The best and worst moments of the 2010s for the St. Louis Cardinals

ST. LOUIS, MO - OCTOBER 30: Third baseman David Freese of the St. Louis Cardinals takes the podium during the World Series victory parade inside Busch Stadium on October 30, 2011 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Szczepanski/Getty Images)
ST. LOUIS, MO - OCTOBER 30: Third baseman David Freese of the St. Louis Cardinals takes the podium during the World Series victory parade inside Busch Stadium on October 30, 2011 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Szczepanski/Getty Images) /
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ST. LOUIS, MO – SEPTEMBER 30: Matt Holliday #7 of the St. Louis Cardinals hits a solo home run against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the seventh inning at Busch Stadium on September 30, 2016 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)
ST. LOUIS, MO – SEPTEMBER 30: Matt Holliday #7 of the St. Louis Cardinals hits a solo home run against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the seventh inning at Busch Stadium on September 30, 2016 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images) /

4th Best: Matt Holliday’s emotional home run in final at-bat

If you ask me, Matt Holliday might go down as one of the most underrated Cardinals of all time. He was tasked with the impossible, he became the Cardinals’ best hitter once Pujols left. Quite the impossible task and seemed to always be in the shadow of Pujols no matter how good he did.

Holliday put up just such impressive numbers for the Cardinals from 2010-2014 and people are quick to forget just how much of a force he was for the Cardinals in the middle of this lineup for such a long time. Holliday made the Cardinals faithful stand up and give him a standing ovation one last time on September 30th in 2016.

After battling injuries for almost two seasons and the Cardinals publicly saying that they do not plan on exercising the team option for him, Holliday did his absolute best to get back in the batters’ box just one last time so he could let his fans know how much he appreciated this city. In doing so, he gave us one of the most memorable at-bats of the decade.

Matt Holliday, in his first at-bat in months, homered into the Cardinals bullpen and sent the whole stadium into an emotional mess. In that moment many were suddenly reminded that Matt Holliday was an incredible part of the transition into an era without Albert Pujols and I am sure the fans of St. Louis would not have rather had any other person other than Holliday bridge the gap.

He did have one more at-bat the next day, but for moment’s sake, we are going to say this was his final at-bat.