Original subtitles

A-Rod is a Shakespearean figure.

He's one of the greatest players who ever played.

Big, strong, good-looking, the whole thing.

This guy was an immortal player,

but he also was an incredibly flawed individual.

You know, I say this proudly.

I don't think there's ever been a baseball player

that has loved the game like Alex has.

You could say whatever you want,

say he took this, he took that.

At the end of the day, he's gonna put up numbers.

He's gonna hit the baseball. That's what he was born to do.

This wasn't about baseball.

I think this was about life.

One thing I've definitely learned in life,

the truth is always gonna come out.

It might take 30 years, it might take 2 years,

it might take 40 years.

The truth is gonna come out, and you're gonna have

to deal with it at some point.

You know, Alex Rodriguez is just a seminal player.

You know, it comes along once in a generation,

maybe a lifetime.

You take away all the extraneous nonsense,

he's one of the best players who ever lived.

Again, it always begs the question to me...

and I wonder if he's lying alone at night,

looking up at the ceiling...

why did I ever do any of it?

Why rich and powerful people cheat, part one.

There is an arrogance that often comes with power.

The aura of power surrounding you

makes you feel immune from consequences.

You feel you can do things that mere mortals

are forbidden to do.

You see other wealthy people living a façade in public

and a different life in private.

The key to pulling this off

comes from keeping your public and private life

as separate as possible and creating an image

that shields you from a closer scrutiny.

Yeah, this is a... a train wreck ready to happen.

This whole idea that you're

one person in front of the camera

and you're a completely different person off-camera.

And that's exhausting, 'cause you're trying to keep up

with the shit you're trying to get away with.

Not fun, and full of anxiety and stress.

And there's a sense, I won't get caught,

'cause you actually think you are better than other people.

There's nothing more stupid than that, right?

You learned that the hard way, though, didn't you?

I did learn that the hard way.

And now a great New York tradition,

time to hand out one of New York's

most prestigious honors,

the keys to the city.

I mean, the thing when you win,

especially if you win in a place like New York,

there is a celebration tour that can last five months.

And then you're like, okay, this is fun,

but I got a season that I gotta get ready for in 2010.

We gotta... we gotta repeat.

Alex, I know it's a cliché,

but what a difference a year makes.

Last year, I remember we sat here

and you were apologizing to the fans and all that.

And I mean, how much different is this season for you?

Well, it's much different.

And, uh, you know, I'm in a much better place right now.

I know that last year, we sat here...

In the past, the pressure for him cracked pipes.

In 2009, the pressure created a diamond.

You know, you just shut everybody up.

Everybody that doubted you, everybody that said,

yeah, he's the creation of pharmaceuticals...

he did it.

Now, when spring training was starting,

I said, well, he's gonna have a monster year,

because, you know, he's free of everything.

You know, he's won his World Series.

-What do you think? -I hope so.

-Yeah? -I hope so, yeah.

Another MVP, another world championship?

The only goal is the same goal we had last year,

was A, to have a lot of fun, play as a team.

And I look forward to defending a world title.

-You seem happy. -I am happy.

High drive, center field deep.

Going back rows.

Looking up.

See ya!

There it is!

Number 600!

Alex Rodriguez, the youngest man

ever to get to 600 home runs.

I felt like the World Series came and went.

And that one is driven deep to left center field.

Going back, Van Every.

On the track, at the wall!

I was basically at the pinnacle

of my baseball career.

But, I mean, there was just...

there was a lot going on at the time.

I think a lot comes with success.

I mean, you check on guys, you know.

How are you doing? Everything okay?

I think in 2010, there was a big hangover

from winning the World Series.

And Rodriguez caught looking.

I had never seen Alex start losing the love of the game,

like not wanting to train as much

or not wanting to practice as much

or not wanting to be around baseball as much,

and that's what I saw happening.

The Texas Rangers, our American League champions!

And I also think that he was struggling

with where he was at a personal level.

You know, now you're getting older, the kids are older,

and you're on the road a lot.

And it was tough. His divorce was tough.

We functioned very quickly co-parenting.

The girls, you know,

in order to see him, they have to travel,

and they're so small, so I would travel with them.

He would come back and he would... you know,

if he had a day off, he would come.

And he was amazing when he was present.

It's just that those times were just so select.

Valverde deals, and a swing and a miss!

Valverde strikes out Alex Rodriguez,

and the Detroit Tigers

are headed to the American League Championship Series...

