Editor's note: Just hours after this interview was published, it was reported that Barry Zito was taken off the American League All-Star team in favor of the Yankee's Roger Clemens. The reason given was that he had thrown 106 pitches in an outing the night before. According to the Associated Press, Oakland A's GM Billy Beane explained that, "The best interests of Barry's health and the Oakland A's going forward were better served by having Barry not throw in the game after his performance yesterday." A confused Zito disagreed, stating, "It has nothing to do with me or my physical situation."

By Sam Jemielity

Don't remind Texas Rangers shortstop Alex Rodriguez that Oakland Athletics star pitcher Barry Zito could have ended up in a Rangers uniform. Texas drafted Zito in 1998 in the third round, but Zito decided to stay in school, banking that his knee-buckling curveball, fastball, change-up arsenal would eventually merit first-round status. In 1999, Oakland validated Zito's opinion of himself, selecting the University of Southern California hurler with the ninth pick in the draft. Asked how it felt to know the Rangers could have had Zito, A-Rod once said, "After I throw up, I throw up again."

A-Rod's not alone. Since Zito hit the big leagues three years ago, the 25-year-old lefty sensation has made many hitters sick to their stomachs. In his first season in the bigs, Zito went 7-4 and notched a dramatic 11-1 victory over the Yankees in the Bronx during the playoffs. Zito overcame a rocky 6-7 start in 2001, going an amazing 11-1 with a 1.32 ERA in his last 13 starts. In 2002, he was 23-5, with a 2.75 ERA and took home the Cy Young award. With a $1.1 million salary for 2003, Zito topped Forbes' list of the best bargains among major-league pitchers. So far this season, he is 8-6 with a 3.28 ERA.

But statistics and dollar signs barely tell Zito's story. Off the field, he refuses to behave like a media-conscious automaton and he eschews the banal cliché-spouting tactics of so many pro athletes. When he was in second grade, he was assigned to draw a picture of what he wanted to be, and a clairvoyant Zito scrawled a pitcher and wrote "Making a Million Dollars" across the top. Given his family background, though, crooning would have seemed a more appropriate vocation: His father is a composer and arranger who worked with Nat King Cole, his mother is a former singer in Cole's Merry Young Souls and his sister is an aspiring singer/songwriter. And Zito's own interests are anything but baseball-centric -- he has danced in the Oakland Ballet's performance of The Nutcracker, he surfs, he's played guitar on The Craig Kilborn Show and he practices yoga.

The day after pitching in a heartbreaking 4-3 loss to Minnesota in which he struck out 10, the young phenom sat down with Playboy.com for a wide-ranging interview that touched on sex before games, steroids and image advice from A-Rod.