MLB All-Star Albert Pujols Wants to Be Known By More Than His Baseball Career

LOS ANGELES, July 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Baseball All-Star and Los Angeles Angels first baseman Albert Pujols shares about his personal journey from the Dominican Republic to the U.S. major leagues and what personal legacy he hopes to leave beyond baseball in a new short film in partnership with I Am Second, a movement meant to inspire through stories of hope and transformation.  Pujols' short film premiered today on iamsecond.com.

As an international sport superstar, Albert Pujols is often thought of only for his World Series Championships and Most Valuable Player awards. The short film demonstrates Albert as a man devoted to his family and his faith like so many others that are not all-star athletes. In his video, he discusses his love for Deidre and the daughter that came into his life along with her.

Pujols is well known in the sports world and ranked in the top 10 baseball players in three statistical categories through 2012. His consistent batting style and quick defensive abilities make him one of the most respected first basemen in the league. A three-time MLB Player of the Year Award winner, he was voted the most feared hitter in baseball by 30 MLB managers.

But in the new short film, released today by I am Second, Pujols shares how there is more to him than his many baseball accomplishments.

"A friend of mine challenged me about four years ago to ask every guy that gets to first base what the most important thing in their life is," said Pujols. "The response I sometimes get is why I am asking such a question and I tell them it is because there's more to life than this game."

Pujols dreamed of playing baseball from a young age. He grew up in poverty in the Dominican Republic, before his family moved to the United States in 1996. Before long, his dreams began to come true and it seemed baseball would be the focus of his life. But then he met his wife, Deidre.

Deidre's faith and Down syndrome daughter Isabella gave Pujols a new perspective on life. Through his journey raising Isabella as his own, Pujols became a stronger man of faith. It was this that inspired him and his wife to found The Pujols Family Foundation, a non-profit that focuses on aiding families with Down syndrome children, in 2005.

"I don't want people to remember me as just a baseball player," Pujols says in his I Am Second film. "To me, off the field is more important than what I do on the field. Sure, I want to be a great baseball player, but I also wanted to be a Godly daddy and husband, setting an example for my kids. If you would ask me this 20 years ago, I would have told you that I thought it was about me."

Pujols' complete film can be downloaded at http://ditoremayo.com/iamsecondspots or viewed at either http://www.iamsecond.com or http://www.yosoysegundo.com.

About I Am Second/Yo Soy Segundo:
Athletes, actors, models, musicians, pastors, politicians and many more have stepped forward, looked in the camera and proclaimed, "I am Second." But most in the iamsecond.com and yosoysegundo.com movement are ordinary people with stories of hope and transformation. The movement is best represented in communities through partnerships with local non-profits that help meet the needs of the community.

A non-profit launched in Dallas-Fort Worth in 2008, iamsecond.com website and films have reached 25 million people from 219 countries/regions. For more information, visit http://www.iamsecond.com.

Media Contacts:
David Naranjo, RockOrange
305.731.2316,
[email protected] 

SOURCE I Am Second/Yo Soy Segundo