Something was off with my game,

but it was less about that

and more about self-development.

From the time I was drafted at 17,

six years later, here comes the 252.

Six years later, here comes 275, controversies,

the championship after that.

Everything was moving so fast.

It was a blur.

I could have been really mature on the field

but that doesn't mean that my off-the-field development

was caught up to that.

And there was a huge disconnect.

I had a lot of work to do.

As a person, I had a lot of work to do.

Around that time, in 2010,

I was on a flight with a friend.

I expressed to him that I was going through a tough time.

And he said, well, I have someone you should meet,

but this guy is like nobody you've ever met before.

My first appointment, I flew out to Evergreen, Colorado,

this beautiful small town,

kind of in the middle of nowhere.

It was cold, it was snowing.

I didn't know what to expect.

Oh, man.

Oh.

You know, I never came in this house.

We would always go around to his office.

I mean, it's a bit shocking being back here.

Dr. David has passed,

and that's a tough pill to swallow.

Everything's pretty much the same.

He had his desk, two computers, third one here.

The couch was over here.

We would do our sessions.

And he had a chair right here, and he has a little table.

He would always have, like, water there,

but I never saw him eat anything, drink anything,

or ever go to the bathroom.

So at one point, I asked him, are you human

or are you just a robot with no emotions?

Yeah, he would never laugh at any of my jokes, so.

The minute you're around Dr. David,

you just know he's different.

He just... very, very serious person, an academic,

and has done retreats all over the world.

I wish it was a retreat.

It wasn't a retreat.

There's so much significance in this room for me.

I'm just picturing Dr. David.

I mean, I can feel him all over the room.

Interesting.

I think in many ways, it feels like a lab

or a batting cage where I got so much work done.

He described it as rewiring the brain.

And he said, if you start this process, you have to finish.

You can't stop in the middle, because it'll be even worse.

I was like, okay, this sounds intense.

That first session was really about

feeling each other out a little bit.

There was a lot of, like, volleying and back and forth.

I'm having a hard time at work.

I'm trying to get all these people to do this and do that,

and they're not doing it.

have you ever thought

that you're a terrible leader?

What?

Maybe you don't know how to lead people.

Do you think people respect you and trust you?

All right, I need a fucking break.

I'm going to the bathroom.

That was my favorite place to go,

'cause it was the only time he would give me a break.

And then I would, like, stall.

Oh, my God, it's so weird.

I mean, he was such a truth-teller,

and I wasn't used to that.

He would just throw arrows right between your eyes, right?

Like, when you talk you sound like you're full of shit,

'cause you are.

And, like, in hindsight, I was so fucking slippery,

and I'd think I can bullshit him.

I'd think I was smarter than him,

and he just would never let me slide.

And he said something to me that was like,

you're so underwater that you can't even see straight,

and you're running out of time.

Like, the fuck does that mean?

I felt like early on, I didn't understand

what I was doing here.

And after the first week, I was flying home.

And I thought to myself, what a fucking waste of my time.

What the hell does Dr. David know?

What brought me back?

Well, I wasn't gonna quit. That's what brought me back.

You know, I was so damn stubborn

that I'm like, all right now.

It's like facing a tough pitcher.

He's not gonna intimidate me, no matter how much...

I know he's trying to drive...

I know he's trying to drive me here,

and he's hoping that I never come back,

but I'm gonna come back and make him miserable.

And it was just a battle, then I made it a competition,

and that's really what brought me back.

Like, I'm never gonna quit.

That tells you how fucking lost I was.

Jeter at second. One out.

3-2 to Rodriguez.

It hit him! Oh, my goodness.

Looked like he hit him with the change up,

but Felix's change up is 88 to 90 miles an hour.

And that one, he's in a lot of pain right there.

Alex, you just talked about, yesterday,

how well you were swinging the bat.

How much more difficult is this to take,

how you've been playing offensively lately?

Yeah, it's difficult.

Tough break.

What have they told you as far as the time frame?

Haven't told me anything.

Just fractured.

Aging is never fun,

especially when you're going through... through injuries.

For so many years, I mean, I could go through a wall

and just get back up and just keep playing.

Alex Rodriguez is going to have surgery Monday

to repair the torn meniscus in his right knee.

I was a workhorse, and I loved to play every day,

and I think those injuries started piling on

and contributing to other injuries.

3-2.

-Popped up. -On the change up.

And Alex, frustrated, slams the bat.

Ooh, looks like something might have happened

right there coming out of the box.

