[TV static drones]
[bright tone]
- Are you good?
Set.
- Let me see this.
Does the collar look good?
- Put your arm down
so we can see it.
It's so in shadow
that I think--
- Yeah. That's fine.
- It's fine?
- Let's deal with it
off the top.
Are you going to be honest
about the performance-enhancing
drugs?
- I mean, I'll give you
two answers
to the same question.
You tell me which one
you'd rather have.
Well, what happened in the PD
was, you know, it was like,
you know,
what happens in baseball
is like, everybody's doing it.
And, you know,
there was 15 of us,
and they gave me
the longest of the 15.
I mean, but look.
At the end of the day,
I'm a pretty f*cking great
baseball player.
I'm going to appeal it.
Yeah, that's number one.
[laughs]
Number two is like,
yeah, I f*cked up.
I knew the rules. I broke them.
I was a dumbass.
I served the longest suspension
in Major League history,
and
And it sucked,
but I deserved it.
[dramatic music]
- 2-2, last of the 12th.
The 20-year-old
Alex Rodriguez.
[crowd cheering]
Right center.
The ball game is over,
and Rodriguez is the hero.
- There's nothing that I don't
feel comfortable
talking about.
You know, I mean,
there's so much out there,
and I've never really
told my story.
- Sometimes
it's hard to fathom
how young he really is,
but old enough to rank
right at the top
of all Major League shortstops
in batting and homers.
- Swung on hit,
high in the air.
He's done it!
Alex Rodriguez has made
Major League Baseball history.
The youngest player ever
to hit 500 home runs.
- It's been a life
and a career of some highs
and some very dark lows.
- Since he came
to the Yankees,
New York fans have had trouble
warming up
to the enigmatic Rodriguez.
- A number of
respected sportswriters
called you
a "gold-plated phony."
"Pay-Rod in Pinstripes."
They said you upstaged
more World Series games
than you actually played in.
- I don't think
I'm in a position
to give anyone a lesson,
but I do want to share
the mistakes that I've made
openly.
- A-Rod is once again
a lightning rod
for controversy.
- The highest paid player
in the history of baseball
might be one step away
from losing it all.
- There are new
allegations tying Rodriguez
to performance-enhancing
drugs.
- Did you do anything that
they accused you of doing?
- No.
- Nothing?
- Nothing.
I mean, honestly,
I don't fear the ramifications
because it doesn't matter now.
I made the mistake.
I paid the price.
- His actions were
beyond comprehension.
I think 211 games was
a very fair penalty.
♪
- I was suspended
for an entire year.
I lost tens of millions
of dollars.
I was humiliated
with my family,
my brother, my daughters.
So as far as going,
we'll go anywhere.
- Well hit.
He's done it again!
♪
[crowd cheering]
- All right, let's roll sound.
- Rolling.
- Camera. Camera rolling.
- Should I do one of these--
like, you know how
you do these step-ins
and you're like,
"All right, I'm ready."
- Yeah, yeah, you want to?
- Yeah, might as well.
[dramatic music]
♪
[thunder rumbling]
♪
[crowd cheering]
- Swing and a miss.
But Kansas strikes
out the side.
Alex Rodriguez goes out
with a victory.
The final totals in
the 22-year career of A-Rod:
a 295 batting average,
2,086 runs batted in,
3,115 hits, and 696 home runs.
One of the greatest careers
in baseball history,
and it concludes
in pinstripes tonight.
[cheers and applause]
- How do you think
most people view you?
- I mean, I would just say
it's complicated.
Um
I mean, the highs and the lows
are so high and so low.
I think it was hard for people
to truly understand me
and get to know me,
because I was doing
the same thing in real time.
[crowd cheering]
I can't say enough
about these fans.
I've given these fans a lot
of headaches over the years,
and I've disappointed
a lot of people.
But like I've always said,
you don't have to be
defined by your mistakes.
How you come back matters too.
[cheers and applause]
Early on, I was just a kid,
like, in this innocent climb,
and hopeful,
sometimes hopeless, a dreamer.
And I think over time,
I kind of started
losing my way a little bit.
And then I felt like
A-Rod took over.
- Is this Alex or A-Rod
we're talking to right now?
- This is Alex.
[metal clinking]
[indistinct chatter]
- I'd count Alex
as a Hall of Famer.
[cheers and applause]
Truthfully, I know
he had some problems
with the drugs and so forth,
but this guy here didn't
need to do that.
He had all the skill
in the world.
[tense music]
- One thing
you have to get used to
being in
Westminster Christian is
the number of baseball scouts.
At a regular practice,
12 Major League scouts,
most of them here to see
Alex Rodriguez,
possibly the number one pick
in this summer's amateur draft.
- I saw this guy.
He was a grown man already
coming out of high school.
Beautiful swing.
You could tell
he was polished.
He played shortstop so well,
and we had the number one
pick in the draft.
- So we're ready to go
with round one.
First pick goes to Seattle.
