St. Louis Cardinals honor Nolan Arenado in most unique way possible

Most baseball players who are perennial All-Stars will receive a statue, an organizational Hall of Fame nomination, or a team award named after them upon retirement. Few players receive this type of recognition while being active players. Even fewer receive this recognition in the form of a golden seat in the home stadium.

St. Louis Cardinals paint a seat gold at Busch Stadium to recognize Nolan Arenado's defensive heroics.

The St. Louis Cardinals have opted to honor Nolan Arenado's defense in the most unique way. On both May 4th and May 25th, Arenado came crashing into the stands on the third base line.

After the second crash into the stands, Cardinals' beat writer Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch posted on Twitter/X saying, "Paint the seat GOLD by next home stand. Or at least put a band-aid on it."

Well, the Cardinals listened.

With some help from the ever-trustworthy and enigmatic Fredbird, the Busch Stadium operations team was able to give the seat that Arenado crashed into on May 25th a paint job.

Arenado's catch on May 25th sent him careening into the stands to catch a foul ball in a 4-3 game in the top of the ninth inning. Runners were on second and third base with one out and Ketel Marte up to bat. Arenado's catch helped ease Phil Maton a bit more, and Maton exited the inning unscathed.

Just three weeks prior, Arenado came barreling into the stands to catch a fall ball as well. In the top of the eighth inning against the New York Mets, Arenado ranged into foul territory to make an over-the-shoulder basket catch to get reliever Michael McGreevy out of the inning. The ball was hit by Juan Soto with two outs and no one on. The Cardinals would go on to win this game 5-4.

In the first catch on May 4th, Arenado crashed into a small child in the stands, but she appeared to be unharmed. Nolan gave her the foul ball as a peace offering.

In his second catch, Arenado risked life and limb, and he said that he hit his side on the armrest. “It was pretty bad, and I was having trouble breathing there for a little while, so that was pretty tough. I’ve never really felt that [kind of pain] before, and that was tough. But [the pain] went away, thank God.” He had to take a couple of days off after that catch to recover.

Arenado has been energized this year thanks to a young team and an effort to regain the trust and respect of the Cardinals' faithful. His commitment to his craft should endear fans even more. While he's been unable to produce as well as he wanted to offensively, his defense has been as reliable as ever.

Nolan Arenado, a ten-time Gold Glover and a six-time Platinum Glove winner, has consistently made fantastic catches and throws throughout his career. It's only fitting that his defensive heroics are recognized while he's still an active player.