51黑料

Inside, the girls 鈥� they are collectively referred to as 鈥渢he girls,鈥� though two of them are male 鈥� prepare to go out and entertain the crowds, or regroup before heading out to entertain them again.

The air inside the room smells vaguely of strawberries. Boxes full of foam fingers and Cardinal-red pompoms line one wall. Another wall has a large mirror that they use to fix hair and reapply makeup that has diminished from hard work, heat and sweat.

The sorority house part comes mostly from the attitude. The 17 members of Team Fredbird are a close-knit group. They shower each other with warmth, support and sincere affection at every turn. They laugh at shared jokes and shared experiences. They exclaim with delight when they see a pair of their group dancing on the Jumbotron screen 鈥� 鈥淥h my God, they look so good!鈥�

It鈥檚 loud inside the room. The young women 鈥� and young men, the first men on the team in years 鈥� talk excitedly among themselves. Sometimes they sing a snippet from a song. Sometimes they do a TikTok dance while they sing.

If you鈥檝e ever been to a Cardinals game, you鈥檝e seen Team Fredbird. They鈥檙e the enthusiastic, fit and uniformly attractive people who skip coquettishly on the top of dugouts in the middle of innings, blowing whistles and firing T-shirts into the crowd.

The idea is to hype up the crowd and keep them cheering in between action on the field.

鈥淲e try to entertain (the fans) and keep the show moving,鈥� says show director John Venneman.

It鈥檚 a tough job. Busch Stadium is enormous, and team members routinely log 8,000 or more steps each game in heat that can be brutal and unforgiving. The team races up and down stairs, and they鈥檙e always on hard concrete. At times, they only have three outs to move from one part of the stadium to another.

In that respect, the job got even more difficult over the past two years. The pitch clock that has sped up the game has also sped up the pace for Team Fredbird.

鈥淭hree outs go a lot quicker because of the pitching rule,鈥� says Ren茅 Ruppert, 25, who is in her third season with the team.

As tough as the physical demands are, the mental part of the job is perhaps even more exacting. The essence of Team Fredbird is that they have to be high-energy and upbeat at all times.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e putting on your Disney princess power. Even if you鈥檙e having the worst day, you have to put on your happy face,鈥� says Kendall Kau, 25, who is in her second year on the team.

The people in the stands may be having a bad day, too. A baseball game may be the only chance they get to go out and have fun in the summer. So the team does whatever it can to make the day a good one for them, she says.

The ability to be positive and smiling at all times takes a certain kind of personality. It鈥檚 not something you can fake.

鈥淚t鈥檚 an extrovert鈥檚 paradise. You have to love feeding off a crowd,鈥� Kau says.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, several members of the team were cheerleaders in high school or college. The job requires at least one or two years of either cheer or dance experience.

Jake Johnson, 25 and in his third season with the team, was the mascot for his college team, the Loyola University of Chicago Ramblers. Team Fredbird seemed like a logical extension of that experience.

鈥淚 thought I was applying to be Fredbird,鈥� he says.

Reagan Deschaine, 29 and in her fourth year on the team, was on the dance team at SIUE and did some cheerleading when she was younger. But once she discovered acting, her focus was all on theater. She knew she wanted to entertain people, and Team Fredbird fits the bill.

For Ruppert, the draw is even stronger than that.

鈥淚鈥檝e always wanted to do this. This has been my dream job since I was a very little girl. I remember coming (to the stadium) with my grandparents and thinking this was the greatest job,鈥� she says.

Says Kau, 鈥淟ittle Ren茅, living the dream.鈥�

Like soldiers in a foxhole, the Team Fredbird experience draws the members close together.

鈥淲e鈥檙e all really good friends. We love each other,鈥� says Deschaine, and the evidence bears her out, both on the field and off.

On Friday and Saturday nights, though they have already put in an exhausting five hours or so together, many will head out to a bar for a night of fun.

The friendship can be multi-generational, as well. Sisters Bella and Sami Simokaitis are the daughters of a member of the first Team Fredbird, in 1995. They are close friends with Allie Walsh, whose mother was also on that first Team Fredbird.