- Seattle selects
number 0470, Rodriguez.
- Seattle selection is number
470, Alexander Rodriguez.
Rodriguez, shortstop,
Westminster Christian School,
Miami.
[phone ringing]
[overlapping chatter]
- Go, pick it up, bro.
- Hello?
♪
Uh-huh.
This is Alex.
Seattle.
[cheers and applause]
- When he signed, I knew
he was going to be different.
A Dominican American,
well-spoken,
good looking,
tremendous talent,
tremendous work ethic.
I thought
he was going to just be
the next Magic Johnson
of his sport.
- What are your thoughts?
Number one pick.
- Well, I'm very excited
to be the number one pick.
It's a great honor.
I'm thrilled right now,
and I'm going to enjoy
this day for a very long time.
So I'm very excited,
and we'll see what happens.
It'll be interesting.
- Seattle's a long way
from Miami.
- Yeah, but I mean,
baseball's a business,
and, you know, I can take it.
First pick.
- He was a baby.
He was a little kid.
So having to meet
the expectations
of being Alex Rodriguez,
the number one pick
with all the hype
[crowd shouting]
You--like, you can't fail.
Like, you know, that's a lot
of expectations on a kid.
[crowd cheering]
- This game tonight
almost transcends
anything in baseball
this evening,
because it is the debut
of 18-year-old Alex Rodriguez.
Alex Rodriguez coming out
of Westminster High School
in Miami,
the highest rated high school
prospect in history.
One thing is for sure.
Young Alex Rodriguez
is going to be exposed
to more baseball
in the next couple of weeks
than he has his entire career.
Be interesting to see
how the young man handles it.
- A few months ago,
I was at my high school prom.
A few months before that,
I was playing
in front of 300 people,
and now I'm at Fenway Park.
- First Major League at bat
for Alex Rodriguez.
He's a couple of weeks shy
of his 19th birthday.
- I've never played
in a stadium
that has the second
and third deck, right?
So many people all over,
loud, intimidating.
- Alex Rodriguez.
- I remember my mom,
my brother,
my sister being
up in the stands.
And I'm glad
they were far away,
because my knees were shaking.
- First pick
in the entire draft.
In 1993, swings at his
first Major League pitch.
Cooper made a nice play.
- I remember going up,
you know, telling him,
"Hey, can you tell him,
you know, his family arrived?"
And he came out
for about two minutes,
and you could tell he was,
like, kind of nervous.
It was the first time
he was really going to,
you know, step into
a grown man's world.
- After the game,
my teammates all went out
to a bar to have a drink.
And of course, I couldn't go.
I couldn't go for another
two or three years.
So that was like,
OK, this is different.
- And a number back
toward the mound,
got a chance to be a base hit.
Cooper will have to make
everything perfectly,
and does not.
And there it is,
his first Major League hit.
An infield hit,
chopper right by the mound.
- He was in the big leagues
right away.
- Steal her.
[soft music]
- We knew he was
going to be good.
There was no question.
We didn't know that he would be
as great as it was.
- He's going to be
a Cal Ripken type
prototype shortstop
that can carry
some of the offensive load
also.
And, you know, we're looking
forward to seeing him develop.
- There wasn't
anything he couldn't do
on a baseball field.
Could run,
could hit for power,
could drive in runs.
But at the same time,
he still needed
just a little more maturity.
He was a little insecure.
- The 19th inning now.
You could have won it
in the ninth.
- And if Alex made a mistake,
he'd get down on himself
a little bit.
I used to tell him every day
how good he was.
You go out there and let
your skills go, young man.
You're so good,
it's unbelievable.
- Back hand.
- It was so important for him
to be the best player,
and he loved to please.
- Imagine the shortstop goes
deep, or you play by ear--
how do you do that?
- If you take--
if it's a chopper,
if it's a chopper,
you're going to read it
coming across, right?
But you're going to see
where it's hit
before you see how hard--
- I can tell you this,
that baseball was
definitely my first love.
[siren wailing]
There's nothing like walking
into a baseball field
and seeing all this
beautiful green grass.
There's a romance about it,
and it feels like
infinite possibilities.
- Reggie Jackson has
seen two pitches
in the strike zone tonight,
two, and he's hit them
both in the seats.
[crowd cheering]
- Bye.
- Goodbye.
Oh, what a blow!
What a way to top it off!
Forget about who
the most valuable player is
in the World Series.
- From the time I was born
in New York City,
in Washington Heights,
my early memories
being 1, 2, 3 years old was
watching the Yankees
and the Mets game with my dad.
[upbeat music]
- You're all my dreams ♪
My one ♪
- Every day, Alex would
sit on Victor's lap.
I would sit next to Victor
and watch the game.
- In my heart ♪
- And the Yankees are
winning the World Series.
- You start ♪
- I loved watching
the games with Dad
because I know how
much he loved it.
♪
That's kind of
where it started.
- You I want to share ♪
- Dad was a really good
baseball player.
