The 2022 regular season is over, which means that soon, certain MLB legends will have played their last games.
Yadier Molina is one of two St. Louis Cardinals stars, along with Albert Pujols, who will be retiring at season’s end.
Yesterday, during the Cards’ regular season finale, manager Oliver Marmol chose to give Molina one last at-bat.
As he stepped to the plate, Cardinals fans in attendance at PNC Park gave him a warm hand, understanding that this may be the last time they ever see the future Hall-of-Famer.
Even fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates took time to give the legendary catcher a standing ovation.
Now batting, for the final time in a regular season game, catcher Yadier Molina! pic.twitter.com/uwigvMidDe
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) October 5, 2022
Molina Gets Standing O In Final At-Bat
Molina has certainly earned these final ovations.
What makes the moment even sweeter is that it came in the ballpark where he made his MLB debut all those years ago.
On June 3, 2004, Molina got the start behind the plate and picked up his first career hit.
Little did we know then that this was just the beginning of what would end up being a legendary career as the Cardinals’ backstop.
Molina has been the best catcher of this generation and has shared a field with Cardinal greats such as Pujols, Matt Holliday, Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, Paul Goldschmidt, and Nolan Arenado.
He and Wainwright have formed perhaps the most legendary pitcher-catcher battery of all time.
But that right there was the final regular season at-bat for one of the greatest, if not the greatest catcher of all-time.
Now, all that’s left is one more postseason run.
Molina has been to four World Series as a Cardinal and has two rings alongside Wainwright and Pujols.
For Cardinals fans, nothing would be sweeter than to send both him and Pujols out with one last ring.
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