St. Louis Cardinals: Reacting to Albert Pujols’ most recent interview

Albert Pujols was recently featured on the show In Depth with Graham Bensinger. What did he have to say about his time with the St. Louis Cardinals?

It’s hard to believe, but it has been over eight years since Albert Pujols last wore a St. Louis Cardinals jersey. Also hard to believe: 2019 is the first year that he is going to be making a return to Busch Stadium. While I think it has been a badly missed opportunity by the MLB schedule makers to wait until now to bring Pujols back to St. Louis, it’s going to be a very emotional weekend when he does come back at the end of June.

Many in St. Louis, myself included, still probably feel a little bit hurt that Pujols left and have never really gotten insight from his point of view about the whole ‘Pujols Saga’ that occurred after the magical 2011 World Series run that ended in him signing a 10 year, $240M deal with the Angels.

Luckily for us, that insight has come out recently in an interview that Pujols did with the show, In Depth with Graham Bensinger.

Pujols invited Bensinger to Angels Spring Training as well as a couple of other events and gave some really great insight into his thinking from back in 2011 and how he views St. Louis to this day. I want to first thank the crew of In Depth with Graham Bensinger for sending us the transcript of this show to be able to share it with our readers. They do a lot of great sports coverage and you can check out their website here.

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As we begin to unpack everything from the interview, I want to first link the YouTube playlist of the entire episode. I am not going to link every bit of the interview we look at, but here is the link for the whole episode that I recommend you check out.

One of the biggest questions that I have always wondered about Pujols leaving was if it was really because the Angels gave him more money, or how those negotiations truly went. When asked about this question, Pujols had this response:

"I’m glad I got this opportunity to clarify, because the fans in St. Louis think that it’s all about the money – that I came to Angels. I’m like, if you do the math, I came to California and I’m going to make less money than if I would’ve stayed with the Cardinals – like because of tax perks and everything."

"“… I got frustrated, and I called Danny and I told him, ‘I’m done, dude’ … The last thing that I – which I would never do for anybody – is getting on my knee and begging them, and that was the last thing that I have, and I wasn’t going to do that. I don’t want to humiliate myself like that.”"

The ‘Danny’ he references is most likely his agent, Dan Lazano, but this was truly a difference maker for me.

He goes on to mention that the Marlins also made him a huge offer, and it wasn’t about that at all. In a move that I can admire, Pujols seemed to have gone to the team that showed him the most respect in that negotiation process. Now it’s not time to point fingers, as the Cardinals likely made the right choice to not sign him back, but it’s nice to know he didn’t only leave for the money.

Continuing on, when asked by Bensinger, “How do you feel about going back to Busch – the home of the Cardinals – for the first time since you left?” as well as what he predicts will happen, Pujols replied:

"I’m excited about going back and playing in front of probably the best city to play this game of baseball – best fans … First pitch I’m going to go deep. (laughs)… No, just playing… It’s hard, but I’m pretty sure there’s going to be some tears. It’s going to be a really emotional weekend… I’m not going to hide anything… You can’t ignore it – the greatness that happened in that stadium. You can’t ignore the success, no matter whether you want to hide it, you cannot. It’s going to come out."

Is it bad that I hope he does go deep first pitch back?

I predict he will not be the only player in tears as I’m sure Yadier Molina, Matt Carpenter and Adam Wainwright-the only players left who played with Pujols-will be very emotional as well as the fans. Speaking of Yadi, Jose Molina (his older brother) was also featured in the interview. Jose was asked, “How hard do you think it was on Yadi when Albert left the Cardinals?” to which he replied:

"Oh, I really can tell you that. That was probably one of the hardest days of his life… It’s like taking your brother away… it just kind of [ripped] a piece of his heart. I remember like it’s today. He was so sad that he wasn’t coming back, kind of put Yadi on another level – like not mad, but kind of disappointed it didn’t work. He thought it was gonna be… Yadi and Albert for life, but it didn’t work that way. But at the same time, Albert teach him a lesson… this is a business that anything can happen and no matter what, you gotta still go out there and do your thing. You gotta perform. So, and that’s exactly what Yadier did."

I don’t really have much to comment on this, but it’s just so wild to know now that Yadi was going through all this and we as fans had no idea. This is a part of the game that is called a business that we rarely get to see. These players obviously get super close and it can be just like a close family member moving away.

The last bite I wanna share from this interview is what Pujols’ answered when asked about the 2005 NLCS game 5 against the Astros. Bensinger asked, “Game five 2005, National League Championship series, ninth inning, playing the Astros. They only need one more out to go to the World Series. Cardinals are down two and you’re up. Take me through what you recall.” He replied:

"… They’re ready to pop champagne. You look at the dugout and there was a couple of players, like… celebrating. And I felt it in my gut, like you know when you feel something that’s you’re going to do something special, or that you’re asking the Lord to put you in the situation and then now you’re feeling it and you are in that situation? There was something in my gut that was telling me, ‘You better be ready. You’re going to hit.’ And I sprint, man, across that diamond and put that glove down, my hat. Boom, boom, boom, grab my batting glove, grab my helmet and sit down. And every time we go to Houston, I sit down in the same spot because it remind me of that moment. And I just sit in there, and I knew man, I knew that I was going to get that at bat. I didn’t know that I was going to do anything special like that – that was [an] extra bonus. But I knew that what I was asking, I was gonna get it."

For those of you who don’t know, here’s the play that is being referenced.

Now truth be told, I was 6 years old when this game was played so I don’t personally remember the play, but there were more times than I can count that I have seen replays of this hit that is generally regarded as one of the longest homers ever hit at Minute Maid Park. While the rest of the 2005 Postseason didn’t go great for the team, this moment in St. Louis Cardinals history was 100% one of Pujols’ best moments of his career.

There are my favorite highlights of the interview that Pujols did with Graham Bensinger and again, I highly recommend going and checking out the whole interview as there is still a ton left that we can’t get into. It was also just great to see and hear Pujols’ big smile and intellect again.

This was a great example that shows us just how little we know as fans into what negotiations and motivations actually are when a player moves on from a team. Albert loves St. Louis. He did when he left. But when a team doesn’t show you the respect or -frankly- the money he thought he deserved, it makes perfect sense that he moved on.

Pujols’ reunion in June will likely have one of the biggest standing ovations that have ever been heard at Busch Stadium III and maybe in the history of the team. I’m fairly certain that there will be tears in the eyes of many on the field and the crowd, and I can’t wait to see him back. Thank you again to the crew at In Depth with Graham Bensinger.