That consistency of production paid off Tuesday when Pujols joined exclusive company, becoming the sixth player to unanimously win the National League MVP award and the 10th in baseball history to put a third MVP on his résumé.

Pujols received all 32 first-place votes from members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, joining Stan Musial as the only Cardinals to win the award three times.

The current Cardinals were on Pujols' mind as he talked on a conference call about the award and his place in history.

"I always make a joke that I have 10 fingers, and I want to get nine more rings," said Pujols, who sports a World Series championship ring from 2006. "I want (at least) as many as Derek Jeter has so far (five)."

With 15 second-place votes, NL batting champion Hanley Ramirez, a shortstop for the Florida Marlins who received 233 points and is married to Pujols' second cousin, outpointed slugging first basemen Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies (217) and Prince Fielder of the Milwaukee Brewers (203) for second place.

It was a distant second as Pujols garnered the honor for the third time in five years and became the 12th player to be MVP in consecutive seasons. The last was Barry Bonds, who dominated NL voting from 2001 to '04 and was the last to win the award unanimously (2002).

"I'm very humble to receive this award," Pujols said. "You can't do it by yourself. It's up to those guys in front of you and those guys to drive you in. I would say it's a team award."

Pujols, 29, led the majors with 47 home runs, 124 runs scored, .658 slugging percentage and 44 intentional walks. He also led the NL with a .443 on-base percentage, 93 extra-base hits, 374 total bases and 165 runs created.

In just nine seasons in the major leagues, Pujols has already put himself among the elite sluggers in the game.

Only Babe Ruth (1.163), Ted Williams (1.115) and Lou Gehrig (1.079) are ahead of Pujols (1.054) on the career on-base-plus slugging percentage list, which combines a batter's on-base and slugging percentages.

Pujols has 366 career home runs in nine seasons. If he averages 40 a year for the next 10 seasons, he would pass Bonds (762) on the all-time list.

"Hopefully I'll be playing 10, 12, 15 more years," Pujols said. "As long as I can stay healthy and compete."

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NL voting results (First-, second- and third-place votes and total points on a 14-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis):

Contributing: Wire reports

Enlarge By Jeff Roberson, AP Albert Pujols led the majors in home runs (47), slugging percentage (.658), OPS percentage (1.101) and runs scored (124).