ST. LOUISâ€”Twenty-one months after Albert Pujols signed with the Angels, his new life in Southern California isn't exactly going according to script.

Pujols has battled injuries and has struggled at the plateâ€”his career slash line with the Cardinals was .328/.420/.671, with the Angels itâ€™s dropped precipitously to .275/.338/.475. Then there was that recently reported clubhouse dust-up with teammate Torii Hunter in 2012. And the Angels, as a team, have been a massive disappointment; they failed to make the playoffs last year and havenâ€™t been a factor in the American League West at all this season.

TWITTER: Card fans on Pujols | WORST CONTRACTS: Where does he rank?

But in St. Louis, the place where Pujols spent 11 seasons building up first-ballot Hall of Fame credentials, itâ€™s a much different story. The Cardinals narrowly missed making the World Series in their first year after Pujols signed his 10-year, $240 million deal with the Angels, and theyâ€™re one of the National Leagueâ€™s best teams again this season.

The ballpark is, as always, full on an almost nightly basis.

Sporting News spent the month of August in the shadow of the Gateway Arch examining the often-complicated relationship between the Cardinals, their fans and their once-upon-a-time beloved superstar.

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Twenty-one months after Pujols signed with the Angels, the slugger hasnâ€™t been entirely scrubbed from Busch Stadium, but heâ€™s not exactly prevalent, either.

Heâ€™s still the occasional subject of a between-innings trivia question.

The main Cardinals team store behind home plate has only one Pujols item remaining, an $899 autographed baseball, and itâ€™s tucked away down in the bottom corner of the main display case. The folks working the smaller merchandise stands across the stadium offer up a good-natured smirk when asked if they have anything Pujols-related for sale.

The Cardinals Authentics store on the outfield concourse has just three items of Pujols merchandise; two posters, and one autographed plaque with a piece of the first-base bag from when he set a major-league record with his 185th assist as a first baseman during the 2009 season. Thatâ€™s been marked down from $99.99 to $49.99.

This is the same store that rather prominently displays a rack of broken Colby Rasmus bats and two pieces of Nick Stavinoha memorabiliaâ€”a blown-up faux baseball card and an oversized nameplate from an autograph session at a charity event. Stavinoha had all of 265 at-bats for the Cardinals during the 2008-10 seasons. The employees working at the Authentics store donâ€™t remember the last time anybody actually asked for Pujols stuff.

Fans still wear Pujols jerseys and t-shirts to Busch Stadium, though itâ€™s a relatively rare occasion to see one that hasnâ€™t been altered in some way; the most common adjustment is to draw dollar sign lines through his No. 5 on the back. Others take it up a notch.





Marti Ashley still has bitter feelings toward Albert Pujols. (Photo by Ryan Fagan/SN)

PHOTO GALLERY: Albert Pujols' St. Louis years

Cardinals fan Marti Ashley showed up to the ballpark for the Cardinalsâ€™ game against the Reds on August 27 with her own version of a Pujols t-shirt, with his name crossed out and three words written on his number: loser, trader (sic) and creep. â€œMy son is a huge Cardinals fan, and he was so broken-hearted when Pujols left,â€ she told Sporting News. â€œHe begged me to put this shirt in the Goodwill bag, but I had to do something with it.â€

During that game, SN asked Cardinals fans on Twitter for their thoughts on Pujols now. Hereâ€™s a sampling of their responses.

Thereâ€™s a video touting the franchiseâ€™s rich history that runs throughout the stadium on a constant loop before gamesâ€”on the massive video board in right field, at every television along the concourse and even in the teamâ€™s clubhouse. The roll call of revered players and their colorful nicknames pop up on the screen in chronological order: Rogers â€œRajahâ€ Hornsby, Joe â€œDuckyâ€ Medwick and Dizzy Dean, to name just a few.

The video rolls through Stan â€œThe Manâ€ Musial and into the modern era. There are just three players mentioned in the 2000sâ€”Scott Rolen, Jason Isringhausen and Matt Morris.

Walk around Busch Stadium and it feels like the man who often said he wanted to be the next Musialâ€”a lifelong Cardinals superstarâ€”has been gone for more than 21 months.

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Twenty-one months after Pujols signed with the Angels, no story about the player and the city he still calls home is complete without venturing away from the diamond.

The Pujols Family Foundation was established in 2005 as a charity focused on helping kids with Down syndromeâ€”Pujols and his wife, Deidre, have a daughter with Down syndromeâ€”and other severe disabilities and illnesses, and they also organize multiple humanitarian mission trips to the Dominican Republic every year.

That hasnâ€™t changed, or even slowed down. The foundation put on more than 60 events in 2011, more than 80 in 2012 and is on pace to exceed 100 events this year, with the vast majority of those happening in St. Louis. (The photos from the annual Autumn Prom last November in St. Louis will melt your heart).

From the very beginning, the goal of the foundation was to focus on the mission of the baseball player, not the baseball player with a mission.

