By Sally Tippett Rains

Cardinals fans are still basking in the glow of Joshua Baez’ exciting debut. He made history by hitting three home runs in his first three major league at bats and he did it in front of the Cardinals biggest rivals, the Cubs. So many St. Louis fans had made the trip to the Windy city and many were kind enough to share them with us.

The photos, including this one of Kate Blanchard and Mark Smith, shown left, are in the gallery below, and we will use them in our newsletter which comes out on Thursday. It was fun to see the fans interacting on our Facebook page and that camaraderie is something we try to bring  to STL Sports Page. If you haven’t signed up for our newsletter, CLICK HERE.

Newsletter subscribers know we are having a contest that closes Monday morning at 9 a.m St. Louis time.

Those who follow us on a regular basis and take the newsletter have known about Baez ever since 2021,  after he was selected by the team in the second round (54th overall pick) of the 2021 MLB Draft.

Rob Rains  and Mike Rains do a weekly podcast and often mention the prospects in the minor leagues, so if this is your first trip to STLSportsPage.com, join our team, comment on our social media and subscribe to our YouTube page so you will find out when we post audio. CLICK HERE.

While Joshua Baez goes into the record books for achieving something that has never been done before,  his whole day did not go as smooth as it did on television.  He was in such a hurry to get to Wrigley Field when he got called up that he forgot some of his equipment. He ended up borrowing a pair of cleats from Blaze Jordan and batting gloves from Jose Fermin. The Baseball Hall of Fame asked for an item and they decided on the cleats. Fun fact: Now Blaze Jordan can always say. his cleats are in the Hall of Fame.

We appreciate all who sent in the photos, and we can always add more if you were there and have some.

Kate Blanchard’s view was from pretty high up, but she had her camera ready as Joshua Baez walked to the plate for his debut.

“I got a photo of Joshua Baez’s first home run as he approaches first,” she said. “My seats were pretty high and my phone is pretty old.”

Kate, from Rock Hill, Mo.was with her boyfriend Mark Smith of University City, Mo.

“This was our first visit to Wrigley, so we were just hoping for a win,” she said. “But  we were able to witness history!”

She is part of the MLB passport program, where you can collect stamps for every ballpark you go to as well as many Halls of Fame and baseball attractions, so she got a souvenir of the day with the date on it.

Though the document, shown right,  doesn’t mention Baez specifically, it shows she was at that game and will make for a great collection of items from that memorable day.

“We got the Wrigley page and date stamp as part of the program,”  she said. “It was a very exciting game!”

As with any Cardinals-Cubs game the stadiums are always full of fans from both teams. There were a lot of Cardinals fans there.

We heard from a lot of those fans who were there with their friends who were Cubs fans.  Mark Mason summed it up best for Cardinals fans.

“I was sitting in my Cub fan brother-in-law’s house watching it,” he said. “It doesn’t get any better than that.

They just happened to be in the area where Joshua Baez’ family was sitting, so it was even more exciting for them.

“We were lucky to get a photo of Baez’ family and friends,” she said. “It was an awesome game and to witness Baez debut and three home runs will be something I will never forget.”

In the photo, left, is Yris Báez, his mother. His father Jose Manuel “El Bronco” Baez passed away but Joshua Baez said after the game that he felt his dad’s presence because a bee kept flying around and on him in the outfield.

To the right of his mother Yris, (in the photo) is Baez’ sister Amy Regalado. The photo was taken by Shannon Schneider and shows the two in the center of the picture surrounded by the 30 family and friends who were there to witness the historic day.

“His family friends were super nice to they shook our hands,” said Schneider.  “I’m thankful my boyfriend took me for my first trip to Chicago and my first time at Wrigley field. “

Even though Matthew Cooper is a Cubs fan, he realized the enormity of the game, and was glad he was there.

“Joshua Baez’ MLB debut performance made it it a very fun and exciting experience,” he said. “It was fun being close to his family. I was excited for them too.

He took some photos of  Baez even before he hit the homer as he knew he was a big prospect. There are some photos in the gallery below as well as the one to the left.

“Even though the Cubs were losing in Chicago most of the fans were excited for Joshua Baez, too,” said Cooper. “Wrigley Field has a lot of history already and this just added to it. The true baseball fans knew it too.”

Another lucky Cardinals fan who sent us some photos  was Nickie Pillow. She is shown in the photo, right  with Gary, and Dylan Pillow.

“It was incredible and inspiring to see Joshua Baez make history,” she said. “We watched him play with the Springfield Cardinals, and he is continuing the legacy of homegrown talent in Cardinal Nation. We can’t wait to see what this young man does next!

Joe Kagann, in the blue Cardinals hat to the left, was lucky enough to be at all three games at Wrigley. Here is a photo of him  with Cardinals fan friend Patrick Bracken and Cubs fan friend, George Hinton.

They made it on the television broadcast, shown in the gallery below.

“We had an amazing three days at Wrigley,” he said.

He felt lucky because his group was also sitting near the Baez family.  Speaking of lucky, he wore a Fredbird on his shoulder, shown in the photo gallery. Maybe that was a lucky charm.

Joe sent us the photo, left, of the Baez family.

Donna sent a photo she took at Spring Training of Joshua Baez signing autographs.

PHOTOS FROM FANS WHO WERE AT

THE BAEZ THREE-HOMER GAME