The St. Louis Cardinals introduced a new home run celebration chain during their game at Busch Stadium on May 2, as the team continues to surprise with its power hitting this season.
The emergence of the chain comes as the Cardinals reached 43 home runs for the season, tying them with the Angels for fourth in Major League Baseball behind only the Yankees, Dodgers, and Braves. The new accessory was first seen when Nolan Gorman hit his fifth home run of the year in a three-run first inning. Alec Burleson followed with another homer two innings later and also wore the chain.
Burleson said he had no idea about the existence of the chain before seeing it around Gorman’s neck. “By then, I knew [it existed],” Burleson said. “But I had no idea what it was.” He added that he did not know who could explain its origins.
According to Gorman, he and José Fermín discussed bringing something new to celebrate homers: “Yeah, me and [José] Fermín had talked about getting something,” Gorman said. “We’ve been barking a lot in the dugout, for whatever reason. So, yeah, he went ahead and got a cool little chain for us to put on.” Fermín explained that since they had been barking as part of their celebrations and realized they lacked props compared to other teams, he found a dog-themed chain online inscribed with “GOT THAT DAWG IN ME.”
Fermín attributed the barking tradition to rookie outfielder Nathan Church: “He started growling and barking,” Fermín said. “One day, someone hit a homer and he started doing it. We all liked it and joined, so that’s a new thing now.” The celebratory energy coincides with improved offensive output from St. Louis despite earlier expectations that power would be hard to come by at Busch Stadium—a park known for suppressing home runs.
Reflecting on his own performance after launching an upper-zone fastball into the stands at an exit velocity of 107.6 mph, Gorman said: “I think that’s just kind of a part of what I attacked this offseason… It was a little bit higher than I thought it was but ended in a good result.” Despite preseason predictions based on last year’s statistics—when only Willson Contreras reached twenty homers before being traded—the current roster has demonstrated increased power through disciplined at-bats rather than focusing solely on hitting home runs.
“I think it’s a result of taking good at-bats and swinging at the right pitches,” Gorman said. “I don’t think any of us are really trying to hit the homers… But we’re swinging at the right pitches, and we’ve got guys that can do damage in this lineup whether it looks like it on paper or not.”
