July 13, 2022 • 30 mins
Alex Rodriguez, one of the greatest baseball players of all times, has transitioned into a powerful hustler in the investment world. Learn how A-Rod starts his morning, and listen as I get personal with him about his dating life, his beautiful family, and his growing empire. I even scored a date with him!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Who are you dating these days? Uh yeah, let's not
talk about me. This is about you. This is all
about a rock. This is a rock. First of all,
I want to thank a Rod for joining me today.
He's a very busy man. He is one of the
(00:20):
busiest entrepreneurs around and he has so many things going on.
But do you have time to watch every single Yankee game? Oh?
I wish, I wish. Did you watch last night? I
did not. Do you know the score? Oh? You don't
even know? The thing is Martha's like now, with my
(00:41):
acquisition of the Minnesota timboo of the NBA team, I
can only watch so many things. Bandwidth is only so much.
And last night I had a two hour dinner with
both of my daughters and we just laughed our ass
off and that's my focus. Well that's good, But I
would guess that. I mean, I went out to a
restaurant where they have a big TV so I could
(01:02):
be up to date on all the statistics of the Yankees.
So I guess it was for naught since you're not
even watching now. When you were a Yankee and active Yankee,
I still consider you Yankee. I think everybody does. Were
you as good as they are this year or better. Well,
I mean, look, I think we were all over the place.
I mean I think oh nine was the best year.
(01:23):
We won the World Championship, the twenty seventh title in
Major League history for the for the Yankees. And there
was some years that we struggled, but for the most
part we were always pretty good. And Eric Judge hit
his league leading eleventh home run last night. Aaron Judge
is one. I think Aaron Judge maybe my favorite player
in the majors today. And there's a can I tell
(01:44):
you why? Yeah? But first of all, like he's this
like great, big, handsome, great face of Major League Baseball.
He's six ft seven two and eighty pounds, has a
vertical of like thirty inches. He could have played football
at Stanford and Notre Dame team and chose to play baseball.
And now he's the face of the Yankees. He's the
(02:06):
best player in the Yankee roster. And as you said,
now they have the best record in Major League Baseball,
but close second or at least equal, is the Mets. Yes,
now you tried with j Low to buy the Mets.
What happened, Well, we came in second, So I say
(02:27):
we were the the second winner, and uh we ran
into a bus off. I mean with a guy like
Steve Cohen, who was one of the wealthiest people around
in the world. He's a long time Mets fan and
he won fair and square and he's doing an incredible
job with that franchise. And it's good for baseball to
(02:51):
have wealthy owners who are extremely passionate and are deploying
tons of capital into our game. You're right, it's very
exciting to see New York with two strong, strong teams again,
because it was kind of boring we didn't have the
World Series here for a while. Well, let me tell you,
this could be a rematch of the two thousand Subway Series,
(03:12):
which will be incredible. You'll be there. I will, And
when I cover the postseason every year is hard for
me because I have to keep it kind of like
Switzerland and just be nutrient stuff. But it's hard when
the Yankees are playing. I you know, Big Poppy goes
for the Red Sox, and of course I go for
the Yankees. Well, the last time I saw you was
earlier this year at the Super Bowl weekend. You were
(03:33):
at Shutters having breakfast and we just said a quick hello,
and you seem to be enjoying yourself. How is life?
We have to ask the question, how is life after
j Lo? You know, Martha, thank goodness, no regrets. Life
is good. I'm very fortunate. I wake up every morning
and thank the Good Lord for my health, for my
(03:55):
beautiful daughters who are now seventeen and fourteen. That is
my number one focus and life. You know, my father
left me and my mother and my two siblings when
I was just ten years old, and I remember as
a young man praying and saying, you know, dear Lord,
if if you ever give me an opportunity to be
a father, uh, that's gonna be my number one responsibility
(04:19):
in life. And it's been the greatest gift. I'm very
lucky to have a great co parent in Cynthia. She's
one of my dear friends. She's a wonderful human being.
She has a master's psychology. I paid for that degree
because Martha I knew early on when we were married
that we needed a psychologist full time in house and
for me. So she's great. We have a great time
(04:42):
co parenting Natasha and Ella. And what do the girls do? What?
What grades are they in? So I have a junior
and an eighth grader. Natasha is starting to look at colleges.
Her top three schools right now are Michigan, in which
we visited twice, Yale, and Princeton. So you know, it's
hard to get into these colleges. So um, you know,
we have our fingers crossed and we have other options
(05:04):
as well. Is she an athlete? I mean, Michigan is
such an athletic school. She is an athlete. She's athletic,
but her whole mission is to follow Broadway into one
day being Broadway in New York. To be a dancer,
a singer, a producer. And both Michigan and Yale have
great drama departments and that's why I go to the
two O three. Oh great, Well that is so so great.
(05:27):
And what about your younger daughter? My younger daughter, it's
a little bit more of a hybrid. She likes the dancing,
but she's really into producing, and she's really savvy when
it comes to business, and she's really interested in the Timberwolves.
I think one day she looks at Jennie Buss as
someone who could potentially run the Timberwolves. So she has
(05:49):
great ambitions and sports, entertainment and dancing. Wow, pretty fantastic.
I advise you to spend a lot of time with
them and teach them all you know, because you know
a lot from the age of seventeen. So you do
not go to college. I guess right out of high
school you got a big contract to go and play
(06:11):
shortstop for whom I was drafted number one one in
nineteen nine out of Westminster Christian here in Miami, Florida.
I was signed by the Seattle Mariners for one point
three five million dollars, which felt like a billion dollars,
(06:31):
especially when you grew up with very little. It was
my mother and my brother and my sister right here
in Miami. We shared a small apartment and then a
small house, and off I went. That started my twenty
five year career. And here we are. What are you six?
Six now? Oh gosh, yes, but let's not say that
six And he's had a twenty five year career in baseball. Guys,
(06:57):
you're not old. Forty six is young. You're odd. Come on,
thank you, thank you. You look amazing. Are you in
the best physical shape you've ever been in? And look
talking about amazing? I read your New York Times article.