Little wince.

You think after he slammed the bat,

or something with his leg, John?

As I got into my mid-30s,

all those surgeries and rehabs,

they started definitely getting to me.

I had knee surgery in '99, I believe, my left side.

And it was a pretty simple recovery,

so I'm hoping for the same.

Except I'm a little older now.

I wanted to be able to get out of bed and not be in pain.

And I just wanted, in the worst way, just to be able to play

and, you know, post up every day for my team.

Post-World Series, my...

a person that was close to me

kept saying, hey, I know you don't feel good.

You're not sleeping as good.

You should meet this guy that I wanna introduce you to.

We're down in St. Pete playing the Rays.

He says, hey, that guy's here.

He actually has a clinic right down the street.

If you wanna see him, I can bring him up to the room.

And that's when I met Tony for the first time.

His hair wasn't brushed.

He looked like he hadn't slept much.

I was like, who is this guy?

He said he was a doctor.

He's like, why don't you take off your shirt?

So I take off my shirt. He's like, oh, yeah.

Oh, you need a lot of help. You need a lot of work.

You need a lot of work. Where does it hurt?

He starts moving my leg around a little bit.

And basically I said, I'm not sleeping that great,

my metabolism is not that good, um,

and I'm not recovering well at all.

He's like, I have something for you.

And he said, HGH.

And I said, okay, tell me more.

He goes, well, you just put it in your stomach,

and you'll be able to sleep better.

You're gonna recover better.

It's good for your skin.

Men and women use it.

Athletes and non-athletes use it.

So there's... I'm getting a little bit of an education.

And I was like, nah, you know, I'm good, I'm good.

I don't need to do that.

And then probably a few weeks later,

they were both asking me, like, you know,

why not give it a try?

At that point, I knew that if I did this,

I would be breaking a Major League Baseball rule.

So I kept saying no.

But I wanted to get out there so badly and play.

The Yankees are paying me a shitload of money.

There's an embarrassment,

looking your teammates in the eyes

and not being able to play every day.

At the time, I knew it was a very, very risky thing to do.

But if this is actually gonna make me feel better

and help me get out of bed and help me not be in pain,

then fuck it.

I'll risk it.

I went into it like, okay, I just do this

for the rest of the year, for like,

a month or month and a half.

And hopefully, you know, this off season,

my hip can feel better, and I can never look back, you know?

And then once I tried it...

you're in the wrong side,

and you broke a Major League Baseball rule.

So I knew I did it,

and I knew that I was breaking a rule.

And it was like that moment where you go too far,

and you're just like, oh, can't take it back now.

A report published in the "Miami New Times"

says this clinic, called Biogenesis,

was a pipeline to PEDs for several players.

The first time I hear of Biogenesis

is when someone calls my phone.

They told me that, you know, some guy was owed money

and he was gonna whistle blow the people

that were involved in Biogenesis.

I'm around Alex a lot,

and I had never seen that guy ever around Alex.

I think Alex was probably embarrassed

that the guy was around and he'd keep him hidden.

I don't think Alex ever went to the clinic.

I think that guy Tony went to see Alex.

At the time, I'd never even heard of this publication.

It wasn't like "The New York Times" or anything.

So I was like, maybe it's a 24-hour story, or 48 hours.

But it certainly wasn't that.

Alex Rodriguez among 20 players

believed to be connected to a now-closed Miami-area clinic.

The highest-paid player in the history of baseball

might be one step away from losing it all.

And then that's when all hell broke loose.

-A-Rod. -A-Rod.

A-Rod.

What in the world is A-Rod thinking?

It took off like a wildfire.

A-Rod insisted he stopped doping back in 2004,

and that he's always been clean as a Yankee.

-I was stunned. -I was shocked.

I was kind of ticked off at him.

You know, why would you do this again?

I was his biggest supporter. I like him personally.

After what happened in '09, the test and everything,

why would you go there again?

Could this theoretically be the end

of A-Rod in Yankee pinstripes?

It was just an avalanche of, like, bad news,

worse news, awful news.

The penalties are the penalties.

50 games, a hundred games,

three strikes and you're out.

I was like, oh, man, I did it this time.

A-Rod became, especially the second time around,

the poster boy for steroid abuse.

He really did.

Is baseball gonna get serious or not?

This is a major watershed for Major League Baseball.

And I think A-Rod deserves the brunt of all of this.

This has been a shadow that has been

over Major League Baseball for a couple of decades.

