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It also will be a day that Major League Baseball will be declaring its independence from some Cardinals and Cubs fans’ desire to watch the rivals play on one of the clubs’ familiar television outlets, as the game that day at Wrigley Field has been whisked off the teams’ television channels.

Instead, it will be exclusively streamed by Apple TV+.

The contest has been added by Apple as part of its season-long schedule of MLB games it streams on Fridays, with no local productions permitted — in the Cardinals’ case, not on FanDuel Sports Network, KMOV (Channel 4) or Matrix Midwest (Channel 32), as part of the fourth season of the MLB-Apple arrangement.

The package is dubbed “Friday Night Baseball,� but in this case, it will be a Friday afternoon matchup as the contest in Chicago is set to begin at 1:20 p.m.

While the Fourth of July move of the Cardinals-Cubs game to the subscription streaming service will go over like a wet bag of firecrackers to some of those teams’ fans who don’t subscribe to Apple TV+, it certainly won’t be the most aggravating Apple-only contest for Redbirds rooters. That came in 2022, when Apple exclusively had the game in which the Cards’ Albert Pujols hit his 700th career home run to become just the fourth major leaguer to do so — after months of buildup and anticipation.

The Cardinals have two other streaming-only games through July. Their June 27 contest in Cleveland is in the Apple package, and their contest there two days later is in Roku’s Sunday lineup.

Free Birds

On the other end of the TV spectrum, the Cardinals have added a handful of over-the-air telecasts to their local broadcast package this season for the first time in 15 years, and that schedule now has been set through July.

Gray Media has a deal with the team to simulcast at least 10 contests that also are shown on FanDuel Sports Network, the club’s pay-television home. That makes those contests also available via “free TV� on KMOV (Channel 4) and/or Matrix Midwest (Channel 32) as well as on more than a dozen other stations in the Midwest.

Five have been carried thus far with there more now set to come, all on Fridays. Also, Fox (KTVI, Channel 2 locally) has one Cardinals game in July in its Saturday night broadcast package. The schedules:

• June 20: 6:15 p.m. vs. Cincinnati, Matrix (32).
• July 11: 7:15 p.m. vs. Atlanta. KMOV (4), Matrix (32).
• July 18: 8:40 p.m. at Arizona, KMOV (4), Matrix (32).
• July 19: 6:15 p.m. at Arizona, KTVI (2).

Football falloff

Last year, the Battlehawks, St. Louis’ entry in the United Football League, lost in the playoff semifinals, but the league nonetheless had awarded its championship game to the city based on its strong support of spring football.

The result was an announced attendance of 27,369 to see Birmingham beat San Antonio 25-0, with 2.1% of the St. Louis market tuning in to the telecast per viewership tracking firm Nielsen. The same situation occurred this month, with the B’hawks losing at home in the league semifinals but the title game nonetheless being played in the Dome at America’s Center. The result was significantly different. Announced attendance tumbled to 14,559 for DC’s 58-34 demolition of Michigan, and the St. Louis TV rating (on ABC, KDNL Channel 30 locally) slid to 0.5% of the market watching.

Local television viewership of the game fell far below a couple other nationally televised events from the area last weekend.

The IndyCar race at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison (on Fox, Channel 2) was seen in 3.1% of the market, according to Nielsen. That far surpassed the rating the NASCAR race at the track last summer did (1.6 rating).

The City SC-Los Angeles Galaxy Major League Soccer contest drew a 1.0 rating (also on Fox/Channel 2).