You look amazing. Thank you. You get better with age,
like like a fine wine. The I'm in great shape,
(07:17):
you know. I actually altered um my schedule a little bit,
and I'll share with you. I've told my office that
I don't want to look at my phone before noon.
And the reason why is I was getting so consumed
before nine am that I didn't have any time for myself.
So now I get up, I have my coffee. The
(07:38):
girls woke me up this morning. They go to school.
I go to the gym. Then I try to get
in the sauna, a little steam, a little meditation, and
then my first meeting is right here on this desk,
usually at twelve thirty in person or zoom and uh.
It's brought so much more balance to my life. And
one thing that I learned is that you can only
(07:58):
make two or three decisions per day that are really
good and solid. The many you start going too wide
and shallow. I'd rather go narrow. Indeed, well, how broad
is your office staff? I mean do you have do
you have other people that bounce off ideas? How do
you organize your office? I mean, if you look at
our organization between real estate, private equity, and adventure, we
(08:19):
have over five dred people spread all over the country
and all over the world, but our management team, which
sits between Miami, New York and l A is probably
uh about Well, that's a sizable company. Can you go public?
My wish is never to go public, although we have
(08:41):
you know, a number of companies, well over thirty companies
in our portfolio, in which the past few years we've
taken about six or seven of them public, but not
a Rod Corp. Which is our parent company here. It's
just amazing in a short period of time. Since what
year did you leave the Yankees? I left in August
of two thousand and sixteen. My last game was a
(09:01):
Yankee Stadium on August twelve, and it was one of
the the saddest and also happiest days of my life
because my mother was there, my two daughters were there,
and friends and family from all over the world who
followed me and supported me over a twenty five year career,
and I was able to retire in the bright lights
(09:22):
of the greatest stadium in the world for the greatest
franchise in the world, and the fans gave me a nice, beautiful,
loving exit and a nice standing ovation. I remember I
remember I watched that game, thank you, and we were
sad that you were leaving baseball. But boy, you must
be happy that you have come out on top with
such an amazing stable of companies with so many diverse interests.
(09:45):
What made you invest in basketball? Yeah, you know, it's
a good question, Martha. Ever since I was ten years old,
I've always wanted to be involved in in business and baseball.
I never thought that basketball would be such an integral
part of my adult life. You mentioned the Mets when Mark, Lorie, Jennifer,
(10:06):
and Vinny Viola Micropolio, we had an incredible group of
people that we're gonna buy it together. We learned a
great deal. The process was almost a year long. We
had great, great best people at the table with us,
and it was a great educational process. And what we
realized is that baseball is not just a sport, but
it's a media and entertainment platform, whereas an octopus of
(10:27):
opportunities that runs three And if you thought baseball was
the only part, it was a big mistake because ultimately
you're basically entertaining your consumer base, and you want to
do that over and over, just like you do. Martha,
you've done so well for decades. When we looked at it,
we came up short. The team traded for about two
point four billion dollars, and we were obviously very sad
(10:50):
and a little depressed when we didn't get the team.
A few months later, here comes the Timberwoel's opportunity. We
were like a fine tune machine. We really knew where
all the levers were in baseball, and we were very
well versed, and when the opportunity came, we said, oh,
my goodness, it's a great league, has tremendous tail winds,
is a global sport, tremendous leadership with Adam Silver and
(11:13):
Mark Tatum, and the value it's a billion dollars less
for a billion five So Martha, Mark Lourie and I
with Glenn Taylor and Becky Taylor, who are partners. They've
owned a franchise for almost thirty years. They're born and
raised Minnesota folks, fantastic human beings. Within six or seven days,
(11:34):
we got the deal done basically in the back of
the envelope, and then we agreed, shook hands, and then
we went to long form and signed a deal like
six weeks later. Wow, that is so you know, unimaginable really,
but Minnesota. Do you like going to Minnesota? I do,
and you with too, Martha. It is a great, great town.
First of all, I love the Summer's best because it
(11:54):
has ten thousand lakes. Is is the city of lakes
and the state of lakes with over ten thousand of them.
A lot of people don't know this, but the l
A Lakers started in Minnesota, and Lakers is for lakes.
So they started in Minnesota and then went to l A.
Oh that's interesting, right, and then the Timberwolves came and
(12:14):
is a wonderful city, has got great people. There's a
great saying that people from Minnesota never leave and the
few that leave always come back. Is the ninth wealthiest
city in the country. You have eighteen of Fortune companies
that reside right there in Minneapolis. And uh, it's a
city of champions that is starving for a world champion.
(12:36):
So do you think that Timberwolves are going to go
to someplace else follow the Lakers? Great question, No, I
don't think so. I think Mark and I are are
really committed to Minneapolis. We love the franchise. Last year, Martha,
you appreciate this, we only had twenty three wins. There
is our first year of ownership. We had forty six wins.
(12:57):
This year we had about seven team sellouts and TV
ratings were up about fift Well, that's what you're talking about,
entertainment and your ownership. I'm sure increased the interest in
those in the teams so much that people are watching
and coming and rooting for those Timberwolds. It's really great.
(13:17):
Thank you. Yeah, we'll have good luck with that. Thank you.
Do you think the stress and the challenges of being
a pro athlete, I mean that they're intense, really made
you a really better businessman. Look, I think with business
(13:42):
just like sports, and you know this, Like they consider
you and I pretty hard working people, but we love
what we do and you can't fake it right. Like
I love being at my desk. I love being with
our team here because I love business so much, and
I'm a student at hard like you. I like to
read everything, understand anything. I understand what I know really well,
(14:04):
but more importantly, I know what I don't know, and
I surround myself with talent that's top tea and complementary
to my set of skills. Um, But I think what
what baseball helped me the most is Twofold Number one
is a game of failure. If you fail seventy percent
of the time, you end up in Cooperstown at the
Hall of Fame. Now there's no other business in the
(14:27):
world that you fail seventy and you end up in
the highest form, which is the Hall of Fame. That's one.
So I'm used to failing. I'm used to getting back
up and being resilient and gritty and rolling up my sleeves.
