Alex Rodriguez wants to show the world he’s a changed man in an HBO Documentary Series, Alex vs. ARod, which dropped its first trailer on Thursday and will premiere on November 6.
The trailer frames Rodriguez and his shortened nickname as two entirely different identities. It presents Rodriguez as having lived two separate lives since the Seattle Mariners drafted him first overall in the 1993 MLB Draft. There has never been a public disclosure of Rodriguez having a split personality disorder, as the trailer frames him to have. So, what is the origin of this ‘split personality’ that the trailer presents to entice viewers?
Eighteen seconds into the trailer, Rodriguez’s half-brother, Joe Dunand Sr., says, “There’s clearly two personalities. There’s A-Rod, and there’s Alex. Alex is my brother, sensitive person, and A-Rod is the killer.”
Rodriguez hasn’t played a game in Major League Baseball for nearly a decade. He’s most well-known today for being a part-owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx. But he was a superstar during his playing days. From the age of 20 to 31, he was arguably the best player in baseball, accumulating 513 home runs, 1,482 RBI, a .977 OPS, and 95.1 WAR over his 12-year peak.
It all turned out to be a mostly tainted effort, though. In 2009, Rodriguez admitted he used PEDs during his time with the Texas Rangers from 2001 to 2003. But the steroid use didn’t end there. Multiple reports from 2010 to 2012 indicated his PED use continued through his years with the New York Yankees. Still, he served the longest PED suspension in MLB history after getting caught up in the Biogenesis Scandal of 2013.
Rodriguez had received testosterone and HGH treatment at Biogenesis from founder Anthony Bosch from 2010 to 2012. The full story of the scandal was published in August 2013, along with MLB’s investigation into the clinic. The league served Rodriguez a suspension that lasted the entire 2014 season. However, he still played for two more years and fell four home runs short of the 700 home run club.
While Rodriguez faced consequences for his PED use, it called into question the legitimacy of his entire career. His PED during his 2003, 2005, and 2007 MVP seasons stripped away the only opportunities for players such as Carlos Delgado (runner-up to Rodriguez in MVP in 2003) and Magglio Ordóñez (2007), neither of whom was accused of PED use, to win the only MVPs of their distinguished careers. And his PED use sowed doubt over whether he could have joined the illustrious 600 HR club or 3,000 hit club without them, which baseball fans still debate about to this day.
Timberwolves and Lynx fans are among the intended audience for this docuseries. However, HBO is publishing it and ostensibly wants to reach anyone who has followed the various sagas of his professional and personal life.
The two-minute trailer opens with a question from an interviewer: “How would you say most people view you?” It then cuts to some of his baseball highlights before a response from Rodriguez is given, where he says, “I mean, I would just say it’s complicated.”
Complications have followed Rodriguez wherever he has gone, and the series will examine personal ones. However, the focus for Timberwolves fans, baseball fans, and others should be on the professional side as he enters his first full season owning the Wolves.
The timing of the docuseries’ release seems to be perfect for the Timberwolves and their fan base. They’ll have played their first eight games of the 2025-26 season by the time the first episode drops. By then, the Wolves front office and ownership group will hope to have an announcement regarding the retirement of Kevin Garnett’s jersey number, raising his number 21 to the Target Center rafters.
Regardless of the good graces this could possibly put him in with the Wolves fan base, this can’t erase the history Rodriguez has established within himself as a former superstar athlete and now as a businessman.
Still, throughout his life, Rodriguez has gone out of his way to try to get as many people as possible to see him in a better light. Former CBS journalist Katie Couric, who did the infamous 60 Minutes interview in 2007 where he lied about his PED use on the record, claims as much: “I think he’s someone who’s fixated on how he comes across to the world.”
The docuseries trailer seems to address part of the issue with his tainted legacy on the field, but not so much off it. Granted, it’s only a two-minute trailer meant to hook people to watch it, and we’ll learn more after HBO releases it. However, his tainted legacy on the field cannot be completely separated from the off-the-field issues that have arisen during his post-retirement time in the business world.
For example, in 2021, his former brother-in-law, Constantine Scurtis, sued him in Miami-Dade County. Scurtis alleged that Rodriguez owed him “millions of dollars” following fraudulent claims from Rodriguez’s real estate company, Newport Property Ventures.
In the lawsuit, Scurtis and his attorneys claimed that Rodriguez made fraudulent claims for Newport after the landfall of Hurricane Ike in the Gulf of Mexico and its surrounding states in September 2008, which were “reflecting significantly inflated damages” to properties owned by Newport.
The pair eventually settled Scurtis’ lawsuit out of court in November 2021, which was dismissed with prejudice by Judge Michael Hanzman. The settlement didn’t disclose a payment amount.
Regardless, it’s easy for a millionaire, who surrounds themselves with other millionaires and billionaires, to get connected with a long-established television company and work with them to get a docuseries made about them. Rodriguez seems to address this with a script reading in the trailer.
“Why rich and powerful people cheat. Part 1,” Rodriguez said. “There’s an arrogance that often comes with power. There’s a sense I won’t get caught ‘cause you actually think you’re better than other people. There’s nothing more stupid than that. I learned that the hard way.”
However, to reach everyday folks who don’t have the same connections Rodriguez does through that platform feels like a tone-deaf approach to try to level with them and show that he’s changed from his playing days of lying on the record and cheating to accomplish more records on the field.
Rodriguez has gone on public record dozens of times to tell the world he’s a changed man, and this appears to be another attempt to do so through another medium. If he’s so adamant about telling the world he’s changed, he needs to go out and show us all instead.
How can he do that? Help alleviate the burden of costs that Hennepin County taxpayers will eventually bear for a new stadium for the Timberwolves and Lynx. Meet with community leaders in person, attend public meetings, and engage in discussions about how he and Marc Lore intend to improve the Timberwolves and Lynx.
He and Lore have infrequently spoken about the Lynx publicly since taking full ownership in July. Notably, they have not made a public comment following Lynx star Napheesa Collier speaking out against WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert during the Lynx’s end-of-season press conference.
During his playing career, Rodriguez’s actions warranted punishment from MLB Commissioner Bud Selig following his third admission of using PEDs that went against MLB’s Drug policy. Rodriguez had conflicts with Selig and his punishment, but given that the league had found indisputable proof of his PED use from Biogenisis, they were right to serve him a 162-game suspension.
Conversely, Collier may be right about the shortcomings the WNBA Commissioner’s Office has had in addressing the issues she brought up, such as player safety, poor officiating, and Engelbert’s lack of transparency, among others. Therefore, a public statement backing Collier’s claims, whom Rodriguez has said he sees following a similar career path, and trying to improve what she’s asking for on a team level, would be a step in the right direction.
These are just a few options for Rodriguez to take action and show the world that he’s a changed man from his playing days, extending beyond using his involvement in basketball operations to do so. While some may suggest ‘better ways’ for him to rework his image beyond a docuseries, Rodriguez acknowledges in the trailer that no matter what he does, some of his critics will never see him in a positive light.
“I’m sure there’s people watching this, and no matter what I say, they’re going to spin it into why they’re gonna hate me more,” he said. “And that’s fine.”
He may be fine with the outcome of his perception, regardless of how it turns out, after watching this docuseries. Still, if he wants to stand by these words, it wouldn’t hurt to show the public his change in a new way, rather than repeating the same old story.