The Cardinals front office objected to a religious display on the back of the mound in honor of Stan Musial:

In recent weeks, the grounds crew had carved a cross and a No. 6 (in honor of the late Stan Musial) on the back side of the mound. But general manager John Mozeliak, who said he first had learned about the practice from a Post-Dispatch report and photo, said Friday night that he had asked that the practice cease.

“Once we learned of it,” said Mozeliak, “I did contact the grounds crew and just asked that they don’t.

“It’s just not club policy to be putting religious symbols on the playing field or throughout the ballpark. I didn’t ask for the reason behind it. I just asked for it to stop.”

In early 1990s, I was working at ESPN, and came in the morning of opening day. At that time, just around the corner from the newsroom sat the mail slots for production. Each morning, a number of newspapers sat there, including USA Today. As I looked down at the USA Today front page, there was a picture of an empty baseball stadium. To the right was an article, and above it the headline, “Cardinals Object to Abortion.” Being in full baseball mode, I immediately thought, “Why would a team of baseball players publicly object to abortion?” It wasn’t until I started reading the article that I realized the picture had nothing to do with the story, and it was the Vatican City Cardinals, not the St. Louis Cardinals under discussion. 🙂

(At that point, it struck me that it must be a slow news day if Cardinals objecting to abortion was a front page story. Also, the Cardinals should think of hiring the Pope as manager. All his strategic decisions would be perfect! I don’t think Jonathan Papelbon would have the same effect.)