By Rob Rains
A day more than 22 years in the making saw Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina together again on Saturday at Busch Stadium, putting on their red jackets as the newest members of the Cardinals Hall of Fame.
A journey they shared since playing their first game together on June 3, 2004, when the Cardinals beat the Pirates 4-2 in Pittsburgh, was capped by the ceremony before Saturday night’s game, where they both were headed for more than two decades.
And for Pujols, being able to come back to St. Louis to end his career after 2022 and retire at the same time as Molina, was more than a dream come true.
He had left as a free agent after winning the World Series in 2011, signing with the Angels. He planned to retire after the 2021 season – until the opportunity came, because of the universal DH, to return to the Cardinals for his final season.
“To be able to share this moment tonight with Yadi, going into the Cardinals Hall of Fame and hopefully in a couple of years going together into Cooperstown, you can’t write a script,” Pujols said at a press conference.
“I’m just blessed and honored to be part of this.”
Pujols shared a story of the first time he met Molina’s father, after Molina had been drafted by the Cardinals.
“His father approached me when I first met him and he told me, ‘This is my young son and I want you to take care of him,’” Pujols said. “That’s what I did. He’s been part of my family for the last 20 years.”
Molina said Pujols took him under his wing when he joined the Cardinals as a rookie, teaching him “how to be a professional between the lines and outside the lines. I’m always going to be grateful for that. He knows I love him.”
It was Molina, and Adam Wainwright, who initiated the conversation that led Pujols back to the Cardinals after being in Anaheim and Los Angeles for 10 seasons.
“I think when things are meant to be they are meant to be,” Pujols said. “I was supposed to retire after 2021 and somehow when the DH came into play, I really had an opportunity to come back here where everything started.
“The first call I received was from Yadi and Waino, saying ‘you need to come and sign’ … It took two months; they brought me here to end my career. The way I ended my career here was pretty special.
“To write a perfect script we only missed winning the World Series. Being part of that team to finish my career with Yadi and Waino was pretty special.”
Molina, speaking before Pujols in the ceremony that also included the induction of Bill Sherdel, who was part of the Cardinals’ first World Championship team in 1926, perhaps pulled off the upset of the day by talking for 30 minutes.
Before he began, Molina called out the Cardinals’ trainer to put eye black under his eyes, then donned a baseball cap backwards and announced, “Now I’m ready.”
During his speech, Molina got emotional at several points talking about Jose Oquendo, Tony LaRussa, Dave Duncan, Wainwright, Pujols and his family.
Thirteen members of the Cardinals’ Hall of Fame, many of whom played with Pujols and Molina, were seated behind the podium for the ceremony.
Pujols talked for just more than 10 minutes, also thanking those who were instrumental in his career as well as his family, and also becoming emotional at times.
During his speech in front of a nearly sold-out crowd, Pujols did not mention his decision to leave St. Louis, or his decision to come back.
During the press conference, however, he did – and suggested that had it been Molina who left, the results of the last decade in St. Louis might have been a lot different.
“The Cardinals maybe could miss me for the 10 years I was gone, but if it would have happened to Yadi, I don’t think this organization would have the success that they had after I left,” Pujols said.
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