Cardinals news: Banana Ball, Brendan Donovan's bat, Busch Stadium attendance

Among the chaos of the first week of baseball have been several interesting tidbits surrounding the St. Louis Cardinals. Here's a roundup of some of those stories.

The Savannah Bananas have postponed their game at Busch Stadium.

When it was announced that the Savannah Bananas would play at Busch Stadium this year, fans flocked by the thousands to get tickets. The Harlem Globetrotters of baseball, the Savannah Bananas make baseball fun for fans of all ages with various hoodwinks, dances, and wild plays that would never happen in a normal baseball game.

The two-game show was originally slated for April 4th and 5th, but both games have been postponed due to inclement weather that is heading towards St. Louis this weekend.

The games will now be played on July 18th and 19th at Busch Stadium. Ticket holders for the original dates will receive information from either the Bananas or the Cardinals, according to the Savannah Bananas.

Brendan Donovan's modified bat beat the "torpedo bat" craze.

The story of the first weekend of games across baseball was the new "torpedo bat" that helped the New York Yankees set an MLB record for the most home runs through the first four games in a season.

However, the Yankees weren't necessarily the first team to experiment with modified bats.

According to John Denton, back in 2020 and 2021, then-Cardinals prospect Brendan Donovan was making alterations to his bat to gain a competitive advantage. Donnie wanted to make the densest part of his bat in the same spot where he most often made contact while staying within Major League Baseball's required specifications.

“I started experimenting with barrel sizes, and I went to the Old Hickory factory and we talked about things that I liked, and it just evolved from there,” said Donovan of his bat. “I asked if we could flare the knob out a little more and create a little more length on the sweet spot.” 

The changes he made to his bat have paid dividends for the Cardinals' utility man, as he led the team in hits (163), doubles (34), batting average (.278), on-base percentage (.342) and OPS (.759) in 2024, and he has a .250/.304/.400 slash line with one home run in 2025 already.

Fans are sending a message to the DeWitt family with record-low attendance at Busch Stadium.

The total attendance of 105,030 during the first home series of the year at Busch Stadium was the lowest for the franchise since 2004. On Monday night, a total of 21,206 fans purchased tickets for a night game against the Los Angeles Angels. This figure is the lowest total at Busch Stadium III by a large margin, excluding 2020 and 2021, when crowd sizes were restricted due to the COVID pandemic.

Low attendance rates were expected throughout the offseason as fan frustration grew with ownership and the front office. Back-to-back years without making the postseason paired with an offseason that featured the Cardinals making one free agent signing deflated an already apathetic fanbase.

If the Cardinals can prove that the product on the field is worthwhile due to continued winning, fans should return once again. However, a potential sweep by the Angels may send the Cardinals back to a .500 record, a place they were all too familiar with in 2024.