How a star -- and 'Noot mania' -- was born

This story was excerpted from John Denton’s Cardinals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ST LOUIS -- Some of the greatest accidental discoveries in history: penicillin, plastic, matches, microwave ovens, Corn Flakes and Vaseline.

One of the greatest accidental discoveries of 2022 and into ‘23 for the Cardinals: Lars Nootbaar and the legend that he has become.

Don’t believe me? Well, you certainly aren’t going to believe the downright bizarre series of events that led to Nootbaar’s unlikely return to the big leagues last season, and ultimately spawned the “Noot mania” that is currently circling the globe after the outfielder’s success in helping Japan win the World Baseball Classic title.

Follow along with me here: Coming off a promising 58-game cameo in 2021, Nootbaar made the Cardinals’ Opening Day roster last season, but he was struggling at 2-for-16 with no extra-base hits by late April. That led to the Cards demoting Nootbaar to Triple-A Memphis.

This, however, is where things got bizarre, and the Cardinals got very fortunate.

On May 21, 2022, former Cards starting centerfielder Harrison Bader was scratched from the starting lineup minutes before a game in Pittsburgh when he experienced dizziness. That led to Dylan Carlson sliding over to play center field, only Carlson strained his left hamstring midway through the game. So desperate for a center fielder that night, the Cards had to use infielder Tommy Edman at the position for a few innings until Bader was cleared to play.

A night later, Bader was back in the St. Louis lineup in Pittsburgh and even homered. Meanwhile, Nootbaar -- somewhat a forgotten man in Cardinals circles after spending 3 1/2 weeks in the Minors -- was approximately 685 miles away in suburban Atlanta as Triple-A Memphis was facing the Gwinnett Stripers. That night, Nootbaar crushed three home runs -- a solo blast in the first, a two-run homer in the third and a grand slam in the fourth -- for a seven-RBI night.

When Carlson’s hamstring injury proved severe enough to necessitate a stint on the 10-day injured list, Nootbaar’s timing proved exquisite. He had positioned himself perfectly to make a return to the Cardinals after that three-homer night in Triple-A and, ultimately, he got the call up to the bigs the next day.

The Southern California native with the magnetic personality and the matching cool confidence went on to smash 14 home runs, 16 doubles and three triples to help spark the Cardinals offense. He also showed off the type of promising analytics -- he was in MLB’s 98th percentile in walk rate, the 90th percentile in exit velocity and the 85th percentile in barrel rate -- to lend hope that his greatness as a big leaguer is just taking off.

That late-season MLB success put Nootbaar on the radar to play for Team Japan in the Classic. Proudly half Japanese because of his mother’s heritage, Nootbaar became an international superstar in Japan where he had fans, kids and even mega-superstar Shohei Ohtani mimic his “pepper grinder” celebration. A quick trip to a Tokyo 7/11 one day turned into an almost hour-long ordeal when Nootbaar got mobbed by Japanese fans wanting a picture or an autograph.

In the end, Nootbaar found himself on the WBC championship podium with Japan. He admitted recently that there are times when he thinks about the odd chain of events that helped him get back to the big leagues where he is now a starting fixture for the Cardinals. One player scratched from the lineup … another player injured … and then, accidentally, a star was born in the form of the infinitely likable Nootbaar.

“Oh yeah, I think about that all the time,” said Nootbaar, who had a single and two walks in the opener before suffering a left thumb injury that landed him on the IL. “I think about how blessed and fortunate I’ve been with my opportunities. Everything that happens, it’s not a coincidence, but I try to look at all the things that led up to it.

“In this game, you have to be ready all the time,” he added. “I try to never take for granted any opportunity.”