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Alexander Emmanuel "Alex" Rodriguez (born July 27, 1975), nicknamed "A-Rod", is an American professional baseball infielder for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played for the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers. Rodriguez was one of the sport's most highly touted prospects and is considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time. During his 20-year career, Rodriguez has amassed a .297 batting average, 687 home runs, over 2000 runs batted in (RBI), and over 3,000 hits. He is a 14-time All-Star and has won three American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) Awards, ten Silver Slugger Awards, and two Gold Glove Awards. Rodríguez is the career record holder for grand slams with 25. However, he has led a highly controversial career due to his lucrative contracts and his use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs. Rodriguez was drafted by the Mariners out of high school as the first overall selection in the 1993 MLB Draft, and he debuted in the major leagues the following year at the age of 18. In 1996, he became the Mariners' starting shortstop and finished second in voting for the AL MVP Award. Rodriguez's combination of power, speed, and defense made him a cornerstone of the franchise, but he left the team via free agency after the 2000 season to join the Texas Rangers; the 10-year, $252 million contract he signed was the richest in baseball history. He played at a high level in his three years with Texas, highlighted by his first AL MVP Award win in 2003, but the team failed to make the playoffs during his tenure. Prior to the 2004 season, Rodriguez was traded to the Yankees, for whom he converted to a third baseman due to incumbent shortstop Derek Jeter. In his first four seasons with New York, he was twice more named AL MVP. After opting out of his contract following the 2007 season, Rodriguez signed a new 10-year, $275 million deal with the Yankees, extending his record for the sport's most lucrative contract. He became the youngest player ever to hit 500 career home runs, reaching the milestone in 2007. He won his first championship in 2009, and the following year, he became the career leader in home runs by a player of Hispanic descent. In recent years, Rodriguez has been hampered by hip and knee injuries. In February 2009, after previously denying use of performance-enhancing drugs, including during a 2007 interview with Katie Couric on ''60 Minutes'', Rodriguez admitted to using steroids, saying he used them from 2001 to 2003 when playing for Rangers due to "an enormous amount of pressure" to perform.〔〔 While recovering from a hip injury in 2013, Rodriguez made headlines by feuding with team management over his rehabilitation and for having allegedly obtained performance-enhancing drugs as part of the Biogenesis baseball scandal. In August 2013, MLB suspended him 211 games for his involvement in the scandal, but he was allowed to play while appealing the punishment. Had the original suspension been upheld, it would have been the longest non-lifetime suspension in Major League Baseball history. After an arbitration hearing, the suspension was reduced to 162 games, keeping him off the field for the entire 2014 season. ==Early life== Rodriguez was born in the Washington Heights section of New York City, to a Dominican family. When he was four, Rodriguez and his parents moved to the Dominican Republic, then to Miami, Florida. Rodriguez's favorite baseball players growing up were Keith Hernandez, Dale Murphy, and Cal Ripken, and his favorite team was the New York Mets. At the end of Alex’s freshman year at Christopher Columbus High School, he transferred to Westminster Christian School (Florida), where he was a star shortstop on the baseball team and played quarterback on the football team.〔 In 100 games he batted .419 with 90 steals. Westminster went on to win the high school national championship in his junior year. He was first team prep All-American as a senior, hitting .505 with 9 home runs, 36 RBIs, and 35 steals in 35 tries in 33 games, and was selected as the USA Baseball Junior Player of the Year and as Gatorade's national baseball student athlete of the year. Rodriguez was the first high school player to ever try out for Team USA in 1993, and was regarded as the top prospect in the country. Rodriguez signed a letter of intent to play baseball for the University of Miami and was also recruited by the university to play quarterback for its football team. Rodriguez turned down Miami's baseball scholarship and never played college baseball, opting instead to sign with the Seattle Mariners after being selected in the first round of the 1993 amateur draft at the age of 17.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=1st Round of the 1993 MLB June Amateur Draft )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alex Rodriguez」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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