The second part that I think has been very beneficial
is people think that like you and I work hard,
and they say, well, Alex, how are you able to travel?
And you come to the office every day. But this
(14:48):
is nothing compared to my Yankee schedule. We played two
hundred games in two hundred and thirty two days, and
those thirty two days are not just days off. Half
those days you're flying across the country, landing in the
middle of the night, and having to play the next day.
So there's nothing that I do here at Ara Corp.
As a leader, chairman, and founder and CEO of this
(15:10):
company that will ever compare to the grueling schedule of
being a Yankee. I did not know that that's the
schedule was that intense. Well, I remember when I visited
your house in Miami. You had the most amazing gym
into your inside gym there. What do you have now
at home? I have a similar gym, more cardio equipment.
I try to do a lot of stretching. I like
(15:32):
to mix it up and in everything that I do.
I am doing a little CrossFit, I do a little
hot yoga, I do some running. I play a little
pick a ball. Oh yeah, fickle Ball's fun. Don't you
think it's like half court basketball? I like that. That's
kind of my thing, you know, Yeah, that sounds like fun. Well,
let's get off sports a little bit and into your
ability to attract and also to respect strong women. You
(15:56):
describe your mom as a real hard worker. Tell us
a little bit about your mother. Yeah, my mom was,
you know, born in Dominican, spent a long time in
UH the New York City. Bought my family here to
New York where I was born in n I worked
for General Mortars for many, many years, and then we
UH ended up making the move to Miami when my
(16:17):
father left at the age of ten. She ended up
taking on two jobs and responsibility inheriting the responsibility of
being a mother and a father, and she did an
incredible job inspired me ended up being a secretary of
the morning. She served tables at night. And you know,
my brother and my sister, Joe and Susie, they kind
(16:38):
of became like the secretary of sports and my sister
became like the secretary of education. And my mom just
kept the lights on for us, and uh and off
we went. And then you have also dated really fabulous women.
I mean every single woman that you appeared within the
tabloids was a fabulous actress or performer or were you
(17:00):
always just attracted? You just wanted the most beautiful women
in the world on your arm. Let me take get
a little coffee on that one, nick, Do we have
any vodka this early in the morning. Who was your
first serious girlfriend? Oh, that's a great question, My goodness,
going down memory lane, you know, I would say my
(17:21):
first one, which was my junior year in high school,
was Amanda Kelly, a really nice young woman who was
Irish and was really nice and uh, kind of was
with me a little bit. And when all these scouts
started showing up and scouting me and all of that,
and I would say that, um, you know Cynthia, who
(17:42):
is um my ex wife and one of my great
dear best friends in the world today. What age did
you get married? I got married around twenty eight. Oh
so you you had a good ten years after signing
your contract to meet women, go out with a lot
of different women, and your rise to fame in baseball.
And I spent almost thirteen years with Cynthia, were married
(18:03):
for five. But you know today we're better friends today
than we've ever been in them I'm really really proud
of that because the most important thing in both of
our lives is the well being of raising two strong,
self esteem young women. Well you're long time relationship with
j Lo. I mean I've I've met j Loo several times.
(18:24):
She's an extraordinary woman, extraordinarily talented. And you were on
the front pages of every single newspaper, tabloid, every TV
entertainment show constantly for how many years? How many years
did you actually live and go out with j Lo?
About four years? And was it exhilarating? I mean, I'm
(18:47):
sure it was exhilarating. You looked exhilarated in every single picture.
You never look bored. I didn't see one picture where
you ever look bored. I'm not listen. I never feel
bored in anything that I do in life. I wake
up every day and I feel just so grateful for
everything that I do. But look, we had a great time.
(19:07):
More importantly, we we always put the kids front and
center and everything we do. But you mixed up to
families really well. I thought it was she has what
three kids? Two? We had two and two two and
two kids are doing well. Here's what I will tell
you about Jennifer. And I was selling some of my
colleagues here the end of the day. Um, she's the
(19:27):
most talented human being I've ever been around, hardest worker,
and I think she is the greatest performer, live performer
in the world today that's alive. And I think many
people would agree with you. It's incredible what she does.
So I when I saw you in California, didn't look
(19:48):
like you were with anybody. Are you dating anybody now
that you can talk about. I'm actually just spending a
lot of a lot of time with my girls, trying
to be at home home, travel a little bit less,
and putting a lot of my energy with Mark Laurie
and my partner into the Timberwolves and I'll tell you this, Martha,
(20:09):
I've never been healthier, happier, and more grateful for this
incredible life that you know, the Good Lord has given me.
And to live in the greatest country in the world.
I mean, you look what's happening in Russia and the Ukraine. Uh,
this awful pandemic that we've all had to live with,
and all the pain in the world and in this country.
(20:31):
And I just feel like I wake up every day
and think the Good Lord that A I'm healthy and
be that I'm an American and the greatest country in
the world. What about your philanthropic interests. Yeah, so you know,
I got some good advice from my mentor, Warren Buffett,
and one of the things you talked to me about was,
you know, do what you do really well, which is
it is based on basketball and business. Do that and
(20:55):
be focused and then let other people who are great
at what they do do that. So I've picked two organizations.
One is the Boys and Girls Club, where I entered
as a nine year old boy here in Miami. I
sit on the board today and we've done a lot
of work and resources donated there. And then the University
of Miami, which growing up here in Miami, we didn't
(21:16):
have Theami. The Marlins in the University of Miami was
everything to any kid that grew up here. So I
built out the field there and it's called Mark Light
Stadium Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Lake Stadium. And UH
still very involved, almost twenty years on the board there,
do a lot of work with a business school there today.
(21:43):
In two thousand and thirteen, you had your contract worth
more than a hundred million dollars, a World Series ring,
and you were considered one of the very, very very
best in your sport. After years of speculation from the
public and denials on your part, you admitted to using
performance enhancing drugs. That's an old story now, But what
(22:05):
was it that finally induced you to just come straight?
You know, one day, I know you've earned about nine books.
I would love to maybe write a book with you
one day, because I think one day, when I'm a
little older, I'll be able to kind of write a
book and tell my story kind of from start to finish.
