ST. LOUIS — When I caught Caleb Cummings on the phone Saturday, he was at the ballpark — but this time, the renowned shirtless fan was actually in uniform for his own team’s baseball game.

The 20-year-old plays for the Stephen F. Austin club baseball team — the Lumberjacks were in Alton for the National Club Baseball World Series. But on Friday night, the 17 players went to the Cardinals game.

Late in the close game at Busch Stadium, Cummings had an epiphany that ignited the Cardinals fans and the Cardinals players themselves. Soon, they went viral.

“I looked at my buddy and said, ‘What if we go up there to right-field bleachers and start waving our shirts?” Cummings said. “They're like, ‘You know what, that's a good idea.’ We had no intentions of it getting that big — we were just going out there to have fun. We got up there, and we're all standing there, and we're like, ‘Who's gonna do it first?’ ”

A fellow named Bryce Bradford, a mustached young man who looked like Miles Mikolas in a Cards cap, ceremonially removed his shirt.

“He started waving it and going crazy,” Cummings said. “So then it just spread, and then there are a few kids in the section next to us who came to join. And soon, I see people from the ages of like 80 years old to kids doing it. Dads coming over with their kids, running over with their shirts off.”

I’d never seen anything like it at Busch. It was new and organic and fit perfectly with the energy of this super-young Cardinals team — carefree and confident and doing things just a little differently.

The game spilled into extra innings, and the shirtless fans spilled into four right-field sections. Hundreds and hundreds of fans (“tarps off,” Cummings called it, using a term for shirtless fan sections at modern sporting events). They did soccer chants and shouted players’ names. The stadium organist, Dwanye Hilton, played accompanying music. The whole stadium got into it — 26,949 for St. Louis against Kansas City.

“What inspired me to join them was just the loudness and the pride everyone had up there,” said Cards fan Dylan Pelster, who is also 20 and hustled up to the group. “And I feel like players really liked it. You know, it felt amazing being part of that shirtless crew. … Truly energetic and just hype — I really think it was a part of the reason they won. I feel like we were so loud that it distracted the other team.”

Oh yeah, that was the best part. The Cardinals won.

“It didn’t feel real,” Cummings said.

This scrappy bunch took the game on an RBI single by Yohel Pozo — and after the game, the players and manager Oli Marmol praised the shirtless crowd for pumping up the team. The 5-4, 11th-inning, walk-off win put the improbable Cardinals at 26-18 for the year after 44 games — so, more than a fourth of the season. The Cardinals were supposed to be bad. They have one of the lowest payrolls in the National League because the new front office began a rebuild. But a funny thing happened on the way to 2028 — the Cardinals began playing well in 2026.

“Everyone thought this year was going to go horribly, but it’s definitely not,” Pelster said. “Being a Cardinals fan right now is very exciting. I hope they continue to show up and prove all of us wrong.”

I found it exhilarating. I couldn’t stop smiling. I hadn’t left the ballpark feeling like that in a long time. It was just … fun.

We've seen hundreds of games and heard hundreds of loud crowds, but this was a unique situation. There was something special going on. Can it last? I mean, the Cardinals are extremely young, they’re only a plus-3 in run differential and they’re second-to-last in pitchers strikeouts. But they keep finding ways to win. Oh, and Jordan Walker is hitting like Aaron Judge.

As for Cummings and the gang, most of them weren’t Cards fans (they are now, he shared). He said some teammates bought hats that were 50% off at the team store — such as Bradford, who became the face on the group with a postgame viral video interview with Brandon Kiley of 101 ESPN.

“I was out with my family while (my boyfriend) was at the game,” said Amanda De Leon, who is dating Ashton Wilson from the Stephen F. Austin team and made the trip. “And he texted me to turn the game on without telling me why. So we stood and watched the TV and — boom! — there he is with the whole team and a bunch of other guys, shirtless, whipping their shirts around. It was amazing! His mom watched, my parents and I watched. They went viral! I’m super proud of them.”

After the game, Marmol was proud, too. This is the kind of spirit he yearns for at Busch.

And ahead of schedule, Marmol's got his guys playing like they deserve this type of loud crowd.

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