1. A-Rod (2003) A-Rod Alex Rodriguez was a member of the Texas Rangers when we interviewed him in August of 2003. Always savvy, Alex was well aware of the power of the YES Network, and I think he already had thoughts of being in the media postcareer. He quickly agreed to do the show when asked. To intimate that he foresaw eventually ending up with the Yankees the very next year would be false. How could he have known that Aaron Boone, then the Yankees'' third baseman, would tear up his knee in January of 2004 and clear a road from Texas to the Bronx that might have previously seemed impossible? After Boone''s injury, it was certainly convenient that the Rangers decided to get out from under Rodriguez''s record-breaking contract, which the player had signed three years prior, and that the Yankees were interested in bringing him over and asking him to shift his position from shortstop, where he was a Gold Glove winner, to third, just to the right of Derek Jeter. But that''s how it came down. This interview is fascinating when you consider all that has taken place in the years since.

No one knew that A-Rod would be embroiled in scandal after scandal, eventually serving a shocking full-season suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs. Try to read between the lines of this interview with the young A-Rod for clues of what was to come. When you read his answers, can you picture a man who had it all, lost it, and then ultimately grabbed a shot at redemption and engineered one of the great resurrections in sports history? Many years later I made A-Rod laugh when I dubbed him "Lazarod" for how insanely he''d risen from all of his missteps. But at the time of this interview, he was the golden boy, putting together his third straight amazing season with the Rangers and making more money than any other pro athlete had ever earned. He had it all. Prodigious talent, matinee-idol good looks, and a glittery future that seemed certain to take him to the Hall of Fame. But a funny thing happened on the way to Cooperstown: A-Rod''s incredibly bad judgment almost brought him down to a place from which it seemed impossible to get up. Incredibly, the only bad judgment on Alex''s part back then was what he''d chosen to wear to the show.

Although he knew of CenterStage , he likely didn''t realize that most every guest wore a suit and tie. Alex showed up in jeans and a T-shirt. All these years later he laughs at his sartorial choice. Here is the conversation we had with A-Rod, an hour of mostly sunny optimism that preceded the nightmare his life eventually became. His answers from that day are illuminating when read through the prism of what was to come. The Interview MICHAEL KAY: Alex Rodriguez came from humble beginnings to sit atop the world of baseball. With the rare combination of size, speed, and power, the man they call A-Rod may be the greatest player who ever played the shortstop position. Alex achieved success early with the Seattle Mariners, playing in the shadow of Ken Griffey Jr.

and Randy Johnson. But Alex persevered and emerged as a true star. As one of the youngest and most accomplished free agents in baseball, A-Rod signed the largest contract in sports history with the Texas Rangers, and that''s where he currently plies his trade. Talented, charitable--and well-dressed [ laughter ]--we welcome superstar shortstop Alex Rodriguez to CenterStage . [ Applause ] ALEX RODRIGUEZ: Thank you. MICHAEL KAY: I always feel a little awkward saying this, but Alex Rodriguez playing in Arlington, Texas, is like hanging the Mona Lisa in a garage. And that''s not knocking Texas. I like Texas.

[ Laughs ] But it''s not New York, it''s not LA. ALEX RODRIGUEZ: [ Laughs ] Well, Dallas is a big town, it''s a great town, I''m comfortable there. I love the heat. I love where I am. I love our neighborhood. And the only thing missing in Texas is winning. And I think that''s gonna come shortly. We have an incredible core of young players, as good as anyone, and I think we''ll win.

We still have room for growth. MICHAEL KAY: We''ll get back to that in a moment. Now, you were born in New York, and then you moved to the Dominican Republic. Is that where you learned how to play baseball? ALEX RODRIGUEZ: I think I started here in New York early on. Ever since I was two or three years old I can remember my father having the Yankees games on and even the Mets. And my father had a baseball background. But when I was four, we moved down there, and I started playing with kids that were about two or three years older, so as a young man I was always overmatched. MICHAEL KAY: At what age did you think, "I''m pretty good at this, I can make a living at this"? ALEX RODRIGUEZ: It''s funny, because between the ages of twelve and fourteen [after his family moved to Miami] I quit baseball completely.