He probably stopped playing
a level below professional.
He was a catcher,
and these two fingers
right here, the middle fingers
were all twisted.
I remember him telling me,
this happened to me
when I was a catcher.
That's why you always
have to put your hand
behind as a pitcher
just throwing the ball.
Always protect your hand
and always put
your thumb underneath.
And just the first
10 years of my life,
I remember talking baseball
every day with him.
[soft music]
- Victor's passion was Alex.
That was his love
and joy, yeah.
And it wasn't--there was
no doubt about that.
There was so many times that
I would be leaving the house
or coming in,
and Alex would be
in the room
just sharing that time.
Reading the newspaper together,
playing, talking baseball,
talking business.
- All his coaching was
more mental, strategy,
how to think about the game.
He also played chess.
So he was a thinking man.
Poised, quiet,
good with numbers.
And my mom was opposite.
My mom just--
she would just scream at me
and just tell me exactly
what she's feeling.
♪
I always remember
having, like, big dreams
and, like, thinking big
because I just saw the world
through my father's
kind of prism.
♪
We had a great life.
My mother worked
at General Motors,
and my father was
an entrepreneur.
And we had a shoe business
in our apartment
in Washington Heights,
which was just, you know,
a driver and a wedge away
from Yankee Stadium.
♪
But around 1979,
the streets of New York
were kind of getting
a little bit too dangerous.
- There was a lot
of g*ng violence.
Drugs were starting
to become very prevalent.
Guys dealing dope
in the corner, you know,
and we lived on the first
floor, so you see everything.
And so my mother,
she knew that
that's not the environment that
she wanted us to be raised in.
- Oldest city in the new world
is the capital
of the Dominican Republic,
900 miles southeast of Miami,
on the island of Hispaniola.
[dramatic music]
- Both my parents
are immigrants,
so we packed up our bags
and went down
to the Dominican Republic.
And baseball is
like a religion.
♪
To think an island this small
can produce so many
great players,
the passion,
it's hard to explain now.
♪
My dad on Sunday would
take me to Quisqueya,
which in Dominican Republic
is like saying Yankee Stadium.
[crowd cheering]
- If you ever go
to Dominican winter leagues,
you see the passion.
You know, you got
the instruments.
You got people
drinking in the stands,
or people dancing
in the aisles
if they hit a home run.
It was everything.
And then the success of
all the Dominican players
in American baseball.
- Hits it high, hits it
deep to left center field.
- Pedro Guerrero,
Tony Fernández, shortstop.
- Backhanded by Fernandez,
the throw, got him.
- George Bell, left fielder.
They both played
with the Blue Jays.
- [speaking Spanish]
You know what that is?
"You are a terrific
baseball player."
- Yeah, that sound--
sounds kind of Spanish,
but it don't sound the way
it's supposed to, you know.
- It's like saying
Michael Jordan or Tom Brady
here in America, right?
Like, these guys were iconic.
[crowd cheering]
That was around the time
where I said, I have no choice.
I got to be on
that field one day.
- You could see it.
You know, it was like school,
go to practice,
school, go to a game.
He was relentless with it.
- I'll never forget this.
I was seven years old,
and we're playing ball
with my buddies,
and it was getting dark.
And my father pulls up
and he says,
"Hey, Alex,
you and your friends--"
says there's no baseball game.
Do you guys want to go watch
a movie or go get ice cream?
And that was with seven people,
seven of my buddies.
And all six of them
at the same time said, "Yes!"
And I said,
"No, we're--we're playing.
We're not going
to stop playing."
That's when I thought
I was a little different
because the reaction was
so, like, loud and clear,
like, ice cream and movie
over ball.
And I was like,
that's not even a choice.
♪
[indistinct chatter]
- It was six years ago
that a rare 19-year-old
took his place
in the Mariners lineup.
And today, there's
a new kid turning heads
for Seattle, Alex Rodriguez.
- History repeats itself
a little bit
with Junior being here
at 19 years old,
making the club.
That gives me a little bit
of inspiration.
- I met him in '93
when he came up.
Big, strong kid.
Physically, he was there.
I mean, at 18, he was there.
- Well, I know
what he's going through,
being a first round pick,
and being thrown in
the big leagues
at an early age.
And he's handled it real well.
- Oh!
- Oh!
- Oh!
- He's still young.
He's still trying
to figure out who he is.
He's still growing
into that body.
He's still learning.
[laughter]
- All you got to do
is what I did.
- He was fortunate enough
that he didn't have to
be the man of the team.
- Right up the middle.
- No runs on two hits.
And now Griffey takes him
deep, deep, deep,
putting this one
on the scoreboard.
- Just watching Griffey,
it was like
our version of Michael Jordan.
- Right back to the track,
to the fence,
makes a leap,
and makes the catch!
- I would turn around sometimes
and watch this guy,
and some of the ba*ls
he would get to,
and the things he would do
on the baseball field
- Against the wall, jumps up,
and he makes the catch.
