The 2026 St. Louis Cardinals TV broadcast team will include a new face: Dani Wexelman joins the squad as a pre- and post-game host and sideline reporter. Wexelman, whose father’s side of the family is Jewish, grew up in St. Louis and is a 2011 journalism school graduate of the University of Missouri at Columbia. She previously worked for SNY in New York and has covered baseball events for ESPN. Wexelman recently offered the Jewish Light insight into her reporting style and how she will tell compelling stories.
How does it feel to come back to your hometown and be part of the Cardinals broadcast team?
It’s literally a thrill of a lifetime. I’m extremely grateful to the Cardinals for allowing me the opportunity. There have been so many people—my mom in particular—supporting my dreams. I wouldn’t be here without the army of friends and family that I have. Dream chasing is tough and you can’t do it if you don’t have a support system that understands what it takes.
How do you prepare for a broadcast before a game or series—do you study stats or look for unique angles?
A lot of my prep is talking to players. Let’s say a high school coach or a college coach impacted them. It’s my job to follow that story so that I can bring it to life and ask good questions to the players. I’m trying to humanize the sport. I want to give access to fans to get to know these guys more and to understand, why did his swing change? How did he work on his defense in the offseason? How did getting married make him a better baseball player?
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St. Louisans are passionate about the Cardinals and follow the team, win or lose. How will that fan interest inform your reporting?
What I’m most excited about is the opportunity to tell stories and to share with these fans unique angles to the game that I think my background will help provide. One of my favorite things about growing up in St. Louis and being immersed in Cardinal nation is how smart everyone is and how much they love the game and appreciate it, which is also why I love the game so much.
This looks to be a transitional year for the Cardinals with a lot of new faces. Does that dynamic offer you more possibilities for interesting reporting opportunities?
Absolutely, I’m coming into an extraordinary situation where the broadcast crew and our producers and directors are some of the best in sports. Combined with a lot of new stories we get to tell and a lot of changes, that in the end will pay off. It’s tough when you have massive reconstruction of the team. It also provides an incredible opportunity to share and teach and open a lot of eyes to things that are going on around the team and build a community, which is really important. This fresh-faced team is eager and hungry to win and compete with the rich history of St. Louis baseball. I think it’s going to be a spectacular broadcast this season.
You played varsity ball in high school. What qualities did you have on the field?
I played second base and I was a really great defender. I covered a lot of ground, and my job was to move the runner over which is an important job in softball. I would say I was a pretty great team player.
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