Sheen, Richards Prepare for Parenthood

Oct. 3 -- Thwack! … thwack! … thwack! …

Watch Chris Connelly's full interview tonight on 20/20 at 10 p.m.

With his smooth, left-handed swing, Charlie Sheen can hit a baseball with the authority of one who's spent a lifetime loving the game. Sheen knows that in baseball even the best hitters fail more than they succeed — but the game, like life, offers second chances.

Now when he takes his cuts at the plate, as he did on a brilliant afternoon in Central Park, Sheen says he can savor the sweet taste of professional and personal redemption. "I feel like I'm living somebody else' s life, you know?" he says. "It's the life I've always dreamed of."

It can be hard to imagine this healthy and vibrant 37-year-old Charlie Sheen as the same man who descended into a haze of drink, drugs, and dissipation — and who came close to becoming another sad statistic in Hollywood's litany of lost promise. As he says, "I went as low as a guy can go and still have a heartbeat."

Love at First Sight

But after facing up to his addictions, without losing his sense of humor, this Hollywood player really is safe at home, thanks to a revivified career and his stunning spouse, actress Denise Richards, now pregnant with the couple's first child.