ST. LOUIS — Before he saw the gaudy chain around the neck of Cardinals third baseman Nolan Gorman following a first-inning home run on Friday night at Busch Stadium, Alec Burleson had no idea that it existed.
By the time he launched his own homer two innings later, Burleson at least knew what to expect.
“By then, I knew [it existed],” Burleson said. “But I had no idea what it was.”
Burleson seemed to sense that I was well-intentioned in getting to the bottom of it — but despite being one of two players to wear the chain on Friday, he didn’t know how to help.
“I don’t even know who to tell you to ask about it,” Burleson called out from across the room as he headed out of the Cardinals’ clubhouse after their 7-2 win over the Dodgers.
As far as utility man Thomas Saggese knew, catcher Yohel Pozo was the man to ask regarding the team’s new home run celebration accessory.
But Gorman, who debuted the gimmick after launching his fifth home run of the season as part of a three-run Cardinals first inning, pointed this reporter in another direction.
“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.”
So that explains why the chain has a dog on it with the accompanying inscription, “GOT THAT DAWG IN ME.”
But — barking? Gorman didn’t seem to know where that came from.
“Obviously, we didn’t have anything,” Fermín said of the realization that the Cardinals were perhaps behind the times in the props department. “So, since we’ve been barking and stuff, I tried to find something. So, I went on Amazon, tried to get, like, a dog thing.
“And then I saw the chain because it was like, ‘I got that dog in me.’ I showed it to a couple guys, and they liked it. I’m like, all right, that’s a new thing, I guess.”
So, we’ve figured out the chain — but again, with the barking?
Apparently, the brainchild of Cardinals 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.”
How long can one continue to describe the Cardinals as a team that doesn’t profile to hit for much power before it’s time to reconsider one’s priors?
Because now that the Cardinals have broken out the home run chain, it might be time for this reporter to capitulate.
St. Louis’ two blasts by Gorman and Burleson in Friday’s win brought the Cardinals to 43 home runs on the season. That’s tied with the Angels for fourth in the Major Leagues behind only the Yankees (50), Dodgers (45) and Braves (45).
Gorman pounded a 3-2 Emmet Sheehan fastball that came in at 92.9 mph. The pitch was above the zone, but Gorman timed it up with an authoritative upper-cut swing for a two-run home run.
“I think that’s just kind of a part of what I attacked this offseason,” Gorman said. “Being able to get pitches up there and, when that happens, they’ve got to respect it a little bit more. … It was a little bit higher than I thought it was, but ended in a good result.”
He mashed the tater with an exit velocity of 107.6 mph, and promptly donned the apparent accessory now associated with the team’s home run prowess.
On paper, the preseason supposition of home runs being hard to come by for the Cardinals — in a ballpark that has historically suppressed them — could be forgiven, right?
In 2025, the Cardinals had just one player (Willson Contreras) reach the 20-home run plateau, and they traded him to the Red Sox.
Adding Ramón Urías’ 50 lifetime long balls during Spring Training immediately placed Urías, at the time, second on the roster’s career homer leaderboard. Gorman, who entered the year with 74 big league blasts to his name, sat in the perch.
But a lack of ample prior home run history won’t keep this team from hitting them, with an approach that doesn’t necessarily seek them out.
“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.”
