ST. LOUIS – The All-Star Game served as a backdrop to a three-day lovefest for Albert Pujols in his baseball hometown. The Cardinals slugger, almost universally acclaimed as the best hitter in the game, was feted as the king of the game.

It was Pujols who shared the stage with President Barack Obama for the ceremonial first pitch. It was Pujols who stood in line to take a bow with a succession of St. Louis greats: Red Schoendienst, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson Ozzie Smith and Stan “The Man” Musial.

Pujols conceded that the festivities in Busch Stadium were “emotional,” “an unbelievable experience.” He felt honored for the chance to represent his franchise, and spoke over the course of the event like a man who could never imagine playing for another franchise.

“We want to follow those guys (the Cardinals Hall of Famers) that really play the game the right way and represent the organization the right way,” said Pujols. “We want to go that way representing in the right way like they did.”

For Pujols and the Cardinals, the All-Star festivities were a period of joyful celebration. For 29 other clubs, it provided an opportunity to lament the fact that Pujols was not representing their franchise.

In an industry swing-and-miss that offers a reminder of the imperfect -- and incredibly challenging -- science of scouting, Pujols was not taken until the 13th round in the 1999 draft. A total of 401 players were selected before the Cardinals plucked the man who is now considered baseball’s most devastating offensive force.

For one Red Sox scout, in particular, the sight of Pujols wearing a Cardinals cap offered reason for dismay.

“I cry every time I watch him play,” said Ernie Jacobs, a Red Sox area scout in the Midwest. “They say scouts always have a guy or two who they lose. Well, mine happened to me in my first year. We’re talking about a Hall of Fame player here.”

A decade ago, Jacobs -- who still serves as a Sox area scout in several of the Great Plains states now -- was in his first year as a full-time scout for Boston in 1999. He saw Pujols, then known as Jose Pujols, several times, first on a traveling team to Arizona in the summer of ’98 and again when he was with Maple Woods Community College in Kansas City the following spring.

Jacobs was thoroughly enamored of the player. At the time, Pujols was playing shortstop for Maple Woods, where the 19-year-old featured defense that was surprisingly good for someone his size: good hands, an average arm, enough range to permit him to play third, first or left field as a big leaguer.

But the defensive skills were secondary to what Pujols could do with the bat. Jacobs recalls him at the time featuring light-tower power, earning an elite grade for that tool of 65-70 on the scouting scale that runs from 20-80. Pujols’ strength and frame were unusually mature for a 19-year-old. It didn’t take too much dreaming to imagine him as an impact bat in a major-league lineup.
 
“I loved the kid. I thought the kid was going to be a middle-of-the-lineup hitter, a Tony Perez-type hitter, an RBI machine,” said Jacobs. “Offensively, the biggest thing that jumped out at you was his power. He had big-time raw power and his swing at the time was a little bit long, but it was something you felt like he could shorten up. With the power he had, he showed the offensive skills as a potential middle-of-the-lineup type bat.”
 
That is not to say that Pujols was without flaws at the time. Because his strength so vastly exceeded that of typical 19-year-olds, scouts -- fairly or not -- had at least some curiosity about the slugger’s true age. In addition to a bit of length to his swing, Pujols’ plate discipline and pitch recognition were not what they are now. And Jacobs recalled that Pujols’ conditioning at the time lagged behind his strength.

All the same, there was a sense that Pujols was the type of player who was driven to address any deficiencies.

“One of the things I really liked about Albert -- back then, it was Jose Pujols -- Albert demonstrated that he had this desire,” said Jacobs. “He really showed me that he had the makeup I was looking for, that he was a player who would give it his all to reach the major leagues.”
 
To be sure, Jacobs was not alone in his enthusiasm for Pujols, a fact that the Sox scout readily acknowledges. He recalls at least three other scouts who graded Pujols more highly than he did. One -- Fernando Arango -- turned in a first-round report on the player to the Rays. When Tampa Bay didn’t take him, Arango became so dismayed that he quit the organization and took time off from scouting.

“Fernando,” said Jacobs, “was right on him.”

Even so, the fact that other organizations did not act on glowing scouting reports about Pujols serves as little consolation to Jacobs now, particularly given how tantalizingly close the organization was to selecting him. The team discussed taking Pujols in the 10th round of the 1999 draft, but ultimately, decided to go a different direction.

The team took Brian Wiese in the 10th round, followed by Kregg Jarvais in the 11th and eventual big-leaguer Lew Ford in the 12th.

But while acquiring a major-league player in the 12th round would ordinarily represent a draft success story, this one comes with an asterisk. The Sox did not revisit the question of whether to take Pujols after the 10th round, and the Cards swooped in and grabbed him in the 13th round, eventually signing him to a $60,000 bonus that seems like pocket change in retrospect.

And now, the St. Louis star is nine years into a major-league career that has seen him hit .334 with a 1.057 OPS (fourth-best in baseball history) while averaging 43 homers and 130 RBIs per 162 games. He has won the Rookie of the Year award and two MVPs, while finishing in the top-five in MVP voting in all but one of his big-league seasons. He has established himself as one of the greats in St. Louis -- and indeed, major-league -- history.

And the rest of the baseball world is left to ponder how the superstar slipped through its grasp. Such is the frustration and challenge of scouting.

Players who project to have superstar talent struggle to achieve it, whether because of injuries, makeup issues or the transformative power of money. Others come from obscurity and achieve things beyond anyone’s expectations. And sometimes, a player about whom a scout feels strongly remains on the board as one round after another passes.

Pujols, of course, falls into the latter category. As such, Jacobs cannot help but play the what-if game, dreaming of what Pujols might have been while making his home at Fenway Park.
 
“That’s a ballpark that he might just knock the wall down on,” Jacobs sighed. “I would have loved to sign Albert. I would have loved to have had him, not just because of all the baseball skills but because he’s shown what kind of human being he is. He’s a quality individual. Overall, his character and makeup were outstanding. He was the kind of guy I’d want my name on and I’d want in our organization. It just didn’t work out.”