Every St. Louis Cardinals fan is proud of their organization’s storied history. From Rogers Hornsby to Stan Musial to Ozzie Smith to Albert Pujols, St. Louis is flush with baseball legends. But as the franchise begins a full-blown rebuild and the team is awash in young, unproven faces, fans’ hopes are at a low not seen in decades.

Despite the subdued expectations for the Cardinals in 2026, the team will still bring the festivities for Opening Day. Public address announcer John Ulett will introduce the Cardinals Hall of Fame members, and the trademark Budweiser Clydesdales will jog around the stadium. But even as the Cardinals celebrate their history once again and fans dutifully sell out Busch Stadium to attend the event, it’s worth wondering whether the smiles will be a bit more tight-lipped and the applause slightly more perfunctory than in past seasons.

Opening Day’s celebrations might feel more forced than usual.

In recent years, Cardinals fans have rightfully criticized the team for being too attached to the past and not looking forward as the club’s run of success petered out. The Cardinals’ 2024 celebration of Matt Adams’ clutch home run in the 2014 NLDS, while noble, felt like a stretch and was emblematic of the team’s lack of signature playoff moments in recent history, and as the Cardinals begin rebuilding their franchise, their postseason feats are likely to fall further into the rearview mirror.

The Cardinals are somewhat of a victim of their own traditions. The team can’t hold a less extravagant ceremony just because the expectations have lowered, but going all-out with the event as usual may now appear cheesy and unnecessary. The members of the Cardinals Hall of Fame have dwindled in recent seasons after the deaths of Musial, Lou Brock and Bob Gibson; luckily, Pujols and Yadier Molina are locks to be inducted into the Ring of Honor later this season and should replenish the well to an extent. They will be eligible for the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in 2027, the same year Adam Wainwright will likely enter the Cardinals Hall of Fame. There will be plenty of celebrating these legends in the future, but it leaves the team in a slightly barren spot this year not just on the field, but in its Hall of Fame circle as well.

Molina will reportedly be with the Cardinals during their initial home series, and although he will probably receive the heftiest dose of applause and the former players wearing the ravishing red jackets will command their own well-deserved ovations, the Cardinals’ new president of baseball operations, Chaim Bloom, might be just behind them. Bloom is finally steering the Cardinals’ wayward ship in a new direction, and while the sheen will certainly fade after he pulls off some unpopular moves, Cardinals fans are still in their honeymoon phase with the new executive. Although there may be less to savor on Opening Day this year, expect this to be Bloom’s most enthusiastic cheer during his Cardinals tenure.

Opening Day in St. Louis is an ode to history and tradition for one of the most successful teams in sports history, and for many fans, that’s enough to be romantic about Opening Day no matter the circumstances surrounding the team. But as the self-imposed darkness ensnares the Cardinals, nobody should fault the fans if they feel that the 2026 iteration of this joyous occasion doesn’t hit quite the same.