ST. LOUIS — The Cardinals' three game series with the Angels was pretty much 62 straight hours of love for Albert Pujols.
A signature hug at home plate with Yadier Molina, one last home run at Busch Stadium and more ovations than you could count dominated all talk around the series, as it should have.
But while the best player of last decade was getting his long awaited homecoming, the best player of this decade was soaking it all in.
Angels outfielder Mike Trout is unquestionably baseball's best player.
Already a two-time MVP at just 27 years old, Trout has a good chance to end up in the upper echelon of MLB greats when it's all said and done.
This season, he's leading the American League in runs, walks, OBP, SLG and OPS. He's also third in home runs and RBI.
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While St. Louis fans were saluting Pujols, Trout was soaking it all in.
"He (Trout) told me you feel like you're in the playoffs every at-bat and every play," Pujols said after Saturday's game. "I lived that for 11 years here so, I told some of the guys that haven't played in this place that it's pretty special and I'm glad the fans get to enjoy it."
Pujols went out of his way multiple times this weekend to bring up how excited he was for St. Louis fans to finally get an up close look at the best the game has to offer.
"I'm blessed and excited the city of St. Louis is getting to see the best player in the game play here in Busch Stadium," Pujols said of Trout during his Friday press conference. "He's going to get a feeling this weekend about what really baseball fans are. This place is going to be pretty special. He already said he loves the stadium."
The fans showed they were excited to see Trout as well. Before his first at-bat in Friday's game, the crowd gave Trout a pretty rousing round of applause.
Trout's first foray into "baseball heaven" ended in a 5 for 12 line and a series win for the Cardinals.
And between Pujols ovations, fans made some time to marvel at baseball's current comic-book-like superhero.
