by: Tommie Anderson | Guest Contributor
On Friday, January 17th, the Cardinals Caravan hit Springfield, Missouri.
The Springfield Cardinals hosted the event in their indoor training facility.
The caravan included current big league players Jack Flaherty, Dominic Leone, and Yairo Munoz. Prospect Max Schrock, former Cardinals Kyle McClellan and Randy Flores joined broadcasters Mike Claiborne and Polo Asencio to round out the panel.
The event kicked off with a question and answer session where fans were able to interact with the caravan participants.
After an introduction by Claiborne, Asencio emceed the panel portion. My wife and son agreed that the best answer of the day came from Flores. He fielded a question regarding what parents can do to help their kid get to the level of a big leaguer. His answer was to find something they love and encourage their pursuit of whatever that thing is, whether athletics or academics.
As a long time fan of the Cardinals, I enjoyed McClellan’s discussion of his battles with arm problems and placing the team first in a championship season.
Other highlights were Flaherty’s enthusiasm to get the season kicked off, Munoz discussing playing multiple positions, and Leone talking about offseason workouts for relief pitchers. Asencio was engaging throughout and made the session a lot of fun for the fans in attendance.
Following the interview portion, the players and broadcasters signed autographs.
Kids 15 and under were given tickets to receive autographs when they entered. This ensured that all the kids would be able to get signatures and say hi to all of the caravan participants. My son loved meeting the players and even got pictures with some of them.
Throughout the event, a raffle was held to benefit the Children’s Miracle Network. (I can not wait to break out the Paul Goldschmidt shirt I won…)
It was a great time for fans of all ages, and another sensational event from General Manager Dan Reiter and the Springfield Cardinals.
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