Alex Rodriguez Biography

Known to his beloved fans as “A-Rod,” Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez is a baseball phenom, who has become as much known for his high-profile divorce and alleged love affair with superstar Madonna, as he is for his skills on the baseball field.
A native of New York City, Rodriguez moved to the Do

minican Republic, his family’s native country, when he was four-years-old. They then relocated to Miami, Florida three short years later, where Rodriguez began playing baseball and became a standout player for Westminster Christian High School. He was drafted first in 1993 by the Seattle Mariners, however, his first season interrupted by the strike of 1994.

He then divided his time playing with the Mariners and the Tacoma Rangers, the team’s AAA club. Rodriguez showcased his quite impressive batting average while playing as shortstop for the Mariners. After hitting 42 home runs and stealing 46 bases in 1998, Rodriguez became a member of the MLB’s “40-40” club, joining the ranks of Jose Canseco and Barry Bonds.

After almost a decade with the team, Rodriguez joined a team with World Series potential, signing with the Texas Rangers for $252 million, which was the most lucrative contract in sports history. With the Rangers, Rodriguez hit 52 homers in 2001, followed by 57 homers in 2002. He was the American League MVP in 2003 and donated $3.9 million to the University of Miami to engage in a complete overhaul of the baseball stadium.

However, even as he continued to thrive, the team was choked by a lack of resources in attracting new talent, due in part, to the Rodriguez contract. Therefore, the team was forced to trade Rodriguez to the New York Yankees in 2004, in exchange for Alfonso Soriano, a second baseman.

It was during his initial stint with the Yankees that Rodriguez switched from shortstop to third baseman, after the team’s regular third base player, Aaron Boone, suffered a knee injury. Rodriguez continued to thrive, hitting more home runs by the age of 30 than baseball legend Hank Aaron and more base hits than Pete Rose before they hit 30. He was the youngest player in baseball’s history to hit 450 homers and the eighth player to get 2,000 hits before the age of 31.

Rodriguez re-signed with the team in 2007, for another record-breaking contract of $275 million for 10 years, breaking his previous record for the most expensive contract in the history of baseball.
During the off-season, Rodriguez resides in Miami. His personal life has been filled with turbulence since that time. He married Cynthia Scurtis in 2002 and the two went on to have two daughters, however, the couple split in 2008, with Cynthia Rodriguez citing “emotional abandonment” and infidelity, after rumors about a string of affairs with several women, including pop phenom Madonna.

Also, in February 2009, Rodriguez admitted that he had used banned substances from 2001-03 as a result of overwhelming pressure to perform at his peak. While he was chastised heavily by Bud Selig, MLB head, Rodriguez was able to avoid the harsh penalties many critics sought in the wake of the banned substance scandal.

A. B. Barden