I'm starting to work on a business book now. I'm
getting a lot of inquiries about you know, business sports,
(22:27):
and I think there's a lot of great lessons between
you know, sports and business. But going back to the
suspension year, you know, I thought it was really really
important to take full accountability for everything. You know, the
details really weren't important, It wasn't I thought it was
really important to just say, look, I'm guilty, I did it.
(22:47):
Let me serve my suspension, let me get my head down.
At that time, I had an opportunity to turn the
lens inward started therapy. That therapy hasn't stopped, has been
now over eight years. And like I always tell people,
I'm rounding second base and I've got a lot more
work to do. Um And you know, through this therapy, Martha,
(23:08):
you realize that I'm a flawed human being, and that
a lot of the mistakes, you know, go all the
way back to when I was a child and when
Dad left it at your ten for whatever reason, you
think it's your fault. You sometimes think you're not enough.
And I think one of the things that's been the
biggest paradigm shift in my life is that today I
(23:30):
know that I'm enough. That is great, and you're strong
and you are honest with yourself and uh, and that's
what you have to be. So a stumble is a stumble,
but getting up and carrying on and exceeding in other
fields is just an amazing feat. And you're that strong
man that everybody looks up to now and that's the
(23:52):
best result of anything like that, right, Yes, you know
it's it's interesting people say, like, you know, do you
have these regrets and this and that? In many ways? Um,
if you have a career that just as sends and
goes straight up to the right, I don't think there's
a lot of lessons to learn there. I think, um,
(24:12):
I do not believe that you can make lemonade out
of lemons. So I just I just can't stand and
that whatever bad happens, it makes you a better person.
I don't go for that. Do you go for that? No?
But I do think that when you fall, the gift
isn't standing back up, and the gift isn't sharing what attributes,
(24:32):
what it takes, what determination, work, ethic, grit, dark days
to be able to come back and keep fighting and
not giving up. Because I've thought about giving up. I
think we've all been in that dark room with you
say can I do it? And the the answer as
you've got them right, you can do it. You gotta
get up, and you gotta believe in yourself and start
(24:54):
with one person at a time, and that person is yourself.
But what I like about you you went into a
totally different area and have succeeded amazingly. Well. You went
into business in a big, big way and have succeeded
so beautifully, and that's extremely admirable. A rod really and
I always say that a rebuilding is harder than building,
(25:16):
and you didn't have to really rebuild. You just went
straight ahead and built something new, and that is fabulous.
You know, if you think about Thank you, Martha, if
you think about pat Riley talks about the capital stack
in Succeeding right and how success looks like. And the
first part of that capital stack is the upstart, which
(25:37):
is the innocent climb, and then he goes into competing,
and then he goes into winning, and then championships and
then dynasty, and every single one of those levels has
a covenants which the higher you get up in that
capital stack, it gets harder and harder, and when you
finally get to the top, as you know, it's very
lonely at the top. So as you get up in
(25:58):
that scale, it is much harder, to your point, to
stay there, and it's very hard to rebuild it is.
It's really hard. Well, you and your co host Michael
kay Um read mean tweets on your show. I love
that you read those mean tweets. I try not to
read my mean tweets just because they either make me
(26:20):
laugh or I just want to, you know, answer them,
and you can't ever answer them. But reading them out
loud is fantastic. And people do seem to have a
real visceral reaction to you. You attract the good and
the bad as I do. I mean, if I say
anything anything political, boy do I get it. So people
(26:40):
either love you or hate you. How do you feel? Well?
I feel loved and uh, I feel like I'm in
a good place. You know. I think the scariest thing, Martha,
and I think you and I have not been this
type of person where you walk in the room and
there's no reaction. You walk in the room and people
are gonna look and everyone's gonna have an opinion in
in many ways, I feel like I'm the same way.
(27:03):
And I don't see that as a bad thing. I
see that as a as a blessing. All you can
do is the best version of yourself. And some people
are gonna like you and some people are not. And
that's okay. I think when I was younger, you were
so concerned whether people like you or not that it
consumed you. You know, eight years of therapy and kind
of getting a little bit older, you realize that, hey,
you're not gonna win them all. Now. I wanted to ask,
(27:25):
and I think it was two thousand and eighteen. I
had a really nervous, good thrill. And when I had
to throw out the first pitch at the Yankees game
that you know that I they asked me to do that,
and I got a coach and they showed me how
to throw a baseball. I stood on the mound. I
should have moved a little bit closer to home play
(27:47):
because that's a long distance. So I didn't quite make
the ball to home plate, but I did throw in
a straight line, and it could have been a strike
if I got if I got over home plate. But well,
you nervous, Oh, of course I was nervous. And and
and that stadium that what do you think of the
new Yankee Stadium? By the way, I love it look good.
I do too. It's a really nice stadium, but I
(28:09):
was so nervous. What was your greatest thrill at Yankee Stadium?
I mean, that's an easy one, right because A is
definitely Game six of the two thousand and nine World Series,
forty five thousand people going crazy, Marianna Vera, the greatest
closure of all times at the rubber victory, no hitting
(28:31):
for the Phillies, groundbot Acano to tick share and the
Yankees are world champions for the time, and you think
about it every day. Once you're a world champion in
New York, you're a champion for life. And there's not
a day that goes by that. I walk around New
York City where somebody says, you know, firefighter or policeman
(28:51):
or just come, and folk in the street says, hey,
thank you for two thousand and nine and looks been
the last championship we've had there, and uh, one championship
in over twenty two years. Well, we look forward to
seeing what else you do with your amazing life, Airod,
and we really thank you very much for talking to
us this morning, and uh we wish you well and
(29:11):
every single one of your endeavors. And I can't wait
to see what the Timberwolves get to do this year
and next year, and with you behind them, I cannot
imagine that they're not going to do really, really well.
You are a great life coach. You are really well
spoken human being, and you really know what you're talking about.
And I thank you so much. You are great, and
(29:34):
I hope to see you soon. And I make one
invitation to you before I go. Often go from New
York to Minnesota back to New York in the same night.
