What’s Opening Day in St. Louis without pep rallies, chilling winds and more injuries?

“Probably candy in the family room,” St. Louis Cardinals manager Oli Marmol quipped from his Busch Stadium office on Thursday morning when asked what his family enjoys most about the experience of Opening Day.

His two young daughters, whose autographs adorn baseballs inside Lucite cubes on his desk, will be making the most of the celebratory spread, which Marmol assumes is top notch.

“I would think,” he said. “It’s the big leagues.”

For all the hype, it remains true that there’s scarcely a day on the calendar around Major League Baseball that’s more big league than Opening Day at Busch Stadium. Fans, players and executives alike flock to the ceremony, and despite frigid temperatures and a biting wind, that remained true on Thursday.

“When you think about Opening Day and all the 29 different other [MLB] cities, St. Louis looks at it somewhat differently than other places,” president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said. “It’s so special for our fans.

“I think for this team and guys like myself, we’ve already played a few games and the season’s going, but the specialty of what the home opener means to so many people downtown…I was pulling into the ballpark this morning at a little after eight, and there were already a thousand, 2,000 people downtown.”

Special assistant Chaim Bloom is enjoying his first Opening Day in St. Louis – indeed, his first game at Busch Stadium at all, despite stints running the Rays and Red Sox – and went out for a run through Downtown West which took him through already assembling crowds of fans. Four hours ahead of first pitch, thousands were filling seats inside to watch batting practice and embrace their first opportunity to see this season’s team in person.

Given the sourness of 2023, it’s no small feat – and also no surprise – that the enthusiasm was scarcely damped at all, despite the less than cooperative weather.

Pitcher Kyle Gibson, a University of Missouri alum who makes his offseason home just west of St. Louis, was inundated with the excitement of family stretching from Missouri to Indiana and honored by the opportunity to be a part of an event which has long held so much meaning for so many people near and dear to him.

“It’s something that means a lot to the city,” Gibson said. “It means a lot to this organization. They do it right, they do it big, and it’s gonna be a lot of fun.”

Thursday’s cold wind did bring a bitter feeling to the ballpark as the Cardinals continue to sort through a wave of injuries which has threatened to capsize their organizational depth in the season’s opening week. On what might have otherwise been his first game as a Cardinal at Busch Stadium since 2021, Matt Carpenter was instead placed on the injured list with a right oblique strain, threatening to remove a piece of the team’s depth for a period of perhaps several weeks.

Carpenter’s replacement on the roster was rookie catcher Pedro Pagés, who found his way on the road up Interstate 55 from Memphis because Willson Contreras was hit on the back of the left hand by a pitch in Wednesday’s series finale in San Diego. Contreras was in the clubhouse Thursday with his hand fully wrapped, attached to a device designed to relieve swelling. Until just before game time Thursday, that swelling remained significant enough to prevent a conclusive x-ray to determine whether Contreras might have suffered a fracture.

Also out of Thursday’s lineup was Brendan Donovan, likewise hit by a pitch on Wednesday, roughly in the same area as the surgical repair performed last summer to his right elbow. Without either Contreras or Donovan, the Cardinals were forced to load up their lineup against Marlins lefty starter Ryan Weathers with left-handed hitters, slotting Alec Burleson as the designated hitter and Michael Siani in left field.

Victor Scott II, less than two weeks removed from being told he would open the season in the minors, was instead slotted as the leadoff hitter, taking the first at bat of the year for a Cardinal at Busch Stadium. Backup catcher Iván Herrera, who has a track record of handling lefties well and who will be used as an option at DH throughout the season, was nonetheless a surprise placement in the cleanup spot.

Carpenter’s placement on the injured list left the Cardinals with eight players among their 40-player roster unavailable before they played their first home game. Outfielder Lars Nootbaar (broken ribs) could be activated before the end of the homestand and starter Sonny Gray is building rapidly toward his own return, but an organization which has long prided itself on its depth is facing a serious test of that ethos.

However the roster wheel spins in the coming days, Thursday’s festivities arrive as a welcome and adored tradition on the calendar. Whatever gloom and doom settles around the team is lifted during the parade around the warning track, and for at least a few minutes, baseball in St. Louis is guaranteed to feel the way it’s meant to be.

“I think it’s like a kickoff to [the fans’] spring, to their summer, to their passion for this,” Mozeliak said. “It’s hard not to be excited.”