger than previous versions. First, second and third bases are now 18 inches on each side, instead of 15 inches, though home plate stays the same size.

The larger bases make it easier for runners and fielders to avoid each other, Gifford said, resulting in 15% fewer base-related injuries in the minor leagues, where the larger bases are already in use.

The supersized bases also shave 4½ inches off the trip from first to second and from second to third, making it easier to steal bases. The distance from home plate to first and from third to home is now 3 inches shorter, which should lead to more singles and runs.

Media day at Busch Stadium

Dustin Murphy, a carpenter, replaces weathered section markers on Wednesday, March, 22, 2023, as he and many others ready Busch Stadium. The countdown to Cardinals' home opener on March 30th continues. Photo by Christian Gooden, cgooden@post-dispatch.com

An elimination of the defensive shift should also result in more hits. No longer will the defense be allowed to have more than two players in the infield on either side of second base, a strategy that has recently led to dramatically lower batting averages.

“This brings back the athleticism of the great infielders such as Ozzie,” Gifford said of Cardinals Hall-of-Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith.

At the same time, the concourse will add some local flare. One of the concession stands will now feature the food of Mission Taco Joint, a local favorite with five locations around town (though one remains closed after a fire), plus a stand at the Enterprise Center.

Located on the concourse at Section 150, the stand will offer the restaurant’s most popular item, a mango shrimp taco, along with a vegan soft taco. Two other tacos will only be available at the stadium, a hot-corner chicken taco, which is made with Buffalo sauce and ranch dressing, and a regular taco, which co-owner Jason Tilford said is what you think of when you think of a taco. It has ground beef and is served in a fried corn tortilla.

Also on the Mission menu are Mexican street corn on the cob and their take on nachos, which are French fries topped with chili spices, queso, pico de gallo and pickled jalapeños.

Not far away, at Section 135 on the concourse, is the newest and only area location of Big Chicken, a Las Vegas-based fried-chicken sandwich chain partly owned by basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal.

“We love local partnerships. We like to have a hometown favorite,” said Matthew Piekarski, vice president of culinary operations and co-founder of Big Chicken.

And so the chain is offering a fried breast of Nashville hot chicken served between two halves of a maple-bacon doughnut made by Vincent Van Doughnut. The doughnut is dyed Cardinal red.

Though Busch is the first baseball stadium for Big Chicken, Piekarski said the chain is in several hockey arenas. At every stadium where they have had one stand, they have opened at least two more, he said. And the only food item that ever outsells their chicken sandwiches at any stadium is a hot dog, he said, and only rarely then.

The other concession stand with a local tie is Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, which is on the Budweiser Terrace. Based in Wichita, Kansas, this chain has 15 locations in the greater St. Louis area, said Freddy’s chief development officer Andrew Thengvall.

This particular Freddy’s will be serving steakburgers — or, rather, double steakburgers and double steakburgers with bacon — but not frozen custard, Thengvall said. That might come later in the season, he said. The steakburgers are served smashed.

The stand will also offer french fries and fried cheese curds, which Thengvall said are big sellers.

“It’s fried cheese,” he explained.

New changes, such as a new pitch clock and bigger bases, are coming to Busch Stadium this year. Video by Christine Tannous, ctannous@post-dispatch.com

Manager of Theme Tickets Bethany White speaks about different themed days coming to Busch Stadium. Video by Christine Tannous, ctannous@post-dispatch.com

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