From a Minor League Dream to the Big Leagues

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has spent the better part of his life serving his country as a politician and policymaker, but he might have pursued a career in baseball instead of politics if not for his immigrant father's emphasis on education and belief in the American dream.

ABC's Charles Gibson spoke with Richardson as part of a new series called "Who Is," which features one interview every week with a presidential candidate from now until December, with the focus fixed on their private lives.

For an extended version of Charles Gibson's interview with Gov. Bill Richardson click here.

For Richardson, life began on Nov. 15, 1947. He was born in California after his father, William, who was a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Mexico, decided it would be best for his children to be born in America.

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"[My father] made it a dictum in our family that his firstborn would be born in the United States," Richardson said. "And so, when I was about to be born, he took a train with my mother and myself … and we went to Pasadena, Calif., where he had a sister. And so I was born there, just to be born American."

Richardson was then raised in Mexico City with his father, a bank manager; his mother Maria Luisa Lopez-Collada, a secretary; and a younger sister, Vesta.

Wanted Career in Baseball 'More Than Anything'

Richardson's young life was filled with dreams of baseball. His idol was Mickey Mantle, and he started playing the game while still in Mexico.

When he was 13, Richardson's father sent him to Middlesex School, a private preparatory school in Concord, Mass. The rest of Richardson's family remained in Mexico. It was at boarding school that Richardson first began to feel like a true American.