I would love for you to stay with me on
the floor at Minnesota and then I'll bring you back
to New York and let's do that. Let's do that.
I would love that. Okay, thank you great, it's a date.
Bye bye, no
Who are you dating these days? Uh yeah, let's not
talk about me. This is about you. This is all
about a rock. This is a rock. First of all,
I want to thank a Rod for joining me today.
He's a very busy man. He is one of the
(00:20):
busiest entrepreneurs around and he has so many things going on.
But do you have time to watch every single Yankee game? Oh?
I wish, I wish. Did you watch last night? I
did not. Do you know the score? Oh? You don't
even know? The thing is Martha's like now, with my
(00:41):
acquisition of the Minnesota timboo of the NBA team, I
can only watch so many things. Bandwidth is only so much.
And last night I had a two hour dinner with
both of my daughters and we just laughed our ass
off and that's my focus. Well that's good, But I
would guess that. I mean, I went out to a
restaurant where they have a big TV so I could
(01:02):
be up to date on all the statistics of the Yankees.
So I guess it was for naught since you're not
even watching now. When you were a Yankee and active Yankee,
I still consider you Yankee. I think everybody does. Were
you as good as they are this year or better. Well,
I mean, look, I think we were all over the place.
I mean I think oh nine was the best year.
(01:23):
We won the World Championship, the twenty seventh title in
Major League history for the for the Yankees. And there
was some years that we struggled, but for the most
part we were always pretty good. And Eric Judge hit
his league leading eleventh home run last night. Aaron Judge
is one. I think Aaron Judge maybe my favorite player
in the majors today. And there's a can I tell
(01:44):
you why? Yeah? But first of all, like he's this
like great, big, handsome, great face of Major League Baseball.
He's six ft seven two and eighty pounds, has a
vertical of like thirty inches. He could have played football
at Stanford and Notre Dame team and chose to play baseball.
And now he's the face of the Yankees. He's the
(02:06):
best player in the Yankee roster. And as you said,
now they have the best record in Major League Baseball,
but close second or at least equal, is the Mets. Yes,
now you tried with j Low to buy the Mets.
What happened, Well, we came in second, So I say
(02:27):
we were the the second winner, and uh we ran
into a bus off. I mean with a guy like
Steve Cohen, who was one of the wealthiest people around
in the world. He's a long time Mets fan and
he won fair and square and he's doing an incredible
job with that franchise. And it's good for baseball to
(02:51):
have wealthy owners who are extremely passionate and are deploying
tons of capital into our game. You're right, it's very
exciting to see New York with two strong, strong teams again,
because it was kind of boring we didn't have the
World Series here for a while. Well, let me tell you,
this could be a rematch of the two thousand Subway Series,
(03:12):
which will be incredible. You'll be there. I will, And
when I cover the postseason every year is hard for
me because I have to keep it kind of like
Switzerland and just be nutrient stuff. But it's hard when
the Yankees are playing. I you know, Big Poppy goes
for the Red Sox, and of course I go for
the Yankees. Well, the last time I saw you was
earlier this year at the Super Bowl weekend. You were
(03:33):
at Shutters having breakfast and we just said a quick hello,
and you seem to be enjoying yourself. How is life?
We have to ask the question, how is life after
j Lo? You know, Martha, thank goodness, no regrets. Life
is good. I'm very fortunate. I wake up every morning
and thank the Good Lord for my health, for my
(03:55):
beautiful daughters who are now seventeen and fourteen. That is
my number one focus and life. You know, my father
left me and my mother and my two siblings when
I was just ten years old, and I remember as
a young man praying and saying, you know, dear Lord,
if if you ever give me an opportunity to be
a father, uh, that's gonna be my number one responsibility
(04:19):
in life. And it's been the greatest gift. I'm very
lucky to have a great co parent in Cynthia. She's
one of my dear friends. She's a wonderful human being.
She has a master's psychology. I paid for that degree
because Martha I knew early on when we were married
that we needed a psychologist full time in house and
for me. So she's great. We have a great time
(04:42):
co parenting Natasha and Ella. And what do the girls do? What?
What grades are they in? So I have a junior
and an eighth grader. Natasha is starting to look at colleges.
Her top three schools right now are Michigan, in which
we visited twice, Yale, and Princeton. So you know, it's
hard to get into these colleges. So um, you know,
we have our fingers crossed and we have other options
(05:04):
as well. Is she an athlete? I mean, Michigan is
such an athletic school. She is an athlete. She's athletic,
but her whole mission is to follow Broadway into one
day being Broadway in New York. To be a dancer,
a singer, a producer. And both Michigan and Yale have
great drama departments and that's why I go to the
two O three. Oh great, Well that is so so great.
(05:27):
And what about your younger daughter? My younger daughter, it's
a little bit more of a hybrid. She likes the dancing,
but she's really into producing, and she's really savvy when
it comes to business, and she's really interested in the Timberwolves.
I think one day she looks at Jennie Buss as
someone who could potentially run the Timberwolves. So she has
(05:49):
great ambitions and sports, entertainment and dancing. Wow, pretty fantastic.
I advise you to spend a lot of time with
them and teach them all you know, because you know
a lot from the age of seventeen. So you do
not go to college. I guess right out of high
school you got a big contract to go and play
(06:11):
shortstop for whom I was drafted number one one in
nineteen nine out of Westminster Christian here in Miami, Florida.
I was signed by the Seattle Mariners for one point
three five million dollars, which felt like a billion dollars,
(06:31):
especially when you grew up with very little. It was
my mother and my brother and my sister right here
in Miami. We shared a small apartment and then a
small house, and off I went. That started my twenty
five year career. And here we are. What are you six?
Six now? Oh gosh, yes, but let's not say that
six And he's had a twenty five year career in baseball. Guys,
(06:57):
you're not old. Forty six is young. You're odd. Come on,
thank you, thank you. You look amazing. Are you in
the best physical shape you've ever been in? And look
talking about amazing? I read your New York Times article.
You look amazing. Thank you. You get better with age,
like like a fine wine. The I'm in great shape,
(07:17):
you know. I actually altered um my schedule a little bit,
and I'll share with you. I've told my office that
I don't want to look at my phone before noon.
