How Albert Pujols is using his final season to mentor a budding St. Louis Cardinals slugger

CHICAGO — Stepping into a major league clubhouse for the first time can be an intimidating experience for any rookie. For Juan Yepez, who joined the St. Louis Cardinals on May 3 after spending the first month of the season in Triple-A Memphis, he was about to join a locker room full of some of the biggest stars in the game. Fortunately, he had a friendly face waiting to greet him as he walked through the visitor's side of Kauffman Stadium ahead of his major league debut a day later — Albert Pujols.

«You look around, there's all these future Hall of Famers we have,» Yepez said earlier this week. «But when I got called up in Kansas City, the first guy who saw me was Albert. He gave me a huge hug, said it was good to have me here.

»That meant the world to me."

Pujols has been many things to the game of baseball: Slugger. MVP. Gold Glove winner. World Series champion. But in his final season, mentor is the role he is embracing more than ever. Even in a leadership-laden Cardinals clubhouse, no one commands more respect than the 22-year MLB veteran. Now, as a part-time player, Pujols has more time to spend working with the team's younger players.

«This role I have is doing whatever I can to help this team out,» Pujols said. «It's about leaving a mark. So many guys did it for me. It's almost like paying that favor forward to these guys.»

Pujols, 42, is the oldest player in the majors. He has more than a decade on most players on the Cardinals' roster (an average age of 29.4 is raised by not just Pujols but 39-year-old Yadier Molina and 40-year-old Adam Wainwright, too).

«We knew bringing him in would help this clubhouse,» Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. «He's super intentional about passing on what winning looks like to