Alex Rodriguez Bio

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Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez was born on July 27, 1975, in New York. When he was 4 years old, his parents moved the entire family to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. After a few years, they moved back to the United States and settled in Miami. Alex joined the Boys and Girls Clubs of Miami-Dade when he was 8 years old. While he played baseball occasionally as a very young child, he joined the Club team and began to play year round. While he was on this team, they won three city and two national championships.

Alex attended Westminster Christian School for his last three years of high school. He earned All-American honors his junior and senior years, won the high school national championship his junior year and was considered the top prospect in the nation as a senior, garnering every top honor including All-American and USA Baseball Junior Player of the Year. While Alex signed a letter of intent to play at the University of Miami, he was selected as the No. 1 overall pick in 1993 MLB First-Year Player Draft, and signed with the Seattle Mariners instead.

Alex began his professional baseball career in 1994 and played for the Mariners for seven seasons. He made his MLB debut on July 8, 1994, his first postseason appearance in 1995, and in 1996 had his first full Major League season. Before the end of his contract, Alex would make four All-Star Game appearances, win three Silver Slugger awards, become the third player to have a 40-40 season, win numerous national awards and finish in the top three for the MVP award twice.

Alex became joined the Texas Rangers in 2001 and played there for three years. In that timeframe, Alex would make three All-Star Game appearances, win three Silver Slugger awards, win two Gold Glove awards, win three Hank Aaron awards and his first MVP award. He broke almost every Rangers' hitting record and became the youngest player ever to hit 300 home runs.

On Feb. 16, 2004, Alex was acquired by the New York Yankees in a blockbuster trade with the Rangers. With a new team also came a new uniform number -- No. 13 -- and a new position -- third base. As a Yankee, Alex has made seven All-Star Game appearances, won three Silver Slugger awards, won a Hank Aaron award and two MVP awards. He hit his 500th career home run on Aug. 4, 2007. Alex also achieved his lifelong dream of winning it all. The Yankees beat the Philadelphia Phillies on Nov. 4, 2009, and won their 27th world championship. And since 2009, Alex has continued to reach milestones, including collecting 1,000 hits as a Yankees (only the 39th player to do so), stealing his 300th career base and hitting his 600th home run on Aug. 4, 2010. He is the youngest player ever to reach this plateau and the seventh player overall.

While busy on the field, Alex has found plenty of time to be involved in charitable endeavors as well. He works extensively with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Miami-Dade. He hosts fundraising dinners, Christmas parties and youth baseball clinics and donated nearly $1 million to the Club since 1998. He also partnered with Microsoft in 2004 to provide computers and software to Boys and Girls Clubs across the country: each time he had an RBI, a complete computer with operating software was donated to the club in that city. More than 100 systems were donated that season. In 2009, the Club opened the Alex Rodriguez Education Center, an 8,000 square-foot facility with three classrooms, a computer technology lab and a teen center. Alex made a multi-million dollar donation to the University of Miami in 1993. While the majority of the money was earmarked to renovate Mark Light Field, a perpetual scholarship was endowed for a Dade County high school graduate affiliated with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Florida as well. Alex also works with the Columbia University School of Dentistry's Community DentCare program, which funds mobile dental centers in Washington Heights and the Bronx in New York City. His donation of $250,000 will fund the mobile units for five years. He also donated $250,000 to Bronx Lebanon Hospital. This donation allowed the hospital to complete construction on the new pediatric outpatient unit, aimed at providing quality medical attention for local children who are not covered by insurance.

In addition to these projects, Alex has donated more than $200,000 to the Children's Aid Society of New York, $50,000 to UNICEF, hosted fundraisers for the Ronald McDonald House, funded a Bronx Little League team and regularly makes speaking appearances in Washington Heights and the Bronx. He continues to donate autographed merchandise to charities for auction purposes, appear at youth baseball clinics in the United States and Latin America and hosts children at sporting events who might otherwise not be able to purchase tickets. Alex has written two children's books, with part of the proceeds going to charity, and has donated many of the books to Boys and Girls Clubs across the country.