â€œWhether it was free agency or whether it was injury or whether it was retirement, thereâ€™s a lot of ways that Albert could no longer be a Cardinal,â€ Todd Perry, the foundationâ€™s executive director and CEO, told Sporting News in a phone interview. â€œAnd I knew that going into this. So we have made a very deliberate point of building the foundation on the mission and on the work that we do.â€

Albert and Deidre Pujols announce the formation of the Pujols Family Foundation in 2005. (AP Photo)

There was some push-back when Pujols signed with the Angels after the 2011 seasonâ€”a â€œblip,â€ Perry calls itâ€”but the overall response remained overwhelmingly positive.

The foundation held its annual Christmas event at the Chase Park Plaza that year on Dec. 3. Pujols signed with the Angels on Dec. 8, and about a week after that, Perry emailed out a survey to those who attended the Christmas function, asking who would be back for 2012â€™s event.

â€œI was braced. I mean, Iâ€™m listening to the radio and Iâ€™m hearing everybody talk about the things they talk about on the radio,â€ Perry said. â€œIâ€™m thinking weâ€™re probably going to lose 30 percent, maybe 40 percent of the people who came. Out of the 70 tables we sold, there was only one table that said they wouldnâ€™t be back.â€

That validation of their work, their mission, was heart-warming to Perry and the rest of the people who run the charity. In that moment, so soon after Pujols chose to leave the Cardinals and caused so many hurt feelings, those Cardinals fans involved with the foundation were able to separate Pujols the baseball player from Pujols the charitable man.

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Twenty-one months after Pujols signed with the Angels, the only real certainty in the Pujols/St. Louis relationship is that the Cardinals, on the field, are better off without him.

That has nothing to do with his struggles or injury issuesâ€”heâ€™s done for the year with foot problems after 99 gamesâ€”or the Angelsâ€™ failure in the standings. Those things just are icing on the proverbial cake. Even if Pujols had spent 2012 and 2013 matching Miguel Cabrera hit-for-hit, the Cardinals are in a better position now than they would have been had Pujols accepted their final offer, which exceeded $200 million.

Why? Because the Cardinals invested that money wisely.

A few weeks after Pujols left the franchise, the Cardinals agreed to a two-year, $26 million deal with veteran outfielder Carlos Beltran, with the idea that he could help replace some of the power they lost. Heâ€™s exceeded all but the most lofty expectations; in 2012, he had 32 homers and 97 RBIs, then hit .357 with three homers and a 1.154 OPS in the playoffs. This year, he has a .310/.343/.522 slash line to go with 23 homers and 71 RBIs.

Three months after Pujols left, the St. Louis front office locked up catcher Yadier Molina with a five-year, $75 million contract that includes a 2018 mutual option with a reasonable buyout ($2 million). Molina finished fourth in the 2012 MVP voting and is one of the leading candidates for the award again this season. Heâ€™s hitting .327 while maintaining his reputation as the finest defensive catcher in baseball.

Allen Craig has proved an able replacement for Pujols in the Cardinal lineup. (AP Photo)

This spring, the Cardinals gave RBI man Allen Craigâ€”Pujolsâ€™ replacement at first baseâ€”a club-friendly five-year, $31 million deal that runs through his arbitration years and the first year he would have been eligible for free agency. Thereâ€™s a $13 million club option for 2018 that looks like a great deal for the franchise, too. In the two years since Pujols left, Craig has produced a .312/.365/.490 slash line, hit 35 homers, driven in 189 runs and hit an incredible .431 with runners in scoring position.

Less than a month after the Craig deal was finished, the Cardinals signed ace Adam Wainwright to a five-year, $97.5 million extension. Not only is he 15-9 with a 3.14 ERA, five complete games and an MLB-best 6.45 strikeout-to-walk ratio, but heâ€™s the unquestioned leader of the rotation, the one starter capable of replacing Chris Carpenter in that role.

Including option buy-outs, the Cardinals guaranteed a total of $232.5 million to Beltran, Molina, Craig and Wainwright. After the last of those four commitments end in 2018, the Angels will still have to pay Pujols $28 million in 2019, $29 million in 2020 and $30 million in 2021, when heâ€™ll be a 41-year-old designated hitter.

Pujols hasn't had much to cheer about with the Angels. (AP Photo)

Oh, and the 2012 draft pick the Cardinals received from the Angels when Pujols signed? They used that 19th overall pick to select right-hander Michael Wacha, who spent most of 2013 as one of baseballâ€™s top prospects and figures heavily into the Cardinalsâ€™ postseason plans this October. Thatâ€™s icing on the icing.

In the end, the way things have played out could not have gone any better for the Cardinals. Pujolsâ€™ issues in Anaheim provided instant validation to their decision not to match the Angelsâ€™ offerâ€”even though, as mentioned, it would have been the right choice even if he still were a superstarâ€”and theyâ€™ve made exceptional personnel decisions, too.

In a way, Pujolsâ€™s struggles have lessened the level of vitriol initially directed toward the slugger. Heâ€™s become almost a sympathetic figure in St. Louis, the punch line in a cautionary be-careful-what-you-wish-for tale. If and when Pujols and the Angels visit Busch Stadium, he will be given one more standing ovation.

And for at least a moment, it will feel as if almost no time has passed.