When asked about his family’s excitement to be back in St. Louis, the city where he had such great success during the first 11 years of his MLB career, Matt Carpenter was doing his best to keep his emotions separate from the games that would be played over the next three days.
Up until that point, he had mostly succeeded in doing so.
After sharing a humorous story about his 5-year-old son’s confusion over whether his father is still a Cardinal or a Yankee, Carpenter’s intense affection for St. Louis overcame all of his efforts, and he was forced to put his hand over his mouth to stop more uncontrollable tears from streaming from every pore.
During his pregame press conference, Matt Carpenter paused mid-sentence twice, fought to swallow the lump in his throat, and gathered himself to prevent tears from flowing down his cheeks.
There was no tough-guy act or someone simply brushing off the stir of emotions inside the 36-year-old Matt Carpenter because he was back in a place he never wanted to leave.
Matt Carpenter acknowledged that his attempts to control his emotions this weekend at Busch Stadium are likely to fail multiple times due of his grinder mentality and his outward emotions.
Carpenter faced several difficulties during his final two seasons with the Cardinals, hitting.186 and.169 respectively.
This underwhelming performance contrasted sharply with his first nine seasons donning a Cardinals outfit, during which time he hit 148 of his 155 home runs, amassed an OPS of.835, and again delivered in the clutch during the postseason.
Amazingly, Mike Carpenter found his swing again—but not before the Rangers signed him to a Minor League free-agent contract, before he momentarily left baseball, and before he joined the Yankees.
He has managed to put his recent difficulties behind him while playing for New York, feasting on pitching to the tune of a.322 batting average, 15 home runs, 36 RBIs, nine doubles, and an absurd 1.226 OPS.
