JUPITER, Fla. _ With the Cardinals' possible opening-day lineup in the field Tuesday morning for the first fly-ball drill of the first full-squad workout of spring, coach Stubby Clapp slipped a ball into the pitching machine and _ fwoop! _ sent it high and carrying toward the outfield. As they will be throughout the Cardinals' search for more offense and a cleanup hitter, all eyes turned to left field.
All except for the two eyes in left field.
Tyler O'Neill didn't see the fly ball coming his way.
"Panic mode," he said later.
The bright Florida sky, no stadium backdrop, the lack of a crack of the bat _ any of it could have kept O'Neill blind to the routine fly ball until he bolted as the baseball made its descent. The first fly ball of spring landed in grass, not leather. O'Neill flung the ball in, smiling.
"Can only get better from there, boys," catcher Matt Wieters shouted.
The reigning National League Central champions spread across the back fields of Roger Dean Stadium with their largest camp roster in memory and only five more weeks to get the kinks out. With 40 days and 40 nights of spring training, the Cardinals have to find a closer, a fifth starter, a leadoff hitter, a left fielder, and a cleanup hitter _ and someway, somehow suggest that last year's trickle of offense can become a flood.
The full squad gathered in the clubhouse for a meeting that lasted less than 45 minutes and featured messages from chairman Bill DeWitt Jr., baseball operations president John Mozeliak, manager Mike Shildt and an early cameo from Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith.
They struck a familiar tone. There was the familiar nod to history, the familiar emphasis on crisp fundamentals, the familiar goal of winning the division and World Series, and a lot of it was all delivered to familiar faces. For the first time in several years, the Cardinals did not add a familiar name from outside the organization, betting big instead on returning players. One player remarked how "you look around and can see same guys and the subtractions."
Last year, the challenge was to prove they were the Cardinals again _ to correct a discombobulated defense and return to October. This year, for an encore, they're asked to prove the front office was right to keep the core relatively as is.
"This is more of an unspoken message than a spoken message," Mozeliak said. "I would interpret it like how I would interpret last year's trading deadline. Where we believe in this club and the club went out and performed really well, and it looked like the best decision we made was not doing anything.
"This offseason, from Day 1, we said we believed in this club and we think this team can win. That narrative hasn't changed. When you see that gathering today it's really no different than the first day of any camp. There's optimism. There's hope. There's preparation. All key words you think about and hear those words and still they mean something. The irony of it is that many of the people sitting in that room were sitting in it last year. That is different."
