NEW YORK – Alex Rodriguez left New York a child, returned as a celebrity and hopes to leave as a champion.

A-Rod is moving onto the biggest stage in town, Yankee Stadium, where he’s expected to help New York win the World Series for the first time since 2000.

“I’m pretty excited. This is a big, big one,” Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said after commissioner Bud Selig approved the record-setting swap with the Texas Rangers.

“It ranks with when we signed Reggie,” he said, referring to slugger Reggie Jackson, who became a Yankee after the 1976 season.

Rodriguez, the first reigning MVP to be traded, was introduced yesterday at Yankee Stadium, where the sign board outside proclaimed: “A Rod, Welcome to NY.”

Coming up from Florida to attend were manager Joe Torre, who will miss the opening of the team’s spring training camp, and Yankees captain Derek Jeter, who will keep his shortstop job. The 28-year-old Rodriguez, a seven-time All-Star, will shift to third base to fill the hole left when Aaron Boone wrecked a knee last month.

Texas gets second baseman Alfonso Soriano and a minor league player to be named, but it will still have to pay $67 million of the $179 million Rodriguez is owed over the remainder of his deal.

Steinbrenner and Yankees general manager Brian Cashman personally assured Jeter that he would keep his position and that Rodriguez would switch to third – where his only major league experience is one inning during an All-Star game.

“Derek’s response to me was he thinks this is pretty cool,” said Cashman, who also said moving Jeter was “not a consideration whatsoever.”

“You go with the man that brought you to the dance,” he said. “You’re going to stick with him. You don’t mess with success. … There is no issue there – who’s the starting quarterback? We have arguably the best left side of the infield in the history of baseball.”

Fervid Yankees fan and former mayor Rudolph Giuliani couldn’t agree more.

“It’s great for the city. He’s returning home,” he told The Associated Press. “This could be another variation of Maris-Mantle, Jackson-Munson, Gehrig-Ruth.”

Former Yankees third baseman Graig Nettles will work with Rodriguez on the transition to the position. Steinbrenner doesn’t expect controversy over who plays where.

“Jeter is the captain. He’s our leader,” he said.

Rodriguez, signed to a record $252 million, 10-year contract by the Rangers in December 2000, grew tired of Texas after three last-place finishes.

He was born in 1975 in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, not far from where Manny Ramirez grew up, just a few miles from Yankee Stadium. And even though his father, Victor, closed his shoe store and moved the family to the Dominican Republic four years later, his fondness for the city remained.

Rodriguez, whose family moved to Miami in 1983, often talked of watching the ’86 Mets on television, of tuning into “Kiner’s Korner,” their postgame show.

But by Monday night, he was clearly the signed, sealed and just-about-delivered property of the much-dreaded, crosstown-rival Yanks.

The trade leaves the Yankees’ payroll at about $184 million, with reliever Gabe White still unsigned and eligible for arbitration this week. By midafternoon, Major League Baseball’s Web site was selling Rodriguez’s Yankees jersey for $99.99, saying it would be shipped once his uniform number, probably 13, is finalized.

New York has four of baseball’s eight $100 million players, and its opening-day payroll will be six times that of some teams. Yankees president Randy Levine pointed out that the Yankees paid $50 million in revenue sharing last year and another $12 million in luxury taxes.

“There are never any complaints when we write the check for $60 million and that gets distributed,” he said.

Though the Yankees and Rangers finalized the trade Sunday, it needed Selig’s approval because of the amount of the contract Texas is assuming.

“I want to make it abundantly clear to all clubs that I will not allow cash transfers of this magnitude to become the norm.” Selig said. “However, given the unique circumstances, including the size, length and complexity of Mr. Rodriguez’s contract and the quality of the talent moving in both directions, I have decided to approve the transaction.”

Texas owner Tom Hicks initially opposed the trade, but later relented.

“Both of my baseball experts gave me their advice, and it was that we can build a championship team faster by doing this trade today,” he said.