Bella, 22, will be the maid of honor at Walsh鈥檚 upcoming wedding. And Walsh鈥檚 mother was maid of honor at Bella and Sami鈥檚 parents鈥� wedding.

The older Simokaitises got engaged at Busch Stadium. At one time, the father, Tony, was Fredbird.

鈥淲e鈥檙e a big baseball family,鈥� says Bella, adding that their mother is 鈥渙vercome with joy鈥� that the sisters are part of Team Fredbird.

Every year, the former members of the team get together for a reunion. This year, the celebration will be extra-large for the 30th reunion.

A day in the life

The team鈥檚 days are long. Most come to the stadium from their day jobs. Shelby Dillender, 28, whose seven-year tenure with the team is currently the longest, is studying physical therapy and hopes to work with athletes. Deschaine works in marketing and sales, but hopes to grow into a career in the sporting world and perhaps even stay in the business of entertaining sports fans.

Team Fredbird can be a stepping stone to just such a career. Katie Brandenberg, the Cardinals鈥� director of fan entertainment, and Caroline Smith, the supervisor of fan entertainment, are both Team Fredbird alumnae. So are a few other people in the Cardinals鈥� front office.

Some of the other members of the current team have day jobs that Deschaine calls 鈥渞eally impressive.鈥�

Ruppert, who went to Indiana University, is a senior account executive for Procter & Gamble, selling hair care products to Target stores. Kau, who has an agriculture economics degree from Cornell, trades corn for Chesterfield-based Bunge, one of the world鈥檚 largest agriculture and food businesses.

鈥淲e鈥檙e the corporate girlies. We bond over that,鈥� Ruppert says.

鈥淲e call it our big-girl jobs,鈥� says Kau.

The team members arrive at the stadium 2陆 hours before game time. They sit on the floor of their room, hand-rolling as many as 120 T-shirts to be dispersed to the crowd. Then, with 1戮 hours to go until first pitch, they begin the pregame show.

On a recent Friday, Deschaine and Ruppert started their pregame duties at the Crown Bar high above right field. Speaking to a camera, which put them on the Jumbotron, they promoted the music-spinning DJ Deks, who is also perched there, and hyped the bar鈥檚 $5 draft beers.

Deschaine did the talking for this segment. A fraction of a second after she said each word, it was broadcast over the stadium speakers. The delay and electronic echo can be maddeningly distracting.

鈥淚 tell people to focus on the conversation that you鈥檙e having and the words that you鈥檙e saying when you say them,鈥� Deschaine says.

When people start listening to the echo, they lose focus and tend to slur their words. It鈥檚 called being 鈥渕ic drunk,鈥� Ruppert says.

When they finished their bit at the Crown Bar, they headed down and all the way across the field to do their next pregame segment in front of home plate. Again for the Jumbotron, Deschaine interviewed Kelly Brownfield of the USO, who was there with Apache, a 252-pound Great Dane therapy dog who accompanies children to funerals and brings smiles to veterans and active-duty servicemen.

Actually being on the field is, so to speak, a whole other ballgame.

鈥淓very time it鈥檚 great. You never get used to it. It鈥檚 always amazing. The energy is electric,鈥� Deschaine says.

When she was 9, she took a school trip to the stadium. She has a photo from that trip showing her standing in the same place in front of home plate where she now conducts on-camera interviews.

Fans of the game

The team are all baseball fans, and fans of the Cardinals in particular (Kau, a native of Milwaukee, is the only one who is not from 51黑料). But when they are busy they can鈥檛 always keep an eye on the game. They do have the television feed on in the Team Fredbird Room, so they know when to go to their next station.

鈥淲e watch. We鈥檙e kind of into it. If there鈥檚 a home run, we all cheer, even though nobody can hear us,鈥� says Keeler van Breusegen.

Deschaine calls van Breusegen the team鈥檚 鈥渃amp counselor.鈥� If there is a chance of rain, she brings games to play during the delay, or maybe material to make crafts.

