Play ball! Local residents enjoy visiting Florida during St. Louis Cardinals spring training

Red Schoendienst, former Cardinals player and manager, and William Zickfield

Photo submitted by William Zickfield

For a number of Missouri residents, St. Louis Cardinals baseball is like a religion.

With a regular season schedule potentially stretching from April through October, some dedicated fans make the trip to Jupiter, Florida, for the team's warm-up sessions and spring training games in February and March.

In some cases, going to spring training is all about meeting the players and growing an autograph collection, and for Cape Girardeau natives William Zickfield and Ross McClanahan, who combined have about 450 signed baseballs, the trip to Jupiter was a prime opportunity.

"It's definitely getting the opportunity to meet the players. We see them on TV all the time, we hear about them, all the cool things they do; being able to actually meet them, shake their hand, have a little conversation with them is definitely the best part for me," McClanahan says.

Although the two are lifelong fans of baseball and the St. Louis Cardinals, they made their first trek to Jupiter on a whim last spring.

Catherine Hurt of Cape Girardeau traveled to Jupiter, Florida, last year to see the St. Louis Cardinals during spring training. She will go again this year.

Photo submitted by Catherine Hurt

"We don't ever really do anything like preplanning it; we just kind of go with the flow more than anything," Zickfield says.

Jerry Holsten of Holcomb, Missouri, has been going off and on to spring training for the past 10 years. He went last year and from Feb. 27 through March 3 this year.

A longtime fan of the Cardinals, Holsten has been to all three stadiums the Cardinals have played at while in St. Louis, including Sportsman's Park, Busch Memorial Stadium and the current Busch Stadium, which opened in 2006.

Holsten, who tries to attend at least one home game per month during the regular season, says watching the Cardinals play at spring training is the perfect precursor to the regular season because not only does he get to watch Cardinals baseball, but also he gets to have a break from Missouri's unpredictable weather.

Ross McClanahan and William Zickfield

Photo submitted by William Zickfield

"If you're a Cardinal fan, it probably means a whole lot more to go to spring training, because you get to start going to the games early, in other words, before the season starts," Holsten says.

Although he may go more often than most, Holsten says the experience will always feel exciting.

"When you go every year, you still look forward to it. There's really not one experience [that stands out], you throw it all together in one ball and you just want to absorb everything when you go down there," he says.

Catherine Hurt, originally from Piedmont, Missouri, and now a Cape Girardeau resident, says her first spring training experience was last year when her parents and grandmother took her to Florida for her 21st birthday.

Cardinals player Yadier Molina signs autographs at spring training in Jupiter, Florida.

Photo submitted by William Zickfield

Hurt's birthday, March 25, runs near the end of the spring training schedule, allowing her to see the players in the final stretch of warming up and getting loose.

"I would love to make it a yearly thing, especially since usually it falls right around my birthday month, so by that time they're getting their games in and it's almost the end of spring training as well, because opening day is April 11 this year, so it's right around the time they're really getting warmed up and amped," she says.

Originally, Hurt didn't think she would be able to attend spring training this year, but was surprised on Feb. 23 when her grandparents told her they had planned a birthday trip for her and her stepsister, who shares the same birthday.

"They finally figured out, I guess, a good way to celebrate my birthday," Hurt says, laughing.

She says her favorite part of her spring training experience was the accessibility and laid-back attitude of the players before the games started.

"You can actually get down close to them, and they'll come over and sign anything that you have. And then a lot of them were throwing balls over to the kids and everything, so I just thought it was really neat because right there, you're an arm's length away from them," she says.

Another perk of spring training, according to Hurt, is watching rookie players take the field for the first time. Last year, she saw left fielder and first baseman Stephen Piscotty's debut.

And although Jupiter may be about a thousand miles south, it transforms into a home-away-from-home for Cardinal Nation every spring.

"It's really different to go down to Florida and be in a city that is still Cardinal dominated when it comes to this time of year. ... It feels like you never left home when you're there for a game because you're surrounded by Cardinals fans," Hurt says.

For Holsten, being a Cardinals fan is almost a requirement for Missouri natives.

"Especially if you live in and around Missouri, if you like baseball, you've gotta be nuts if you don't like the Cardinals," he says.

Even then, the obsession pushes farther than just the Cardinals for Zickfield and McClanahan, who have signatures from baseball players throughout the American and National leagues. Although the two typically root for the Cardinals during the regular season, they support a number of players from all different teams who represent the game well and appreciate their fans.

"We're nerds; we can't help it," Zickfield says with a laugh. "But it could be worse than baseball."