It's a bird, it's a burger, it's a… Cardinals hamburger phone? STL players have been spotted picking up a patty prop during recent games. Here's why.
What do Juno, the Derry Girls finale, and the St. Louis Cardinals have in common? A hamburger phone.
The iconic meat-and-cheese prop first popularized by a pregnant teen on-screen has made its way into the dugout of an MLB team. The Cardinals were seen holding a hamburger phone during games as early as May, and it turns out there's a funky reason for why St. Louis pretends to dial a call on a plastic novelty patty.
Cards' Adam Wainwright explained in a radio interview a few months ago that their players are always on the "call," which means the Cards are constantly trying to predict a home run for their batters.
In Busch Stadium, there's apparently a section labeled "Big Mac Land." If a Cardinals player hits a home run into that section, every fan gets a free Big Mac from McDonald's.
Given Wainwright's explanation and the Cardinals' stadium associations, the pieces start to come together: the team uses the hamburger phone to make their "calls" and celebrate homers.
Cardinals burger phone marks new celebration, "Dial A Homer"
The idea for the hamburger phone reportedly came from starting pitcher Miles Mikolas, who along with Alec Burleson bought the hamburger phone on Amazon a few months back.
The phone became a mainstay in the Cardinals' dugout in mid-May, and it happened to coincide with an asteroid shower of homers for a down-bad Cardinals team.
Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch explained the prop in a little more detail:
With the hamburger, an official call is when a player goes up and punches in the jersey number of teammate, sometimes multiple times. And then hits the pound key.
That last button is the chef's kiss.
Burgers are measured in portions of pounds.
Home runs are pounded.
Every player gets one call per game. But if that teammate reaches base, like a successful replay review, then they retain their call. If that teammate homers, bragging rights abound.
This latest burger-calling bit diverges from the Cardinals' past celebrations: there was Lars Nootbaar's pepper grinder prop that was trendy for a while, and there's nothing wrong with a good ol' fashioned handshake.
But St. Louis has since turned up the heat by introducing a corded hamburger phone — sesame seed bun and all — in the dugout. Order up, the Cards are going to need a heaping pile of patties to turn their season around.