I was a big NBA fan, I wanted to be the next Larry Bird or Michael Jordan. But then my mom bought an NBA roster, and she said, "Okay, pick out how many Dominican or Latino players you have in the roster." So I looked for about twenty minutes and I found none. [ Laughs ] So then she pulled out a Major League Baseball roster and she says, "Now do the same." And of course about thirty or thirty-five percent were Latinos, and she said, "Well, there''s your answer. You need to start playing baseball again." MICHAEL KAY: So she actually thought that you could be a professional baseball player? ALEX RODRIGUEZ: Well, she thought because my father almost made it to the big leagues [when he played baseball in the Dominican Republic], she felt my talents were in baseball. MICHAEL KAY: Now, when you were nine, your father left you.

But your mom was the rock. ALEX RODRIGUEZ: [ Pauses, clears throat ] She was a great role model. I remember her leaving for work at six in the morning and coming back at midnight, working hard to support me and my [half] brother and [half] sister. She was a secretary during the day and then she was a waitress at night. It was very tough. I would go right from school to the Boys and Girls Club and stay there until midnight until my mom could pick me up. It was tough, but the Boys and Girls Club was an incredible avenue for me, and that''s why I''m the spokesman for the Boys and Girls Club today. MICHAEL KAY: Now, from what I hear, you were like a rail.

Really skinny. But before you were a junior in high school, you started to lift weights, and eventually you could bench-press three hundred pounds. ALEX RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, which benefited my baseball game. Because I got stronger. I got more confident. I started hitting the ball out of the park. MICHAEL KAY: [With you as the star shortstop, your high school, Westminster Christian School, in Palmetto Bay, a suburb of Miami, wins the high school national championship, you bat .505 as a senior, you''re voted USA Baseball Junior Player of the Year, among other honors.

] You''re the object of every scout''s desire, people are calling you the next Cal Ripken Jr. You''re in high school, and you''re signing autographs. How does a sixteen- and seventeen-year-old kid process all that? ALEX RODRIGUEZ: Obviously it was an exciting time in my life. It was crazy. We had fifteen scouts just kind of hanging around, not in the locker room but the hallways. I just felt that was bizarre. But the most exciting time I''ve ever had in high school was when one of my teachers called me out of class and said, "Hey, Cal Ripken is on the phone in the coach''s office, he wants to talk to you." And he was my all-time favorite player.

So I said, "Yeah, Cal Ripken, right," and the teacher said, "No, it''s for real. And if you don''t hurry up, he might hang up." So I had to run about two hundred yards to my coach''s office, and I almost pulled a hamstring. [ Laughter ] And I got on the phone, and sure enough, it was Cal, and we spoke for about five or ten minutes. MICHAEL KAY: Why did he call you? ALEX RODRIGUEZ: Well, he knew he was my favorite player, and he was just kind of calling me to give me some words of encouragement. Kind of like LeBron James was called by a few NBA guys. It was very nice of him, something that I''ll never forget. MICHAEL KAY: Now, you were going to go to the University of Miami [on a baseball scholarship], but you were the first pick in the 1993 draft by the Mariners, and you end up not going to the university.

But it was a close call, right? ALEX RODRIGUEZ: Well, I wanted to go pro. I felt like with the Mariners, here''s my chance to be in the major leagues, and obviously being the number one pick, you can''t go any higher than that. But my mother was really into me going to the University of Miami--and you know, she''s my mother. So I bought all my textbooks, and I''m walking toward my first class-- MICHAEL KAY: And once you go in the class you can''t be signed for at least three years. ALEX RODRIGUEZ: Right. So it was a very slow walk for me. [ Laughs ] And then one of the Mariners'' scouts, one of the guys who had scouted me locally, caught up to me and said, "Alex, the Mariners brass is here and they want to meet with you one last time." So I called my mom and we go to a nearby hotel, and [finally she came around and] we signed a [three-year] deal for $1.

3 million. MICHAEL KAY: Did you ever regret not going to school? ALEX RODRIGUEZ: Not at all. I figured that $1.3 million would be enough for me to go back to school someday. And I promised my mother I would go back and get my college degree. MICHAEL KAY: How much pressure wa.