He made diving stops on Jeter and Mark Teixeira in the fifth, throwing out Ichiro Suzuki at second from his knees after Jeter’s grounder.
“It was great. You put it all together, hosting the All-Star game here in the place that you play with the fans and everybody, and a special presence by the president,” Pujols said. “It was almost getting to the point where I got a little bit emotional.”
A nearly hourlong pregame ceremony culminated in the introduction of Cardinals Hall of Famer Stan Musial, followed by Obama.
Wearing sneakers, jeans and a jacket of his home state White Sox, Obama was greeted by cheers mixed with a few boos as he came out of the first-base dugout, shook hands with the 88-year-old Musial and went to the mound.
The lanky president stood on the pitching rubber and threw left-handed from a windup.
Biting his lip, he was determined to reach the plate. And he did with the help of Pujols, who moved up and scooped up the ball as Obama responded with a left-handed fist pump.
Obama became the fourth president to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at an All-Star game, following John F. Kennedy (1962 first game), Richard Nixon (1970) and Gerald Ford (1976 and 1978).
All those games were won by the NL.
With the All-Star game back in St Louis for the first time since the NL won 2-1 in 10 innings across the street at old Busch Stadium in 1966, the AL broke on top 2-0 in the first against Tim Lincecum with the help of an error by Pujols.
Suzuki singled, Jeter was hit on an arm with a pitch and Teixeira hit a one-out bouncer that bounced above the first baseman’s glove and off him. Jeter came around from second on the error, and Josh Hamilton hit a two-out RBI grounder.
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