- I'd never seen
anyone else do,
and I just marveled at the way
he dealt with the media,
the way he dealt with fans.
- You know, I grew up in
a household where it was,
let other people
talk about you.
You don't need to say anything.
You know, your game will
speak for itself.
- I won't do it.
- Seems like you're doing it,
young buck.
- That was like a masterclass
for me as an 18-year-old,
to have that role model.
- We ain't gotta wait for Jay.
- And we had a great
Mariner culture.
We have three Hall of Famers
on that team.
We have Ken Griffey,
Randy Johnson,
and Edgar Martinez.
And they were all good,
good, good guys.
So it just made
my time in Seattle
a perfect place for me
to develop my skills
without any distractions.
- Let's go, rook.
- Let's go?
- You got to pick them up.
- Oh.
- The thing is, when you
don't have to carry a team
and you're young,
you can have a lot of fun
because there's
no pressure on you.
You can go out there
and relax and play.
- Here is Alex Rodriguez
stepping in
and leading it off
and taking the fastball
from Flash Gordon
for a strike.
Alex trying to jump out
of a little bit of a slump.
He has struggled lately.
0 for his last 16.
- Young players, you got
to teach them the right way.
He swung at real bad pitches
and struck out.
And I said, truthfully, you've
got to learn the strike zone.
You got to get
more disciplined.
- In Baltimore.
So three pitches,
and see you later, Alex.
- They would throw me, like,
split fingers in the dirt,
and I would swing at them
every time.
- Swing and a miss.
Struck him out.
And for the third time,
young Alex Rodriguez
goes down.
- I remember facing
Dennis Eckersley,
Hall of Famer,
and he was playing
in Oakland at the time,
and he would throw me sliders.
They were, like,
these frisbees.
And I've never seen pitches
like this in my life.
And they would, like,
start behind me,
and they would end up,
like, in the dugout.
- Swing and a miss,
strike three, two outs.
- My second year
as a 19-year-old,
I was demoted five times
from Seattle to Tacoma.
And I remember the fourth
time I got sent down,
driving on the highway
back to Tacoma,
just, like, so angry and like,
what am I doing here?
I should be
a sophomore in college,
and I made the wrong decision.
And so I called my mom up.
And of course, like,
2:00 in the morning,
I said, "Mom, all right,
I'm coming home."
And she said, "First of all,
you woke me up.
"Number two,
you're not going anywhere,
because if you come home,
I'm changing the locks."
And she goes, "You toughen up,
and you do
what you have to do."
[tense music]
I'm the luckiest man
in the world
because I have a great mother.
Here's a lady
who took upon two jobs
to support me
and my brothers and sisters.
- He want to play all the time.
- My mom is tough.
My mom is no joke.
She's one of the bravest
people I've ever met.
I remember when
I was 2, 3, 4 years old,
her getting up
at 5:00 in the morning,
jumping on the train,
going to work,
and coming home, you know,
right before dinner.
And she would do that
every day.
Very blue collar,
head down, go to work,
doesn't want much glory,
competitive,
and just impeccable
work ethic.
That made a big impact on me.
So then I said, you know what?
This is not anyone's fault.
I got to play better.
And I remember going home
that off season.
And boy, I went to work.
I had enough experience
to know exactly
what I needed to work on.
And it was just to become
a better situational hitter.
♪
- The secret with baseball
is to always move runners
when you make an out.
And that's what
situational hitting does,
move the runner
from second to third
so he can score
on a sacrifice fly,
hit the ball behind the runner
when your right hand hitter
hit that first base hole.
- All my coaches taught me
that the scoreboard
will tell you how to play,
meaning if you're up 3,
if you're down 3,
all those things will
dictate the next move,
a lot like chess.
- You know, people think
a perfect swing is a home run.
It's not.
The guy throws a pitch low
and away, and you stay inside,
and you stay on top of it,
and you hit it
down the left field line.
That could be a perfect swing.
You know,
that's the mental side.
He just had to learn,
like everybody else,
what to do day in and day out,
how to get better the next day.
- For me, the grass is not
a hard play at all.
It's a short throw.
And I'm coming that way too,
if that makes sense.
- So if the ball is hit
hard low,
always take
a little more of an angle,
because he can come in
still on the chopper.
You don't want it to get
by both of you.
You want to prevent that.
- The thing
I remember the most
is how smart he was
baseball-wise
early in his career.
It takes players
more time to develop
those type of baseball skills.
- Here it is, for the win.
- And truthfully, Alex,
always almost innate in him.
- 57,467,
the third largest
regular season crowd
in the Kingdome's history.
Into the last of the 12th
inning in a 2-2 tie.
And the rookie,
20 years old, Alex Rodriguez,
with a chance to be the hero.
[crowd cheering]
Still a young guy,
but he's big and strong,
and he's shown power
in the minor leagues.
Right center.
The ball game is over,
and Rodriguez is the hero.
[crowd cheering]
- Not that I was running out
of time, because I was 20,
but it was go time.
