Feature Story /// Cardinals Fantasy Camp


Playing a Game We’ve Never Outgrown


 Story By: Scot Thompson Photography by: St. Louis Cardinals


It seemed Derrick Spicer and I had the same opinion of cocktail receptions.


Find a comfortable chair in the hotel lobby instead. As I made my way around the crowded and festive opening-night gathering at St. Louis Cardinals Fantasy Camp at our Orlando, Flori- da, hotel in January, I felt somewhat out of place.      


   So after circling the room a couple of times, water in hand, I wan- dered out to the hallway and spotted what seemed like a comfort- able chair, separated by a small table from a matching chair occu- pied by a pleasant-looking fella who was quietly taking it all in.   “Derrick,” he answered.


Making good progress, I told him I was from Oklahoma and asked where he called home. 


Realizing a sudden common bond, I told him that I once lived in  news forty years in the past.


46 /// May 2025


Derrick seemed a bit amused, and to my long-ago local TV connec- tion, he let out a slight chuckle and, in that gravelly, comforting voice of   I quickly countered with what al- ways opens lots of doors, and con-  in Mid-Missouri, or in this case, a hotel across the street from Dis- ney World.   “It means I married his sister.”           shortstop Ozzie Smith, came walking past on his way to the recep- tion, and I stood to shake his hand, Derrick cheerfully introduced me   basemen, on the same team at Fantasy Camp, a roster put togeth- er by our manager, former Cardinals shortstop David Eckstein, the


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