Cardinals players aren’t the only ones from the St. Louis Area who come to spring training to work

By Sally Tippett Rains

JUPITER, Fla. – Every year Cardinals fans flock to spring training, but did you know there are many employees of Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium who also come down from St. Louis or other areas in Cardinals Nation to work? Some even do double duty—they work as ushers at Busch Stadium during the regular season and they come to Jupiter to work here. They each have their own story of why they choose to do this.

As a kid, Kevin Juergens had a dream of playing baseball and later in life he realized a dream to throw batting practice for the Cardinals. His baseball career didn’t turn out the exact way he first hoped, but 20 years later he is still making the trip to Florida every winter to work the security gate for the backfields. He has had this job for five years.

In his “day job” he taught physical education and driver’s ed at Marquette High School in Chesterfield. He and his wife Becky came down to spring training for years, but before that he has had some great memories of spring training with his family dating all the way back to when the Cardinals trained in St. Petersburg.

“I’ve been a Cardinal fan all my life,” he said, “But I got my first taste of spring training back in the early 1970’s.

His family went to St. Pete and something magical happened.

“As a kid, I got to be the bat boy at one of the games in St. Petersburg,” he said. “I think the year was 1974, I got a Joe Torre bat for my work, and I still have the bat.

“Years later we brought our boys Taylor and Spencer to spring training and have been coming back ever since! The first year we came the boys came away with an Albert Pujols bat and that pretty much set the tone we were coming back.”

And later he achieved one  of his lifetime dreams: he got to throw batting practice for the Cardinals. Juergens, a left handed pitcher who played baseball at Sullivan High School, Jefferson College, Nicholls State University and Missouri Baptist University dreamed of a major league career and was a major league prospect but became injury prone throughout his college career. After it was clear he would be going into the teaching profession rather than baseball, he set his sights on being involved with the Cardinals in some way, hopefully pitching batting practice at spring training.

“I got the opportunity when Mike Matheny was manager,” he said. “That was my original goal, to throw batting practice –and then it actually happened.”

It took a lot of diligent work to make it happen.

“I met Dennis Schutzenhofer here in Jupiter on the back fields,” said Juergens. “I watched him throw BP and pick up equipment after practice, and started talking to him asking him about his background, retired teacher and former American Legion baseball coach. I told him he was describing my life.”

At the time Juergens was coaching American Legion baseball, throwing batting practice every day in the summer and was getting ready to retire from teaching. He mentioned to Schutzenhofer that he would enjoy throwing batting practice for the Cardinals.

“He suggested I make contact with John Mabry,” he said. “I sent Mabry and Matheny an email with my baseball background and explained that I am in Jupiter every year and would like to help out with BP if needed in the fall of 2017. The following February Mabry emails me at school, Marquette High, and says he would like to see me throw BP before he heads down here to Jupiter.”

They arranged to get together so Mabry could check him out.

“He ends up bringing his son JT who was a junior at DeSmet at the time, so I threw BP to his son at Marquette High School. Things went well and the next thing I know I was throwing BP in Jupiter,” he said.

Juergens still remembers his group of hitters was Patrick Wisdom, Adolis Garcia, Randy Arozarena and Andrew Knizner. That was March 14, 2018, and he still has the schedule.

“When Mike Matheny was let go, the opportunity never came around again, but we continued coming down for spring training for short visits as I was teaching,” he said. “But of all things my youngest son, Spencer ended up being roommates with Matheny’s son Jake that fall. They had both transferred to Mizzou to play baseball.”

Fans who have gone to the backfields to watch the Cardinals practice or the minor league teams work out have probably been “wanded” or had their bags checked by Juergens or one of the other guards.

“When I retired from teaching and was able to stay for an extended time, I applied for a job supervising crowds on fields one and six on the backfields, a job that had just opened up,” he said.

Changes have been made since the pandemic and those fields are now closed to the public so he typically works in the quad backfields.

The trips to spring training have been fun for the whole family; both he and Becky have post-retirement jobs but their employers are very gracious and allow them the time off to head south each year.

“Becky enjoys her time while I’m working,” he said. “We make it down here the first of January and will head home the first of April. She plays in a ladies golf league every Wednesday morning and mixes in some pickle all and aerobics the other days which is offered in our community.”

He says the most memorable experience he has had involved Adam Wainwright last spring.

“Waino signed my neighbors golf cart while parked at the grocery store,” he said. “My neighbor didn’t know it until I told him that evening. The whole story ended up making it on a local news station here in West Palm and the reporter, Mike Trim—a graduate of Hermann High School in Missouri– ended up winning an Emmy for the story this past winter.