And the reason why is I was getting so consumed
before nine am that I didn't have any time for myself.
So now I get up, I have my coffee. The
(07:38):
girls woke me up this morning. They go to school.
I go to the gym. Then I try to get
in the sauna, a little steam, a little meditation, and
then my first meeting is right here on this desk,
usually at twelve thirty in person or zoom and uh.
It's brought so much more balance to my life. And
one thing that I learned is that you can only
(07:58):
make two or three decisions per day that are really
good and solid. The many you start going too wide
and shallow. I'd rather go narrow. Indeed, well, how broad
is your office staff? I mean do you have do
you have other people that bounce off ideas? How do
you organize your office? I mean, if you look at
our organization between real estate, private equity, and adventure, we
(08:19):
have over five dred people spread all over the country
and all over the world, but our management team, which
sits between Miami, New York and l A is probably
uh about Well, that's a sizable company. Can you go public?
My wish is never to go public, although we have
(08:41):
you know, a number of companies, well over thirty companies
in our portfolio, in which the past few years we've
taken about six or seven of them public, but not
a Rod Corp. Which is our parent company here. It's
just amazing in a short period of time. Since what
year did you leave the Yankees? I left in August
of two thousand and sixteen. My last game was a
(09:01):
Yankee Stadium on August twelve, and it was one of
the the saddest and also happiest days of my life
because my mother was there, my two daughters were there,
and friends and family from all over the world who
followed me and supported me over a twenty five year career,
and I was able to retire in the bright lights
(09:22):
of the greatest stadium in the world for the greatest
franchise in the world, and the fans gave me a nice, beautiful,
loving exit and a nice standing ovation. I remember I
remember I watched that game, thank you, and we were
sad that you were leaving baseball. But boy, you must
be happy that you have come out on top with
such an amazing stable of companies with so many diverse interests.
(09:45):
What made you invest in basketball? Yeah, you know, it's
a good question, Martha. Ever since I was ten years old,
I've always wanted to be involved in in business and baseball.
I never thought that basketball would be such an integral
part of my adult life. You mentioned the Mets when Mark, Lorie, Jennifer,
(10:06):
and Vinny Viola Micropolio, we had an incredible group of
people that we're gonna buy it together. We learned a
great deal. The process was almost a year long. We
had great, great best people at the table with us,
and it was a great educational process. And what we
realized is that baseball is not just a sport, but
it's a media and entertainment platform, whereas an octopus of
(10:27):
opportunities that runs three And if you thought baseball was
the only part, it was a big mistake because ultimately
you're basically entertaining your consumer base, and you want to
do that over and over, just like you do. Martha,
you've done so well for decades. When we looked at it,
we came up short. The team traded for about two
point four billion dollars, and we were obviously very sad
(10:50):
and a little depressed when we didn't get the team.
A few months later, here comes the Timberwoel's opportunity. We
were like a fine tune machine. We really knew where
all the levers were in baseball, and we were very
well versed, and when the opportunity came, we said, oh,
my goodness, it's a great league, has tremendous tail winds,
is a global sport, tremendous leadership with Adam Silver and
(11:13):
Mark Tatum, and the value it's a billion dollars less
for a billion five So Martha, Mark Lourie and I
with Glenn Taylor and Becky Taylor, who are partners. They've
owned a franchise for almost thirty years. They're born and
raised Minnesota folks, fantastic human beings. Within six or seven days,
(11:34):
we got the deal done basically in the back of
the envelope, and then we agreed, shook hands, and then
we went to long form and signed a deal like
six weeks later. Wow, that is so you know, unimaginable really,
but Minnesota. Do you like going to Minnesota? I do,
and you with too, Martha. It is a great, great town.
First of all, I love the Summer's best because it
(11:54):
has ten thousand lakes. Is is the city of lakes
and the state of lakes with over ten thousand of them.
A lot of people don't know this, but the l
A Lakers started in Minnesota, and Lakers is for lakes.
So they started in Minnesota and then went to l A.
Oh that's interesting, right, and then the Timberwolves came and
(12:14):
is a wonderful city, has got great people. There's a
great saying that people from Minnesota never leave and the
few that leave always come back. Is the ninth wealthiest
city in the country. You have eighteen of Fortune companies
that reside right there in Minneapolis. And uh, it's a
city of champions that is starving for a world champion.
(12:36):
So do you think that Timberwolves are going to go
to someplace else follow the Lakers? Great question, No, I
don't think so. I think Mark and I are are
really committed to Minneapolis. We love the franchise. Last year, Martha,
you appreciate this, we only had twenty three wins. There
is our first year of ownership. We had forty six wins.
(12:57):
This year we had about seven team sellouts and TV
ratings were up about fift Well, that's what you're talking about,
entertainment and your ownership. I'm sure increased the interest in
those in the teams so much that people are watching
and coming and rooting for those Timberwolds. It's really great.
(13:17):
Thank you. Yeah, we'll have good luck with that. Thank you.
Do you think the stress and the challenges of being
a pro athlete, I mean that they're intense, really made
you a really better businessman. Look, I think with business
(13:42):
just like sports, and you know this, Like they consider
you and I pretty hard working people, but we love
what we do and you can't fake it right. Like
I love being at my desk. I love being with
our team here because I love business so much, and
I'm a student at hard like you. I like to
read everything, understand anything. I understand what I know really well,
(14:04):
but more importantly, I know what I don't know, and
I surround myself with talent that's top tea and complementary
to my set of skills. Um, But I think what
what baseball helped me the most is Twofold Number one
is a game of failure. If you fail seventy percent
of the time, you end up in Cooperstown at the
Hall of Fame. Now there's no other business in the
(14:27):
world that you fail seventy and you end up in
the highest form, which is the Hall of Fame. That's one.
So I'm used to failing. I'm used to getting back
up and being resilient and gritty and rolling up my sleeves.
The second part that I think has been very beneficial
is people think that like you and I work hard,
and they say, well, Alex, how are you able to travel?