- And that ball is belted
deep to left field,
and get out the rye bread
and the mustard, Grandma.
It is grand salami time!
It's his third grand slam
home run of the year.
- Third year, you know,
he was like, OK.
He came in different,
and you know,
the rest is history.
- Fly ball deep
to right field by Rodriguez.
Going, going,
goodbye, baseball.
- I didn't take anything
for granted when I came in.
I came in ready to play.
- He won the batting title
his second year
in the Big Leagues.
There wasn't a pitch
he couldn't hit.
- Man, this kid
is unbelievable.
- He was going to win me a game
with a two or three run homer.
- Fastball belted.
My, oh, my!
Alex Rodriguez
with a grand slam home run.
- A lot of players,
when it gets real tight,
they back off a little bit.
Well, Alex was better
when the moment got bigger.
- And that is hit well
into right center field.
See you later.
There it is.
Alex Rodriguez is now
a 40-40 player.
- That was an
unbelievable year.
Probably should have won
the MVP.
- From the Seattle Mariners,
shortstop Alex Rodriguez.
- Now he's really establishing
himself in the All-Star game,
one of the top players
in the league.
[dramatic music]
[crowd cheering]
- Well, great stop by A-Rod,
but I don't think
he's going to get him.
He does get it!
My, oh, my!
What a play by Alex Rodriguez!
- I'll never forget
the great Dave Niehaus
said, "Hey, Alex,
I hope you don't mind.
I called you A-Rod."
It kind of sticks.
It has a sound to it.
- And a line drive.
It's speared by A-Rod.
What a catch by Alex.
[crowd cheering]
- Hot shot backhanded,
deep and short, A-Rod.
Long throw.
Oh, they get Ripken.
♪
- And sure enough, it stuck.
- The pitch swung on
and belted.
Line drive, fly away, A-Rod.
His second home run
of the ball game.
He is on fire.
He is blazing.
Alex Rodriguez with
his eighth home run.
- I see a young man
turning into a star
and not changing much at all.
Good to see, really was.
- At the age of 21,
our next guest has become
the leading hitter
in baseball, Alex Rodriguez.
[cheers and applause]
So what was it like
the first time you came up?
Were you scared?
- Oh, yeah, I was--
- You're scared now,
aren't you?
- Oh, yeah. [laughs]
[laughter]
- I always joke about it,
but I didn't really know A-Rod.
You know?
I knew Alex,
and A-Rod was, like,
a fictitious thing
that people created,
and it was a persona.
It was a personality.
But for me, he was just Alex.
- I met Cynthia
right around when I was 20.
She had just graduated
from Ohio State,
and we met at the gym.
Body and Soul in Coral Gables.
The whole gym was like
the size of this room,
so it was easy for me
to chase her around.
- 2,000 twice.
It's sold right here
for $2,000.
[speaking indistinctly]
[crowd cheering]
All that money going to
the Boys Girls Club of Miami.
Let's give this man
a round of applause.
[cheers and applause]
- Cynthia!
- Bill Russell,
Wilt Chamberlain,
both sides play.
- Hi, Michelle.
- Hi.
- I had no idea who he was.
I didn't follow baseball.
I wasn't into baseball.
I had no clue.
- Cynthia's, like, very aloof.
Michael Jackson can walk in
the room and she's like, what?
What? Who's here?
And I think it's,
like, 50% believable.
The other one,
I think, is her shtick,
but it worked on me anyways.
She was shy
and, like, really smart.
She has a Greek background,
which reminds me
a lot of my Latin background.
It's like family first,
conservative.
- He would approach me
in the gym often,
and he was really interested
in my college life,
I guess because
he didn't have one.
Then after some small talk,
he would always say,
do you want to grab
some dinner?
And we had a great dinner,
and at that dinner, he said,
"You know we're going
to end up getting married."
You know, I thought
he was crazy.
He's like, "Yeah, we're
definitely getting married."
OK.
- I said, you know what?
I'm going to marry you,
and we're going
to have two kids.
But, you know, someday I'm
going to make a lot of money
and you're going to have to
sign a prenuptial agreement.
How does that sound?
She goes, what a c*ck
son of a b*tch.
I can see her.
She didn't say that,
but I can see it.
- Tell us a little bit more
about kind of
your impressions of Alex
as you're first
getting to know him.
Uh
I--I felt sorry for him.
I did.
Um, he was a sweet guy.
Uh, he had a really big heart,
but he was so stunted
when it came to
the natural development
of a person.
He was so entrenched
in baseball.
You know, he was told
that's what he was going to do
for so long,
and it's all he did.
He was, like,
I mean, tunnel vision.
[indistinct chatter]
You know, Alex is
a creature of habit,
and baseball was all he did.
If he wasn't hitting,
he was throwing.
If he wasn't throwing,
he was running.
If he wasn't running,
he was watching videos,
different pitchers, studying.
He was, like, all in.
