Cardinals Caravan Set for January 20!

Peoria, IL - The Peoria Chiefs, St. Louis Cardinals and 1470 WMBD have announced that the 2013 Cardinals Caravan will be held at the Embassy Suites Hotel in East Peoria on Sunday, January 20 at 6:00 p.m. The Caravan will be hosted by 1470 WMBD and tickets for fans are $2.00 and available at the door. Proceeds benefit the Oldtimers Baseball Association.

The attendees were announced on Friday with current Cardinals player Mark Rzepczynski, Shane Robinson, Adron Chambers and Barrett Browning coming to Peoria. The two Cardinals alumni on the Caravan are Jason Simontacchi and former Chiefs star Kerry Robinson. Robinson had one of the greatest seasons in Chiefs history when he hit .359 in 1996 with 14 triples, 158 hits, 50 stolen bases, 47 RBI and 98 runs scored. The batting average and triples are still single-season franchise records and the hits, runs scored and stolen bases are top five marks. Simontacchi pitched at Peoria Chiefs Stadium in 2004 in an April exhibition game against Bradley University while he was rehabbing an injury.

Rzepczynski pitched in 70 games for the Cardinals in 2012 with a 4.24 ERA and a 1-3 record. He struck out 33 in 46 2/3 innings while finishing 14 games. The lefty was acquired by St. Louis in July 2011 in the Colby Rasmus deal and pitched in the MWL for Lansing in 2007. Shane Robinson played in 102 games for the Cardinals in 2012 batting .253 with three homers, eight doubles and 20 runs scored. He played for Quad Cities in the Midwest League in 2006 after a great college career at Florida State. Chambers, another Quad Cities alum (2008), hit .222 in 41 games for St. Louis in 2012 after batting .319 in 96 games for Triple-A Memphis. Browning was new to the Cardinals in 2012 after spending six years in the Angels system, including a MWL stop in Cedar Rapids in 2007. In 2012 he pitched 35 times in Memphis and 22 times in St. Louis logging a total of 61 relief innings.

The doors will open at 5:30 p.m. and the players and coaches will sign autographs before taking questions from fans. In a new autograph policy implemented by the Cardinals, the first 400 kids 15 and under through the door will receive one autograph per player. Cardinals TV broadcaster Rick Horton will emcee the event and introduce all the Cardinals players, coaches and personnel.

Earlier this month the Chiefs unveiled their three new hats for the 2013 season and all three are currently available in the Firehouse Team Store in a variety of fitted sizes. The team store at Peoria Chiefs Stadium is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and fans can also purchase the new hats plus a variety of other Chiefs items online at http://peoriachiefs.milbstore.com.