This summer, for the first time since Albert Pujols signed with them, the Angels are coming to St. Louis for a series against the Cardinals.

The return of Pujols is something that has been anticipated for roughly eight years. Pujols spent the first 11 years of his career with the Cardinals, and put up enormous numbers. He hit 445 home runs, hit for a .328 batting average, was named to nine all star games, won two world series, and three MVP’s, including back to back in 2008 and 2009. After the second world series in 2011, Pujols signed a ten year, $240 million deal with the Angels, and since then, the Cardinals have played them twice, both times in Anaheim.

“I hope to go to a game when Pujols returns in June. He might of left here on a sore note, but he did plenty for the Cardinals while he was here, and I would like to honor him for that. I’d also like to see what the team does around the stadium for him that day,”  sophomore Dan Vehige said.

The team has not planned out an official weekend yet, but as they do with any returning players, a lengthy round of applause from the fans can be expected. On top of this, Yadier Molina frequently calls time out for the returning player to get as long of a round of applause as they can. On top of this, with what Pujols did for the city on and off the field, a ceremony before the game would not be out of the question, as well a video playing on the big board prior to the game.  

“I think everyone is making a bigger deal out of this than needed; he left us for more money, which was a low blow,” junior Ethan Seymore said.

Tickets for the weekend are already on sale, and more expensive than any other regular season games. The initial game of the series has tickets starting at $94, but as the weekend goes on, the ticket prices go down, as Sunday’s game tickets start at only $44, which is still more expensive than most starting prices.

On top of Pujols returning to St. Louis that game, Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani make their first trips to St. Louis that weekend as well. Also, the game will be televised on Fox Sports Midwest if you can not attend.