OK, That New Cardinals/Nelly City Connect Collab Is Kind of Great

By Andrea Arnold On May 20, 2024

When did St. Louis start feeling so down in the dumps? Maybe the malaise started during COVID and just never lifted? Maybe we could blame Kim Gardner, or all those teeth-rattling potholes? The Cardinals’ ongoing slump sure hasn’t helped. For whatever reason, the municipal mood has been sour for awhile — and seems to show no signs of lightening.

And yet today, two icons gave us a reason to smile, or at least remember better times. Hey, if we’ve been there before, maybe we can get there again?

The occasion was the roll-out of of the Cardinals’ new City Connect jersey, which you could file under Yet Another Major League Baseball Money Grab, but we’ll instead choose to think of as a Nike-led attempt to offer an alternative to each ballclub’s classic jerseys, something that doesn’t just work on the field but also reflects each MLB city’s culture.

They’ve been rolling these out city by city, and it’s fair to say some are better than others. Cleveland? Don’t get us started. The New York Mets? Fit for flushing.

The Cardinals’ iteration strikes us as much better than most, perhaps because the team started with such a great uniform in the first place. You can’t go wrong with those glorious Cardinals and that crimson red.

click to enlarge

Yes, it’s a money grab, but as far as money grabs go, we like them.

But even more than the jersey, we really like the video launching the City Connect uniforms, which stars none other than Nelly and seems to capture a St. Louis that feels more real, and more admirable, than many promotions of its ilk.

Yes, the video includes some already overplayed greatest hits (at some point, we have to stop letting toasted ravioli be so central to our civic identity). But there are some nice turns of phrase (“A city built to brew, and destined to deliver” and “where the grammar is a little bit street and a little bit country” are both spot-on). And who doesn’t thrill to see the Arch under construction — or true neighborhood spots like Donut Drive-In and the 1860s Hard Shell Saloon?

We’re from The Lou and we’re proud.#ForTheLou pic.twitter.com/ynvewkn5Aa

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) May 20, 2024

Could this be the collaboration to lift us out of our malaise? Undoubtedly not; we’ve got more to fix around here than any 2-minute video ever could, no matter the star power behind it. And we suspect the Cardinals will have to start winning for it to truly start feeling like the heyday of “Country Grammar” again.

But it’s great to see a project that didn’t result in a swing and a miss. And it’s also good to be reminded that for all the things that don’t work in St. Louis, we have a lot to be proud of — and damn good donuts and live music and our sports obsession to help us get by.

We’re from the Lou, and today, we’re proud.

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