“I also remember watching Waino walk off the backfields for the last time last year after a bullpen. It’s a memory I will always remember. Many fans know me on a first name basis on the back fields. It is not uncommon to see some of the same folks every year. There’s nothing better than when a fan thanks you and tells you they had a great time and look forward to seeing you next year”

Since Juergens generally works in the morning, he and Becky are usually at the Cardinal games at Roger Dean Stadium.

“We typically enjoy the game with our friends from Washington Mo. the entire month of March,” he said. “As the years go by, we seem to have more and more friends coming down to visit each year.”

Beth Osiek, another spring training employee from the St. Louis area, has her own story to tell.

Osiek always dreamed of going to spring training and years later she ended up making her dream come true and it got even better when she got a job as a stadium worker at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium.

“I’ve always been a fan,” she said. “My dad took us to games when I was younger.”

She saw some of the great teams of the 1960’s and then the not-so-great tams of the 1970’s.

“I continued the tradition with my sons, John and Will,” she said. “Usually, it was just my sons and I who went when we would come and spend about six weeks with my parents each summer (when at the time they were living out of town). I would take my sons to Cardinals games and also to the kids musicals at the Muny.”

The photo, left are her  sons John and Will and her daughter-in-law Britte at a game May 18, 2023.

“After I lost my husband Nick in 2011, I attended a game in 2012 and asked about how to become an usher,” she said.

She figured out how to apply for the job and was hired in 2013. That was the same year Nan McArthy got season tickets in her section.

“She’s been an usher in my section for 11 years at Busch Stadium,” said McArthy, who lives in St. Louis and Sarasota, Florida. She has season tickets in St. Louis and loves driving over to Jupiter for games during spring training. “Beth is a really wonderful lady and a great usher.”

McArthy and Osiek are shown together in the photo, right.

“In 2020 I retired, I was able to realize my dream of coming to spring training,” said Osiek.

She had wanted to work at spring training so she figured out how to get a job there. That first year she worked at a gate.

Unfortunately that year her work at spring training was cut short; they closed down spring training on March 13 due to Covid. But she has been back every year since and she also works at Busch Stadium. McArthy sees her in both of her jobs.

“I mentioned that I was coming to some games for spring training once and she said ‘hey, I work at gate three ‘ (or whatever it was at the time) and asked me to come by to say ‘hi’ so now every year at spring training I look for her and make sure to say hi before I go to my seats,” McArthy said. ”Her duties at spring training are varied. She often guards the players’ parking lot.”

“I interact with the press on a daily basis and greet players and coaches,” she said. “My hours are also varied. When the team is at home, I report in the morning and I’m there until late afternoon. On away game days, my hours are shorter.”

One special memory stands out and it is bittersweet.

“It was meeting ‘The Commish,’ Rick Hummel,” she said. “I had loved reading his columns, for years. Then I got to meet him last year and I interacted with him daily and it truly was a joy. I am so grateful that I had this opportunity before he passed away in May.”

McArthy says Osiek is very popular at Busch Stadium in her section because of the way she interacts with the fans.

“I like her because she’s a really good person,” she said. “Very kind and always helpful to everyone in the stadium. She always has a big welcoming smile on her face. She goes above and beyond. She thinks her actual job is to make sure everyone is happy at the game!”

“When my son had his first book published, and did a reading, and she and Beth Hauser, another usher in my section, came just to be supportive to me and my family member,” she said. “She goes way beyond her job to help make sure everybody is happy.  If she doesn’t know the answer to someone’s question, or how to help them, she finds out.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen her when she wasn’t smiling that great big welcoming smile.”

Osiek is smiling because she likes her job.

“This will be my 12th season at Busch Stadium,” she said. “This is my third year working at spring training.”

She is shown in the photo, left closing the gate which guards the players’ parking lot and is the entrance where the media can enter.

The only negative about working at spring training is not being able to see the games since she is such a big Cardinals fan.

“Since I am by the clubhouse this year, I am not able to go in and watch the games,” she said. “I do try to follow the games on my phone.”

Osiek has had an exciting spring this year as she left for a week to go on a cruise that had been re-scheduled, so she is getting the best of both worlds this spring. To her, working with the Cardinals is like being on vacation. She has met so many people through her jobs at Roger Dean Stadium and Busch Stadium.

And through that job she found out about Rainbows for Kids, the charity for families of children with cancer in St. Louis run by baseball writer Rob Rains and family. She offered to volunteer and has been working with the charity for the past two years, helping young cancer patients at the various activities.

With all those activities– working both places and volunteering, she has a busy life.

