What you need to know
While watching the World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays in recent weeks, Alex Rodriguez felt a real urge to get back on the field.
“I’m embarrassed to talk about how much money I was paid to play in Game 7,” he recently told PEOPLE. However, despite his sincere love for baseball, he says he has faced a lot of pain throughout his 25 years of playing baseball, and there were times when he considered walking away from it all.
“Towards the end of my career, I was so exhausted just fighting guys. I was away for two weeks and felt so embarrassed and thought, ‘Why keep fighting? Maybe I should just tap out?'” That was my state of mind for a while. ”
Nearly a decade after hanging up his spikes, Rodriguez, 50, has a much different mindset.
Heinz Kruetmeyer/Sports Illustrated (via Getty)
“I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy. And I don’t think this would have been the case if I hadn’t made a few mistakes.”
He reveals the highs and lows of HBO’s new documentary series, Alex vs ARod, released on November 6th.
“I thought it was important to tell my story, the good, the bad, and the ugly,” he says. “Because no one really knew me. And I think the most compelling part of my story is that I flipped out in public. I hope this gives others hope.”
Rodriguez says his mistakes stem from a deep-seated obsession with wanting to be the best. “Maybe there was some sort of over-enthusiasm,” he says.
Raised in the Dominican Republic and later in Miami, he developed an unparalleled perfectionism on the field and was signed by the Seattle Mariners at just 18 years old. Seven years later, he signed with the Texas Rangers in a record-breaking $252 million contract and was traded to the New York Yankees in 2004 in a blockbuster deal.
“The talk was very negative,” he says of being called greedy. Later in his career, he was involved in two different steroid scandals.
“There’s a wide variety of[performance-enhancing drugs],” he says. “But I never messed with anything that was too strong.” After being suspended for 211 games, he unsuccessfully sued MLB and the commissioner, eventually returning to play for the Yankees. Through it all, the press made a fuss, calling him selfish, gleefully glossing over his failings, and putting a magnifying glass on his personal life.
To withstand the glare, he embraced the A-Rod persona. “If I were that guy, I’d just keep crushing it and not worry about the rest,” he says.
Now settled into a career as a popular announcer on FOX Sports and co-owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx, Rodriguez wouldn’t change his past one bit.
“I have no regrets,” he says. “I’m one of the luckiest humans in the world, and if by admitting my mistakes I can help others learn from them, I consider it a job well done.”