[tense music]
♪
There was a lot of his life
that he missed
and a lot of stages that
we go through as children
into young adulthood
that mold us and shape us,
and he didn't have
those experiences.
And I could see where
his family kind of
gave him the position
of the head of the family
at a very young age.
And then once he shared more
information about his father,
the picture became more clear.
- Is there one challenge,
or maybe the hardest thing
that you had to go through
in life?
What would you say it was?
- Probably being a young man,
a young boy at 10
when my father left us.
For me, that was a hard time.
Around age eight,
Mom and Dad started having
conversations about
getting back to the US.
[solemn music]
I was excited to come back,
but, you know,
1983 Miami was
a completely different place.
♪
- You know,
when we moved there,
we didn't know
too many people.
We didn't know anybody, really.
And Victor couldn't
find his place,
what he wanted to do.
- I did hear my father
talk about
how much he missed New York.
And I just remember that he was
kind of a little bit in a funk.
- And, you know,
his coping mechanism
was drinking
and smoking cigarettes.
- He would drink these things
like I drink water.
And I just thought
that was normal--
cigarettes, drinking,
watching baseball at night.
That was our day every day.
And then he started
playing, like,
more horses,
gambling than working.
So it was, like, the trifecta.
And he was bored.
♪
- I think
Alex was instinctively
seeing that his dad was
disintegrating
in--emotionally.
♪
- And I just remember
that deterioration,
in hindsight,
kind of why he left.
What I remember was
them telling me,
"Dad's going to take
a trip to New York.
He's going to see
if he can find his way."
But it was framed
as, like, a temporary thing.
I mean, I didn't know
if it was one week or one month
or one year, but never did
I think it was forever.
And for, like,
six months to a year,
I remember almost every night
looking out the window,
thinking, OK,
he's going to pull up.
It's just a matter of time.
♪
And he never showed up.
That was a hell of a blow
to take.
I did not know how we were
going to survive without Dad,
because all I've known
for 10 years
is my dad was
the leader with my mom.
And we needed both incomes
to really survive.
I remember her taking
two jobs,
and then I prayed for time
to slow down a little bit
for my mom,
because I felt, like,
the pressure of every 30 days
coming very quickly.
And that $525 for the rent was
a lot of money for us.
- At this point,
I think Alex is 11,
and now he's, like,
really into baseball.
It was religion.
- My dad left
a very empty home
and a huge vacancy in my life,
and baseball was,
like, my happy place.
[somber music]
My mom was getting older,
and I wanted to, you know,
make a good living
so I can take care of Mom.
♪
So my goal was always
to get a scholarship
to go play baseball
at the University of Miami.
And as I started developing
more and more,
my aspirations started
to go a little higher
than the University of Miami,
a little higher
than just make it
to the minor leagues.
- Alex and two
of his teammates have
already signed
scholarships to Miami,
but the pros want him too.
- On one hand, I was angry that
he never reached out to me.
Being named all-American,
graduating high school,
getting drafted number one.
- Alex, why don't you come up
and say hello to these folks?
And as I said, we're just very
pleased, excited, and thankful.
- But on the other hand,
I was like,
I kind of admired it that
he didn't, you know,
try to jump into my ship
and kind of join the party.
♪
- I could hear, like,
an angst in him,
like a yearning to reconnect.
And I felt that he needed
to have a meeting with his dad.
- At first, it was
kind of like a hard "no."
I didn't want to open up
those wounds again.
And then she started
kind of working me
and telling me why
this could be beneficial,
that I would have regrets
if he passes
and we don't close the loop.
- And he said,
"OK, just arrange it."
So I called his cousin,
who knew where
his dad was living.
- She came back to me and said,
"OK, I found him."
She said, "Don't scream at me.
"How would you feel if
he comes out and visits us
for, like, three or four days?"
And I was like, "First of all,
where did you find him?
"What's he doing?
And does he even want to come?"
He left 14 years ago.
[tense music]
And she says,
"I think this could be good."
And a couple of weeks,
she kind of worked me,
and I finally agreed.
And I said,
"OK, a couple conditions.
"One, it can't be, like,
a primary city
"where you're going to have
a bunch of media and eyeballs,
"because I don't want
any photographs.
"And number two, we have
to stay in a different hotel
"than the team,
because I don't want
"the media asking me
a million questions
in the middle of the season."
She said, "Fine, fine."
So we pick Minnesota.
He flew into Minnesota.
The first day,
Cynthia picks him up,
takes him to, like,
T.J. Maxx or something
and buys him four suits,
because he likes
to wear suits all the time.
- I knew immediately
it was his dad,
because Alex,
he loves his suits,
and he looked like him
in stature.
And I went up to him,
and he held my hand,
and he called me his daughter.
And he was just like--
I don't know.
It was sad.
I thought, wow.
How did this happen?
- We had our room.
He had his room.
And in the middle,
we had a connecting suite
that we can meet,
and then we can go
back to our room.
So as I walked in,
I saw them both there.
