Three Cardinals discuss their baseball heroes

By Jordan Palmer
Cardinal Nation Producer

(Cardinal Nation)-- I'll bet that most kids growing up in Cardinal Nation had an on field hero they idolized and cheered for.

You could probably go back to the days of Dizzy Dean and the "Gas House Gang," and see how each generation of Cardinal Nation had that one player many called their favorite.

In the 40's and 50's most kids wanted to be like Stan "The Man" Musial."

Kids from the sixties had Bob Gibson.

In the seventies - Lou Brock was everyone's hero.

And in the 80s and 90's - well, who didn't want be Ozzie Smith or Mark McGwire.

Since 2001 - Albert Pujols and perhaps more recently Yadier Molina have captured the hearts of Cardinal Nation youth. And now with the possibility that Matt Holliday and Mark DeRosa could be here a while, the list keeps on growing.

But do baseball players have idols too? We wanted to know.

"The entire Braves' starters. Yeah. Particularly Steve Avery and Smoltz and Glavine, and Maddox," said Cards starting pitcher Adam Wainwright.

"But Steve Avery was my guy. When he was coming up that was the heart of the Braves, worst to first years and the fans were tomahawk chopping. He was my guy."

No Dale Murphy?

"Well, no, Dale Murphy was my original. He was in the baby blue days when the Braves weren't that good. What I remember most was the year and months they started getting good."

"Well there's a couple," said Cards second baseman Skip Schumaker. "Mark McGwire. I knew I wasn't going to be like him, but I had a lot fun watching him play. I was from California; he was in Oakland hitting all those home runs, he and Canseco so it was a lot fun watching those guys."

"But I really liked Ozzie Smith. I was a shortstop in high school. I tried my best to imitate him, obviously it didn't work too well, but I had the most fun watching him."

"I grew up probably wishing I could pitch like Nolan Ryan," said Cards pitcher Kyle Lohse. "I think a lot of pitchers did at my age. You look at a guy like that who could dominate for as long as he did with the stuff that he had and then you realize I don't throw as hard as he does, better figure out a different way to get outs."

"And that was guy I watched growing up," said Lohse.