The team members are randomly paired off in groups of two or three and sent to various places in the stadium at specific times during the game. In the recent Friday night game, Ruppert and Kau had the duty for the trivia segment.

The key for these on-camera features is to find someone who is outgoing and will be vivacious on the Jumbotron. On this night, they zeroed in on a laughing group of young men on the concourse. Each was drinking a beer, which was perfect because that night鈥檚 questions were about the price of alcoholic drinks at the stadium.

Ethan Karr, who was visiting from Nashville, was chosen. Ruppert and Kau sat on either side of him in the stands, waiting for the inning to come to an end. They did not go unnoticed by other fans in the stands

鈥淚鈥檓 not even watching the game right now,鈥� said one man, a few rows back.

When the time came, Karr answered the four questions with ease (鈥淚 thought they would be harder,鈥� he says) and was awarded a gift bag with a shirt and some other goodies.

But it was another gift, just before the trivia segment started, that melted the team鈥檚 hearts.

The night before this game was Disability Pride night at the stadium. The team instantly bonded with 16-year-old Izzi Uccello, whose sparkly personality is, frankly, a match for their own.

The next day, the team members were still talking about how much they loved meeting Izzi, who uses a wheelchair. Knowing that she was going to be at the game that night, too, they all signed a baseball glove to give to her.

Izzi found them first. She had become especially close to Ruppert and, seeing her get ready for the trivia segment, wheeled up to her and gave her a box with a bracelet in it. Ruppert thanked her sincerely and profusely, and immediately put it on her wrist.

Throughout the game, teams of Team Fredbird members made other appearances all around the stadium. Some shook their pompoms in tribute to a group of active servicemen 鈥� it was Military Appreciation night at the stadium; the game began with a flyover of five F15s.

鈥淚 almost cry every time they do a flyover. It鈥檚 so amazing,鈥� Deschaine says.

Deschaine and Austin Thomas also held the black-and-white checkered flags at the end of the Missouri Farmers Care mascot race 鈥� or they would have, but Fredbird stole Deschaine鈥檚 flag and held it himself (鈥淗e鈥檚 the boss. He gets to do what he wants,鈥� she says).

The Baconator, the pig mascot, won the race, besting the efforts of Sweet Bessie the cow, Captain Cornelius the ear of corn and Simon the soybean.

鈥淭he pig outfit is easiest to run in,鈥� says Thomas, who is 19 and in his first year on the team. His father is Todd Thomas, the Cardinals鈥� Jumbotron emcee who is also known as 鈥淭hat One Guy.鈥�

But the team is best known for what they call the ball shoot: slingshotting T-shirts into the crowd. Everybody wants a T-shirt. Kids go crazy for them (Dillender says it鈥檚 fun to see children after the game wearing the oversized shirts that hang down nearly to the ground). According to Deschaine, even fans of visiting teams want them.

The slingshots are usually manned according to height. The taller team members hold the slings while the shorter ones pull them back and do the actual shooting into the crowd. If the heights were unbalanced, the shirts would go flying off in all directions.

Back in the Team Fredbird Room, there are a couple of slingshot challenges written on the wall in Magic Marker. One is to get a shirt all the way up to the loge level of seats; every time a team succeeds, they get their name written on the wall. The other challenge is to hit someone鈥檚 sign with a shirt. No one has yet been able to do that this year.

鈥淵ou have a pretty good idea of where it鈥檚 going to go. But sometimes you just want to launch it,鈥� Kau says.

The work is fun, but it has its perils. Kau fell going down the stairs on the way to a ball shoot, breaking and spraining her ankle. Dillender is healing from a stress fracture of her patella 鈥� her kneecap. She doesn鈥檛 know how she got it, and she says it probably was not from all the pounding her legs take at the stadium. But she first noticed the pain after a long stretch of games in a row.

Gabrielle Davis is in her first season on the team, but she already understands what the hard work and the camaraderie are all about.

鈥淚t seems like a lot,鈥� she says, 鈥渂ut when we鈥檙e on break between homestands, I miss it.鈥