And you come to the office every day. But this
(14:48):
is nothing compared to my Yankee schedule. We played two
hundred games in two hundred and thirty two days, and
those thirty two days are not just days off. Half
those days you're flying across the country, landing in the
middle of the night, and having to play the next day.
So there's nothing that I do here at Ara Corp.
As a leader, chairman, and founder and CEO of this
(15:10):
company that will ever compare to the grueling schedule of
being a Yankee. I did not know that that's the
schedule was that intense. Well, I remember when I visited
your house in Miami. You had the most amazing gym
into your inside gym there. What do you have now
at home? I have a similar gym, more cardio equipment.
I try to do a lot of stretching. I like
(15:32):
to mix it up and in everything that I do.
I am doing a little CrossFit, I do a little
hot yoga, I do some running. I play a little
pick a ball. Oh yeah, fickle Ball's fun. Don't you
think it's like half court basketball? I like that. That's
kind of my thing, you know, Yeah, that sounds like fun. Well,
let's get off sports a little bit and into your
ability to attract and also to respect strong women. You
(15:56):
describe your mom as a real hard worker. Tell us
a little bit about your mother. Yeah, my mom was,
you know, born in Dominican, spent a long time in
UH the New York City. Bought my family here to
New York where I was born in n I worked
for General Mortars for many, many years, and then we
UH ended up making the move to Miami when my
(16:17):
father left at the age of ten. She ended up
taking on two jobs and responsibility inheriting the responsibility of
being a mother and a father, and she did an
incredible job inspired me ended up being a secretary of
the morning. She served tables at night. And you know,
my brother and my sister, Joe and Susie, they kind
(16:38):
of became like the secretary of sports and my sister
became like the secretary of education. And my mom just
kept the lights on for us, and uh and off
we went. And then you have also dated really fabulous women.
I mean every single woman that you appeared within the
tabloids was a fabulous actress or performer or were you
(17:00):
always just attracted? You just wanted the most beautiful women
in the world on your arm. Let me take get
a little coffee on that one, nick, Do we have
any vodka this early in the morning. Who was your
first serious girlfriend? Oh, that's a great question, My goodness,
going down memory lane, you know, I would say my
(17:21):
first one, which was my junior year in high school,
was Amanda Kelly, a really nice young woman who was
Irish and was really nice and uh, kind of was
with me a little bit. And when all these scouts
started showing up and scouting me and all of that,
and I would say that, um, you know Cynthia, who
(17:42):
is um my ex wife and one of my great
dear best friends in the world today. What age did
you get married? I got married around twenty eight. Oh
so you you had a good ten years after signing
your contract to meet women, go out with a lot
of different women, and your rise to fame in baseball.
And I spent almost thirteen years with Cynthia, were married
(18:03):
for five. But you know today we're better friends today
than we've ever been in them I'm really really proud
of that because the most important thing in both of
our lives is the well being of raising two strong,
self esteem young women. Well you're long time relationship with
j Lo. I mean I've I've met j Loo several times.
(18:24):
She's an extraordinary woman, extraordinarily talented. And you were on
the front pages of every single newspaper, tabloid, every TV
entertainment show constantly for how many years? How many years
did you actually live and go out with j Lo?
About four years? And was it exhilarating? I mean, I'm
(18:47):
sure it was exhilarating. You looked exhilarated in every single picture.
You never look bored. I didn't see one picture where
you ever look bored. I'm not listen. I never feel
bored in anything that I do in life. I wake
up every day and I feel just so grateful for
everything that I do. But look, we had a great time.
(19:07):
More importantly, we we always put the kids front and
center and everything we do. But you mixed up to
families really well. I thought it was she has what
three kids? Two? We had two and two two and
two kids are doing well. Here's what I will tell
you about Jennifer. And I was selling some of my
colleagues here the end of the day. Um, she's the
(19:27):
most talented human being I've ever been around, hardest worker,
and I think she is the greatest performer, live performer
in the world today that's alive. And I think many
people would agree with you. It's incredible what she does.
So I when I saw you in California, didn't look
(19:48):
like you were with anybody. Are you dating anybody now
that you can talk about. I'm actually just spending a
lot of a lot of time with my girls, trying
to be at home home, travel a little bit less,
and putting a lot of my energy with Mark Laurie
and my partner into the Timberwolves and I'll tell you this, Martha,
(20:09):
I've never been healthier, happier, and more grateful for this
incredible life that you know, the Good Lord has given me.
And to live in the greatest country in the world.
I mean, you look what's happening in Russia and the Ukraine. Uh,
this awful pandemic that we've all had to live with,
and all the pain in the world and in this country.
(20:31):
And I just feel like I wake up every day
and think the Good Lord that A I'm healthy and
be that I'm an American and the greatest country in
the world. What about your philanthropic interests. Yeah, so you know,
I got some good advice from my mentor, Warren Buffett,
and one of the things you talked to me about was,
you know, do what you do really well, which is
it is based on basketball and business. Do that and
(20:55):
be focused and then let other people who are great
at what they do do that. So I've picked two organizations.
One is the Boys and Girls Club, where I entered
as a nine year old boy here in Miami. I
sit on the board today and we've done a lot
of work and resources donated there. And then the University
of Miami, which growing up here in Miami, we didn't
(21:16):
have Theami. The Marlins in the University of Miami was
everything to any kid that grew up here. So I
built out the field there and it's called Mark Light
Stadium Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Lake Stadium. And UH
still very involved, almost twenty years on the board there,
do a lot of work with a business school there today.
(21:43):
In two thousand and thirteen, you had your contract worth
more than a hundred million dollars, a World Series ring,
and you were considered one of the very, very very
best in your sport. After years of speculation from the
public and denials on your part, you admitted to using
performance enhancing drugs. That's an old story now, But what
(22:05):
was it that finally induced you to just come straight?
You know, one day, I know you've earned about nine books.
I would love to maybe write a book with you
one day, because I think one day, when I'm a
little older, I'll be able to kind of write a
book and tell my story kind of from start to finish.