Another St. Louis-area resident who moves south to work in the spring is Carla Beluk.

How would you like to start your exciting job at Roger Dean Stadium working Cardinals game the year they shut it all down due to Covid. That’s what happened to Beluk– and that wasn’t all that happened that first year.

“I work just spring training,” said Beluk. “My first year was 2020 and we had been to a season ticket holders appreciation event. I filled out a job application just as a lark. If I got the job, I had hoped to work in the Team Store but got assigned to the gates.”

She started in February of 2020 but in March major league baseball had shut it down for all the teams due to covid. Covid wasn’t the only negative thing that threatened her first season to work for at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium.

“Actually I worked just a couple days in early March as I was in the hospital for almost a week with a kidney stone and sepsis,” she said. “I was released from the hospital on March 10 but not cleared to return to work before things shut down for good.”

But Beluk was persistent and she wanted to work at the ballpark. She got well and was back at work the following spring training. That was the spring when covid was still going on and fans were asked to wear mask. There were protocols in place to keep the players, media and fans safe and she was involved with some of that.

“I’ve been a baseball fan since the early ’70s – think Johnny Bench, the Cincinnati Reds and the Big Red Machine. I became a Cardinals fan when we moved to St. Louis in 1977.

Beluk and her husband have a condo in North Palm Beach, she said. “He’s here most of the time, but I still go back and forth between here and St. Louis.

“Up until 2022 we shared season tickets at Busch Stadium with a relative. We often have friends join us or relatives from out of state. Some favorite things to do include going to Loggerhead Marine Life Center, Mounts Botanical Gardens and out to eat at the many wonderful restaurants.”

Her wildest encounter with a player happened before she got the job.

“About 12 years ago, a coworker of my husband asked if her husband’s cousin could stay at our condo,” she said. “He had been invited to spring training but before his per diem kicked, so was looking for a place to stay for about a week. Of course we said yes, and handed our keys over to Matt Adams over breakfast not long after.”

Along with those who come down to work at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium are those St. Louis ushers who come every year—but they don’t work. They come to play.

Busch Stadium ushers Mary and Pat Barrett enjoy coming and Diane Bennish who is also an usher and her husband Don also love coming every year. The photo, left shows the Bennishes and Barretts having dinner at the Homewood Suites on a recent visit to spring training.

“We have never really wanted to work the spring training games,” said Mary Barrett, who along with her usher husband have basically been coming every year from 2002. “We enjoy the freedom of going to the games as fans, roaming around the back fields, and just being regular fans.”

Being an usher at Busch Stadium in the same section for a long time, they get to know the people sitting in their section and they often see some of them at spring training—and they also see others who work with them in St. Louis.

“Frequently fans will approach me and say they recognize me from Busch Stadium,” she said. “I don’t think I have ever gone to a game in Jupiter without running into someone I recognize.”

They have the jobs at Busch because they are Cardinals fans and like being around Cardinals baseball.

“One of the best things about spring training is the relaxed and intimate atmosphere,” said Mary Barrett. “You can get so close to the game and the players. I am not an autograph collector, but if you are, spring training is the place to go.”

Another couple from St. Louis who would rather be a fan at spring training than work is Don and Diane Bennish. Diane is an usher in St. Louis.

“Don and I been coming to Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium since it opened in 1998,” said Bennish. “We’ve only missed two years and that was due to health issues. Now in 2020 we only saw four innings of a game as we arrived the day baseball stopped due to the pandemic. Drove all that way for four innings, but it’s always worth it when it’s Cardinals baseball.”

“I also love seeing so many fans we know,” said Diane Bennish. Sometimes there are random fans who sort of recognize me -we talk and figure it out, and it’s from seeing me at Busch Stadium!”

“I always make new friends at spring training at Roger Dean, and they look me up when they come to Busch. It’s so fun.”

She likes the relaxing aspect of not having to work when she is at spring training.

“I enjoy watching the Cardinals with a beer & hot dog.”

At a recent game, we had the pleasure of meeting John Paino, an usher at the Cardinals game at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium

He was so nice and friendly to the fans, helping them get photos behind home plate. He’s from St. Louis, so where did he go to high school?

“I went to Saint Louis University High,” he said. “I am a South City boy, grew up near Ted Drewes.”

Despite the fact that he was dealing with a family emergency back home, he had a big smile on his face and brought joy to everyone he talked to.

“I am in my element down here,” he said.

It was clear that all these St. Louisans or former St. Louisans love their jobs working at Roger Dean Cheverolet Stadium with the Cardinals during spring training.

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