And Cynthia's like,
"Oh, here's your dad."
I'm like, "Great.
Hi, Dad. It's been 14 years."
- I was hoping that
they would rekindle,
and that, you know, some
of the old wounds would heal,
and that they would have time
together to share,
and that maybe they lost those
formative years together,
but they could
recapture something now.
- The first two days was
a lot of silence on my part,
and it felt awkward.
And I felt bad for Cynthia
because she was like Judge Judy
in the middle, trying
to, like, make small talk
and, like, a little joke here
and a little joke there.
And I wasn't having it.
- Did he say anything
about having watched you play,
or why he didn't reach out
when you were on
national television?
- No, he didn't make,
like, any excuses.
What he did say was that
he has these big scrapbooks
with all my articles.
But that was pretty much it
as far as--
I'm glad he didn't try
to go down there,
because I wasn't going
to have it anyways.
Like, really, not sure
how I can ever forgive
what he left behind.
So I just made a point to say,
whatever's happened
has happened.
Let's focus on today
and kind of moving forward.
- We're about to get
the series underway
here in Minneapolis
at the Metrodome.
A happy Father's Day
to you all.
There's a young dad
and a little jewel.
So nice to see
the families out here.
- For the next four games,
he went every game.
He sat in the front row,
right behind the dugout.
- Fastball lined into
left field for a base hit,
and that'll load him up.
- And I'll never forget.
It was probably the best
four games of my career.
- And that pitch is lined
into left field by A-Rod.
Double play ball, right there
to A-Rod on the first.
- Well-hit ball,
deep to right field.
Going and going.
Upper deck.
Goodbye, baseball.
Opposite field two-run blast,
off the bat of Alex Rodriguez.
- I mean, I remember
I was in such a zone.
- Right back up the middle.
Base hit, Alex Rodriguez.
- Home run, double,
home run, double.
- Right back up the middle,
right between his legs.
- And it was a lot of emotion.
- Toward the hole,
off the glove of Bell,
picked up by A-Rod,
and he throws him out.
- And I just put on a show
for four days.
It was phenomenal.
- Well, John Olerud
has turned it on.
Fly ball deep
to straightaway center field,
back to the track,
to the wall.
Goodbye, baseball.
- There's a lot
of power behind that,
very strong in his hands.
430 feet away from home plate
is when that ball came down.
- I remember it was,
like, the third game,
and I see them both
clapping up there,
and I look up for a second.
And I'm like, yeah, this is
what you walked away from.
So yeah, f*ck off.
- Number 19
for Alex Rodriguez.
He is 4 for 5 this afternoon.
- Did your teammates know
what was going on?
- Nope, not one of them.
- And the Mariners
roll over the Twins,
a final score of 10-2.
We'll be back with more
from the Metrodome
on this Father's Day Sunday,
right after this timeout.
- Those were
the only four games
that he ever saw me play.
[tense music]
- Of all the free agents
soon to be on the market,
this young man will be
the most coveted,
a guy who's already on his way
to being one of the best
who's ever played.
And he's just in his mid-20s.
♪
- Alex was special because
I'd get together with him
and speak in Spanish
and talk about his childhood.
♪
It goes to show you,
mind over matter.
He still became the person
and the player he became
because he had determination.
- Rodriguez is again
an MVP candidate.
He just missed the honor
in 1996.
- 40-plus home runs
the last three years,
and he also stole 40 bases.
So he is--he is a star.
- This ball is
drilled to deep left.
If it's fair,
it's out of here,
and it hits the screen
along the foul pole
for a Rodriguez home run.
- How crushing would it be,
just devastating,
to lose Alex Rodriguez,
right on the heels
of Ken Griffey Jr.,
and only a few years after
they had to deal
Randy Johnson away?
They'll make every effort
to retain him.
- At that point, I'm 24.
I've been there
parts of seven years.
The breaking up of the team
had already started
a little bit
with Griffey heading out.
I didn't know how much longer
Lou was going to be there.
So then it was a matter
of, like, you know,
what would be the best
decision for my family.
- He has declined comment
on the situation
all season long, which is
probably the best approach.
- Well, two things,
though, Bobby.
He says that he wants
to be on a winner.
And that's what
Seattle is now.
- And I think in my last
at bat, I hit a home run.
- And he drives one
to deep left,
back near the wall, and gone.
Well, if that's
the way he says goodbye,
he does it with some style.
- It was bittersweet,
because we had
a phenomenal year
from start to finish,
and we were two wins away
from going to the World Series.
[crowd cheering]
- A slow roller,
but Martinez doesn't run well.
Jeter, up with it,
starts spreading the news.
New York, New York.
[crowd cheering]
- We tried to get Alex
to stay in Seattle.
We really did.
[somber music]
I've always said
he wouldn't have gotten
in any trouble over there.
We would have watched
over him, you know.
We'd have watched over him.
