The ceremony brought out Baseball Hall of Famers Tony La Russa, Bob Gibson, Whitey Herzog, Bruce Sutter, Ozzie Smith and Lou Brock and Cardinals Hall of Famers Chris Carpenter, Mike Shannon and Willie McGee. The ceremony was preceded by a moment of silence for late Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst, who had some connection with everyone on the stage.
The entire process has been a big deal for the family of Brecheen, who played his last game with the Cardinals in 1953 and died in 2004. He won three of the four games for the Cardinals in the 1946 World Series and still is in the top 10 in franchise history in wins (128), ERA (2.