Albert Pujols began playing baseball when he was three years old while growing up in the Dominican Republic - the home of other great baseball stars like Sammy Sosaand Vladimir Guerrero. He moved to the United States with his father when he was 16 and went to high school in Independence, Missouri. Pujols was a star on his school's baseball team and was awarded a sports scholarship to Maple Woods Community College. His big hitting numbers caught the eyes of scouts with the St. Louis Cardinals who drafted him in 1999. Albert Pujols began his big league career with a bang in 2001 when he set National League rookie records for RBIs, hits and totals bases, and was named Rookie of the Year. Since then, Albert Pujols has been a one-man wrecking crew with his bat and has had some of baseball's best pitchers crying to their mommies like little babies. In 2002, Albert became the first player in Major League Baseball history to hit .300 with 30 home runs, 100 runs scored, and 100 RBIs in each of his first two seasons. He also helped the Cardinals get to the World Series in 2004 and 2005. The slugger was named the National League MVP in 2005 as well. In 2006, Pujols contines to dominate on the field, recently getting his 1,000th hit and becoming the second fastest player in history to reach 18 homeruns in a season - amd he's done all this despite a painful back injury.