2026 Cardinals Winter Warm Up Recap

As I touched on in yesterday's post, this past weekend was the Cardinals annual Winter Warm Up (WWU) fan festival.  Since 2016, this is an annual trip for my son and I.  Of course 2021 did not happen because of Covid, and 2022 did not take place because of the strike.  The set up was slightly different this year, as the event was only two days instead of three.  That did not affect us, as we have very rarely attended WWU on Monday.  WWU is all about meeting players, getting some autographs, and getting ready for the baseball season to start.  

We attended both Saturday and Sunday despite the cold temperatures.  WWU is held at Busch Stadium and across the street at Ballpark Village.  Most of the time we were indoors, but the walk in between venues and the security checks left us outside.  With wind chills in the single digits both days and some snow on Saturday, those few minutes seemed a lot longer.  Instead of doing a post for each day, I will show everything we picked up today.

Our first stop is always the Cardinals Care store.  This 3'x1' sign was from last year's photo session.  My son spotted it before I could.  It is already hanging up in my card room next to three other Lankford WWU signs.  2 years ago I paid $75, this year $50.

The Cardinals hold a 5K run each year, with a former player greeting runners at the finish line.  Lankford was the greeter in 2025.  Glad I did not pay the $50 fee to run.  I bought this medal for $5 on Saturday.  On Sunday, they were $2.50.  

The vendor area was almost non existent this year.  Most years there are 20-25 different booths.  This year I counted less than 10.  Talking with one of the dealers, he mentioned they were charged the same price despite WWU being cut back to 2 days.  I am guessing that had something to do with the low turnout.  The only thing I bought was a couple of 2025 Peoria Chiefs teams sets, which I already have filed away.  Everything else will be autographs.

I only have cards signed from players that are free.  Gilkey is at almost every WWU, while Worrell has been twice during the years I have attended.

Worrell also signed this program from the 1985 reunion weekend this past season.  Ricky Horton is also at WWU every year as a free signer.  He signed underneath Worrell.  The top signature is Andy Van Slyke, who signed this last September.

Radio announcer John Rooney was also a free signer.  I was thrilled to have him and Horton sign this bobblehead.

Ivan Herrera signed a ticket from his debut game.  Most players will add inscriptions during WWU.

I took this picture of Joshua Baez and Leonardo Bernal at a Peoria Chiefs game in 2024 after Bernal hit a home run.  Baez is the Cardinals #13 prospect, while Bernal is #4.  Both players loved the picture.

I took this picture of Bernal and # 5 prospect Quinn Mathews at the same game.  Mathews took a picture of it with his phone.  I did not think of sending it to him online.  

I took this picture of my son and Victor Scott at one of last year's Cardinals Caravans.  You can read about it here .  Scott remembered him and said he still has the CD.

This is a game used baseball from an game I attended in April where Matthew Liberatore pitched against the Phillies.  As you can tell from the inscriptions, he had a great day.

This is the first year #1 prospect JJ Wetherholt was at the WWU.  Many people are picking him to be NL ROY in 2026.  

Masyn Winn was happy to inscribe this Gold Glove ball.  2025 was hopefully the first of many for him.

As always we had a great time visiting with other Cardinals fans and just being around the stadium.  Attendance was down for the second consecutive year.  It was easy to see a lot of fans were not happy with the direction of the team despite an increase in ticket prices both years.  I will give the owners some credit for having a question and answer session with the crowd on Sunday.  They gave some general answers and talk around the increase, but for the most part expressed optimism for the upcoming season.