Cardinals Give Retiring Adam Wainwright One Final At-Bat After Pitcher Went Deep During BP

Adam Wainwright went up to the plate Friday night and gave it everything he had for the last time in his 18-year Major League Baseball career.

Throughout the past week, St. Louis Cardinals manager Oli Marmol had been joking with reporters about possibly having Wainwright - who is a starting pitcher - pinch hit during this weekend's final games. However, with the Cardinals facing the Cincinnati Reds who are in playoff contention, Marmol didn't want to try and show them up.

That was of course until the Cardinals trailed 14-2 in the sixth inning last night.

That's when Marmol chuckled and screamed out Wainwright's name and told him to get a bat and helmet because he was going into the game.

CARDINALS DID A VERY COOL MOVE

The Cardinals Busch Stadium hometown crowd that still remained despite the blowout score gave Wainwright an unbelievable applause as the Cards' faithful wanted to say thank you to their pitcher who gave his entire 18-year career to the team.

Wainwright was revered by Cards fans. I mean heck, the guy sang the National Anthem to kick off this season! Who does that?!

As Wainwright stood in the batter's box and the first pitch came in he gave it EVERYTHING he got. I'm talking swinging for the fences, and rightfully so after hitting a home run earlier in the night during batting practice!

Unfortunately Wainwright also swung at the second pitch where he ended up grounding out before then getting a final standing ovation from the Cardinals fans.

It's the perfect ending for the 3x All-Star pitcher's career. Two weeks ago he pitched his final game by throwing seven scoreless innings and securing his 200th career victory. He's also a World Series Champion.

Perhaps most importantly is that he did something that many athletes these days don't do. He stayed with one single organization throughout his entire professional career. My dad used to tell me about the New York Islanders winning four Stanley Cups in a row - that would never happen today because of the way sports economics is. Between salary caps, trades, players wanting more money, it's rare that you see a player stay in one single city throughout his career.

But Adam Wainwright did.

So you damn right he deserved to pinch hit and go up there one last time in front of the Cardinals home crowd.