Pujols returns to Busch Stadium to rousing ovations
ST. LOUIS — As Albert Pujols strolled to the plate for his first at-bat as a visitor at Busch Stadium, Yadier Molina moved from behind the plate and toward the infield grass Friday night. The Cardinals’ legendary catcher turned toward his mentor and let the sellout crowd shower his former teammate with love in the first inning.
Pujols, who compares with Stan Musial among the greatest men to ever wear a Cardinals uniform, took off his red Angels batting helmet. He then turned toward the fans behind the third-base visitors’ dugout and tipped his helmet while rotating to acknowledge the entire sellout crowd and eventually his former team in the home dugout.
“I was pretty close from having a couple of tears,” Pujols said, “especially when I hugged Yadi and we had our little moment to ourselves right there too.”
It had been more than seven years since Pujols was serenaded by the fans who grew to love him as he powered the Cardinals to two World Series titles and nine playoff appearances over the first 11 years of his career.
Some fans initially resented Pujols for leaving St. Louis via free agency to sign with the Angels after he helped the Cardinals win the 2011 World Series. Those feelings softened with each passing year that the schedule failed to bring the Angels to St. Louis for an interleague series.
Any remaining resentment was seemingly gone by the time Pujols returned to face his old team for the start of a three-game interleague series before a sellout crowd of 48,423.
The three-time National League Most Valuable Player and 10-time All-Star drew numerous ovations Friday from the second largest crowd in Busch Stadium III history. He drew “Albert! Albert! Albert!” chants the first time the crowd saw him as he stretched before the pregame player introductions.
The Cardinals honored him with a video tribute highlighting his 11 seasons with the club from 2001 through 2011. He received standing ovations each time he went to the plate. The ovation in the first inning lasted more than a minute.
“This is an incredible moment for me tonight,” Pujols said. “It’s something that I’m going to put right up there with the accomplishment of winning the World Series twice. It was a pretty special night, not only for me but for my wife, my kids to have part of that. All my friends too it’s pretty special.”
The other two ovations when he strolled to the plate were shorter than a minute by only a few seconds. Molina moved from behind the plate again in the fourth and seventh to let the crowd show their love for Pujols as he led off those innings.
“Yeah, I mean we’ve been waiting for many years,” Molina said. “I’m glad that finally he’s here and it happened. He deserves to (get) a big, really big (ovation). You know, I’m going to take a really long time walking to the mound. I’m going to give him his time. It’s going to be the loudest five minutes they’re ever going to hear. It’s going to be loud tonight.”
Pujols led off the seventh with an infield single, drawing a hearty applause after legging out his slow roller to third. He received a final standing ovation after Angels manager Brad Ausmus lifted him for a pinch runner with two on and one out.
Pujols took off his helmet and tipped it at the crowd one last time on his way to the visitors’ dugout.
“I was expecting that,” he said. “I took my time. I can tell you, If it was up to these fans they would have stayed out there for three hours because that’s the appreciation that they have, not only for me but everybody that has worn that uniform.
“It is a special place still for me, and I love it that they’re getting into. Words can’t describe this night. I think this is something that tomorrow and Sunday I’m going to still go through and then maybe in a week from now that’s when it’s really going to sink in with me.”
Pujols addressed the St. Louis media for almost half an hour. He could hardly go anywhere around Busch Stadium without former teammates, club or stadium employees stopping him for a hug.
He was actually late for his press conference, which was scheduled for 4 p.m. inside the media dining room. Molina had slipped quietly into the back of the dining room for an early look at what Cardinals fans had waited to see for almost eight years.
As the clock ticked further past 4 p.m., Molina called his good friend and Facetimed him.
“Hurry up,” Molina said. “I mean, people here were waiting for you and you were there eating. What’s keeping you? Hurry up.”
Molina, 36, laughed heartily as he playfully chastised the former teammate who helped usher him into the majors in 2004.
“The relationship that we have, we are brothers,” Molina said of Pujols. “When you see your brother, (and) you haven’t in this (much) time, I mean, it’s going to be emotional. But, obviously, I hope to take it strongly, but we’ll see what happens.”
That bond was evident in the first inning. After letting the crowd honor his friend, Molina headed back toward the plate.
Pujols tapped Molina’s shin pads with his bat. Then Molina tapped Pujols on his batting helmet with his right hand before wrapping his right arm around his friend’s neck and pulling him in for an embrace at home plate.
“That is more important to me than anything that I have accomplished …, just the impact that those players made on me and that I make on them.” Pujols said. “I remember Yadi’s mom and dad, telling me, ‘I give you my younger son and just treat him like your little brother.’
“That’s how he’s been to me. I can say that’s the same thing that Placido Polanco told me. I can say that’s the same thing with Jimmy (Edmonds) and Mark (McGwire) and Woody (Williams) and Darryl Kile. All those guys told me the right way.”
Pujols spent much of the day remembering the former Cardinals teammates who helped him along the way, whether teammates or Hall of Fame icons such as Bob Gibson and Lou Brock.
He mentioned the lessons he learned on base-running from Brock, who once held the all-time stolen base record. He chuckled when he recalled how the fiery Gibson once told him that in his era he would have thrown at Pujols’ head if Pujols hit a home run.
Pujols reiterated that he came to the Cardinals in 2001 as a “little boy and I left as a really strong and big man like a grown man.”
He credited Edmonds, Polanco, Fernando Viña, Édgar Rentería, Mike Matheny, Larry Walker, and WIlliams with helping to make him the man he had become by the time he joined the Angels.
“And then my little brother who is in this room, Yadier Molina,” he said. “Those memories and accomplishments that you have together are just amazing. That’s something that nobody is going to take that away from you.
“It doesn’t matter if I’m out west playing. Those memories are here, and my goal now is to try to have the same experience that I had here over there. It hasn’t been the best one yet, but hopefully by the time I’m done playing I’m able to bring a championship to the city of Anaheim.”
Featured Image: Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images
Inset image: Jose de Jesus Ortiz/La Vida Baseball