ST. LOUIS — When Connor Tobin walked into Busch Stadium, the young Cardinals fan was wearing the jersey of his favorite player, Yadier Molina, but the reason he was most excited was not red birds-related.
"I have cousins that haven't been able to hang out with for a year, so I will be able to go over to their house, see everybody, it'll be really cool," the 13-year-old said.
Tobin is one of the children aged 12 to 15 that is getting a Pfizer vaccine on the first day of eligibility in their age group.
"We're going on a cruise in January, and I wasn't sure if they would let me on the ship," Maxwell Divert said of his decision to get vaccinated Thursday.
"I was really excited because that means that everything can just get back to normal faster," Mario Delpietro said after his vaccination at a BJC clinic.
Delpietro recently lost his grandfather to COVID, and he was one of about a thousand people at the BJC clinic, the majority of patients aged 12-15.
"The ones that you talk to inside are really excited," Dr. David Hunstad said. "We're really excited. This is a step towards getting back to normal, getting our kids back to school, and getting us all back to doing the things we want to do."
Back at Busch, participation comes with a voucher for two free Cardinals tickets, the kind of old-fashioned fun we all missed so much in 2020.
"I hope to go to a Cardinals game with my dad for Father's Day or somewhere around that time," Tobin said.