I'm starting to work on a business book now. I'm
getting a lot of inquiries about you know, business sports,
(22:27):
and I think there's a lot of great lessons between
you know, sports and business. But going back to the
suspension year, you know, I thought it was really really
important to take full accountability for everything. You know, the
details really weren't important, It wasn't I thought it was
really important to just say, look, I'm guilty, I did it.
(22:47):
Let me serve my suspension, let me get my head down.
At that time, I had an opportunity to turn the
lens inward started therapy. That therapy hasn't stopped, has been
now over eight years. And like I always tell people,
I'm rounding second base and I've got a lot more
work to do. Um And you know, through this therapy, Martha,
(23:08):
you realize that I'm a flawed human being, and that
a lot of the mistakes, you know, go all the
way back to when I was a child and when
Dad left it at your ten for whatever reason, you
think it's your fault. You sometimes think you're not enough.
And I think one of the things that's been the
biggest paradigm shift in my life is that today I
(23:30):
know that I'm enough. That is great, and you're strong
and you are honest with yourself and uh, and that's
what you have to be. So a stumble is a stumble,
but getting up and carrying on and exceeding in other
fields is just an amazing feat. And you're that strong
man that everybody looks up to now and that's the
(23:52):
best result of anything like that, right, Yes, you know
it's it's interesting people say, like, you know, do you
have these regrets and this and that? In many ways? Um,
if you have a career that just as sends and
goes straight up to the right, I don't think there's
a lot of lessons to learn there. I think, um,
(24:12):
I do not believe that you can make lemonade out
of lemons. So I just I just can't stand and
that whatever bad happens, it makes you a better person.
I don't go for that. Do you go for that? No?
But I do think that when you fall, the gift
isn't standing back up, and the gift isn't sharing what attributes,
(24:32):
what it takes, what determination, work, ethic, grit, dark days
to be able to come back and keep fighting and
not giving up. Because I've thought about giving up. I
think we've all been in that dark room with you
say can I do it? And the the answer as
you've got them right, you can do it. You gotta
get up, and you gotta believe in yourself and start
(24:54):
with one person at a time, and that person is yourself.
But what I like about you you went into a
totally different area and have succeeded amazingly. Well. You went
into business in a big, big way and have succeeded
so beautifully, and that's extremely admirable. A rod really and
I always say that a rebuilding is harder than building,
(25:16):
and you didn't have to really rebuild. You just went
straight ahead and built something new, and that is fabulous.
You know, if you think about Thank you, Martha, if
you think about pat Riley talks about the capital stack
in Succeeding right and how success looks like. And the
first part of that capital stack is the upstart, which
(25:37):
is the innocent climb, and then he goes into competing,
and then he goes into winning, and then championships and
then dynasty, and every single one of those levels has
a covenants which the higher you get up in that
capital stack, it gets harder and harder, and when you
finally get to the top, as you know, it's very
lonely at the top. So as you get up in
(25:58):
that scale, it is much harder, to your point, to
stay there, and it's very hard to rebuild it is.
It's really hard. Well, you and your co host Michael
kay Um read mean tweets on your show. I love
that you read those mean tweets. I try not to
read my mean tweets just because they either make me
(26:20):
laugh or I just want to, you know, answer them,
and you can't ever answer them. But reading them out
loud is fantastic. And people do seem to have a
real visceral reaction to you. You attract the good and
the bad as I do. I mean, if I say
anything anything political, boy do I get it. So people
(26:40):
either love you or hate you. How do you feel? Well?
I feel loved and uh, I feel like I'm in
a good place. You know. I think the scariest thing, Martha,
and I think you and I have not been this
type of person where you walk in the room and
there's no reaction. You walk in the room and people
are gonna look and everyone's gonna have an opinion in
in many ways, I feel like I'm the same way.
(27:03):
And I don't see that as a bad thing. I
see that as a as a blessing. All you can
do is the best version of yourself. And some people
are gonna like you and some people are not. And
that's okay. I think when I was younger, you were
so concerned whether people like you or not that it
consumed you. You know, eight years of therapy and kind
of getting a little bit older, you realize that, hey,
you're not gonna win them all. Now. I wanted to ask,
(27:25):
and I think it was two thousand and eighteen. I
had a really nervous, good thrill. And when I had
to throw out the first pitch at the Yankees game
that you know that I they asked me to do that,
and I got a coach and they showed me how
to throw a baseball. I stood on the mound. I
should have moved a little bit closer to home play
(27:47):
because that's a long distance. So I didn't quite make
the ball to home plate, but I did throw in
a straight line, and it could have been a strike
if I got if I got over home plate. But well,
you nervous, Oh, of course I was nervous. And and
and that stadium that what do you think of the
new Yankee Stadium? By the way, I love it look good.
I do too. It's a really nice stadium, but I
(28:09):
was so nervous. What was your greatest thrill at Yankee Stadium?
I mean, that's an easy one, right because A is
definitely Game six of the two thousand and nine World Series,
forty five thousand people going crazy, Marianna Vera, the greatest
closure of all times at the rubber victory, no hitting
(28:31):
for the Phillies, groundbot Acano to tick share and the
Yankees are world champions for the time, and you think
about it every day. Once you're a world champion in
New York, you're a champion for life. And there's not
a day that goes by that. I walk around New
York City where somebody says, you know, firefighter or policeman
(28:51):
or just come, and folk in the street says, hey,
thank you for two thousand and nine and looks been
the last championship we've had there, and uh, one championship
in over twenty two years. Well, we look forward to
seeing what else you do with your amazing life, Airod,
and we really thank you very much for talking to
us this morning, and uh we wish you well and
(29:11):
every single one of your endeavors. And I can't wait
to see what the Timberwolves get to do this year
and next year, and with you behind them, I cannot
imagine that they're not going to do really, really well.
You are a great life coach. You are really well
spoken human being, and you really know what you're talking about.
And I thank you so much. You are great, and
(29:34):
I hope to see you soon. And I make one
invitation to you before I go. Often go from New
York to Minnesota back to New York in the same night.
I would love for you to stay with me on
the floor at Minnesota and then I'll bring you back
to New York and let's do that. Let's do that.
I would love that. Okay, thank you great, it's a date.
Bye bye, no
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