- It's my pleasure to introduce
to you the newest Texas Ranger,
the man who's going
to build the foundation
to help us achieve our goal
of winning the World Series.
So Alex Rodriguez.
- We offered him, I think,
125 or 130 million.
And the agent said, "We don't
need to talk anymore.
You'll see why tomorrow."
- To his
50-odd player clients,
Scott Boras is a godsend.
But it seems that almost
everyone else in baseball
think he's the worst thing
to happen since the spitball.
- Scott has
a very unique style,
which is, a lot of times,
is all or nothing.
- Don't you know
the oldest story in sport?
It's the greedy agent.
- He was prepping me
for this moment
for almost 10 years.
In 1998, I turned down
$80 million from the Mariners.
In 1999, I turned down
$130 million.
That, to me, was pressure.
I think Scott and I were
thinking
maybe we'd get 150, 175.
I think that was the target.
And then the Texas Rangers
blew me away.
[dramatic music]
When he said 252,
I said, "Come again?"
$252 million.
In the year 2001,
like, that's crazy.
At the time,
the highest sports contract
was half that--Kevin Garnett
with the Minnesota
Timberwolves.
So that just took my life
to a whole different place.
Some good, some not so good.
- Alex, there are a lot
of fans of yours in Seattle
who heard you all
through this process say,
"I'm looking for a winner.
I want to play for a winner,"
and that was your
number one priority.
But then after signing
this record deal you did,
it looks a little bit like
you went to the highest bidder.
How do you respond
to some of those--
- That press conference,
it was less of a celebration
and more of a lot of skepticism
and not necessarily, like,
the happiest day.
Well, you're always going
to have critics.
I mean, I've had good friends
that have signed contracts
and they've been criticized
for being lowballed.
And you're going to get critics
for signing big contracts.
But to tell you the truth,
you know, I'm glad I didn't
have to make a close call.
It was, like, such
a whopper of a contract.
Like, it wasn't just
a baseball story.
It was a national story.
♪
I knew it was going to be big,
but I didn't realize the impact
it would make in sports
and how much anger
it brought to people.
- Are we going to look back
at this deal and say,
that's the deal
that was the beginning
of the end for baseball?
- I became that guy
that represented
what's considered bad
in sports or greed.
- His ego is going to drive
Texas into the ground.
- Sold out.
I think that's what he did.
- Alex Rodriguez makes
his return to Safeco Field.
- I'm going to boo him tonight
because I hate the guy.
[crowd booing]
- I was hoping
he'd stay with us, obviously,
but I don't blame him.
You're a professional player.
- Monopoly money falling
from the upper deck here.
- Although, at that time,
he was making
a lot more than most.
- Swing and a miss,
and down he goes.
And the crowd erupts
at Safeco Field.
- Hurtful at all
because they were throwing
money and stuff like that?
- They were throwing money?
- It was fake money.
- Oh, fake money.
You couldn't run away from it.
I would walk around
the streets and they were
like, "Oh, that's
the 252 guy."
That part made me feel
very uncomfortable.
You know,
I'm almost embarrassed
and ashamed of this contract.
- That type of money
at that age,
you know, people are going
to look at you differently.
- In my early days,
I was the underdog.
I was the kid that couldn't
afford nice spikes
and equipment and bats.
And then once you signed
a big contract,
overnight,
you wake up as Goliath.
- High fly ball
hit deep into right--
- He left to go to Texas,
and he was the man in Texas.
- You're doing a TV show now,
big dog?
- Oh, that's a hit, baby.
- Hey, make sure
you look good for TV.
[laughter]
- The rules had changed and
the expectations had changed,
and that's part
of the territory.
You can't be the highest paid
player in the game
and not think that, you know,
there's going to be
more eyeballs
and more interest.
- Well, there's one that's
going to go out to left,
way back, and gone.
♪
- Felt really early on
that the margin of error
had gotten really small.
Oh, my God.
- A-Rod lifts it
to center field.
Cameron, back,
looking, gone again.
- In Seattle,
I was always, like,
the little brother with
all these veterans around.
And here I was expected
to be that big brother
and the leader.
- Oh, baby, you got
an entourage following you.
- Oh, no.
[laughter]
- Alex driving it, number 300.
- You really don't know
how much pressure
you have on yourself, really,
though, when you're making
$252 million.
- You and I will never know
that kind of pressure.
- Thank you.
- I probably played
my best baseball in Texas.
- Individually, he was great.
The team was horrible.
- A drive
to right center field.
- I played really well
on the field,
but was having a hard time
helping us win.
And I would just get crushed.
Actually, people are very
friendly when they see me.
They just collectively are
mean to me.
As I look back,
I went to Texas
and kind of lost my way
a little bit
and, kind of, A-Rod took over.
[dramatic music]
♪
[tense music]
♪
[bright tone]
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01x01 - Episode 1
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Follows baseball player Alex Rodriguez's journey from talented player to polarizing sports figure.
Follows baseball player Alex Rodriguez's journey from talented player to polarizing sports figure.