February 2002 on a freezing day, from Saint Louis University's baseball field, while filming a straight baseball instructional video with Bing Devine. Creator Steve Church, called Cardinals President Mark Lamping, walked in his office 20 mins later, and the series was conceptualized (inspired by the Baseball Bunch) Lamping greenlit Church to produce for the 2003 season. Short list to host included Ozzie Smith, Andy Benes, Chuck Finely, Mark McGwire, Al Hrabosky.
At time series was in development Cardinals had a traveling school program featuring Al Hrabosky and team mascot Fredbird, this inspired some of the scenes and character development between Fredbird and the host.
Series creator Church left as show runner to Los Angeles. Cardinals president Mark Lamping connected Church & MLB to develop a new baseball kids series with John Goodman, Ed Goren and FOX Sports.
Principal filming at Busch Stadium took place while the Cardinals were on the road. Series creator, Steve Church wrote an episode where Cardinals mascot Fredbird, decided to own and run his own summer day camp, 4 bus loads of kids arrived from YMCA day camp, and "took over Busch Stadium", this included an actual stadium tour, wiffle ball, and a pizza party. Cardinals President Mark Lamping made a cameo to retrieve his keys from Fredbird and have him removed from the stadium.