They didn't handle this thing right from the beginning.

If you go back, they were sitting here

with a bunch of star players

who had cheated.

You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes

to find these guys, okay?

Everybody knew

what those guys were doing,

and they couldn't ever get the genie back in the bottle.

Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you'll give

before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth,

and nothing but the truth?

Finally, there comes a point where Congress

gets involved and smacks baseball around,

and smacks Selig around.

And then you got these guys like Palmeiro and McGwire

and Sosa embarrassing themselves,

and Selig says, you know what? I've had enough of this.

We're gonna get tough.

I decided to do this investigation

so that no one could ever say

that baseball had something to hide.

Because I certainly did not.

Baseball now was gonna be really hard on everybody

after being so lax.

I tried reaching out to Bud Selig

and just get in front of him one-on-one

and talk this thing through before lawyers got involved

and all this other stuff.

I asked for two meetings, and he said no twice.

I was scared 'cause I knew this time around,

they were gonna come after us like there's no tomorrow.

Commissioner Selig told Rob Manfred

to do what he had to do to get to the bottom of the scandal.

Biogenesis then became, I would say, a circus act.

MLB had investigators down here knocking on doors,

trying to get documents.

People were paying people off.

I have private investigators all over the office,

people following our receptionist in the car,

a helicopter over our building.

I mean, there's just nowhere to hide,

and it just kept getting bigger and bigger.

They did things that you're saying,

baseball can't be doing this stuff.

I mean, they bought stolen evidence to try and get him.

A gentleman had the Biogenesis documents,

and we bought them.

How much?

$100,000.

I'm not saying A-Rod didn't make his bed.

He did.

But it was a good way to show the public

that they were gonna cleanse the sport.

And it was an easy mark.

He made himself an easy mark. He really did.

Some breaking news tonight within Major League Baseball.

We are learning that baseball is about to announce

its most sweeping set of suspensions

for use of performance-enhancing drugs.

At some point, they finished their investigation,

and now we were just on wait mode

to see what the penalties were gonna be.

And you heard anything from 50 games to lifetime ban.

So I remember the day and the call.

The phone rang,

and it was Tony Clark, the head of the union.

He goes, just wanna let you know

we got the suspension number.

And he said, it's 211 games.

And I said, 211 games?

I said, Tony, how can that be possible?

Like, I'm 40.

That means that I'm done.

They've... I'm retired.

And then I said, did everyone get the same, 211?

And he said, no, everyone else got 50 games.

And, uh... and I said, so how... we're all in the same union.

We all made the same mistake.

How does one get 50

and somebody else gets more than 4X?

What they have said is that they have what they believe is

a convincing case against A-Rod

that includes not only his use of performance-enhancing drugs,

but that he tried to subvert their investigation into it,

and maybe even tried to recruit some other players.

And that, for all those reasons,

his penalty will be more severe than the others.

It was confusing, because on one end I made...

I made the mistake, and I should be penalized.

But I kept hearing his voice, 211, 211.

I'm like, I couldn't even comprehend, at 39,

40 years old, how you can be suspended

for a year and a half.

Now a Yankees official tells me

they do expect him to appeal any suspension,

which means that his case will be heard,

then determined, by an arbitrator.

It could take over a month to settle.

Of course, I have to fight back.

I almost felt like I had no choice.

In one big scoop, it was like, okay, no Hall of Fame,

lifetime suspension, and the Yankees

were still on the hook for over $100 million.

I will say this...

there's more than one party that benefits from me

not ever stepping back on the field,

and that's not my teammates, and it's not the Yankee fans.

So the fight was no longer about, did I do it?

The fight is like, this is an overreach, and why?

And what's the agenda?

Just look at the scenario.

A-Rod stays on the field.

He plays during an appeals process.

But what happens every time he takes the field?

Isn't all the talk gonna be about steroids,

scandal, and A-Rod?

Alex, do you have anything to say about what happened?

Oh, there's no question about that.

It's gonna be a circus tonight.

But if A-Rod is smart about this,

his comments are gonna be as conciliatory as possible,

and he's gonna keep saying, we'll just let

the appeal play itself out.

Guys, do we have any water anywhere?

-We can get... get you some. -Okay.

Hey, could you grab a water?

Could you grab a water? Thank you.

Go ahead.

Steve and Dave.

Alex, in 2009, you asked fans to judge you from that point

forward in your press conference at spring training.

What would you say to them now, the people who

took you on your word then?

Well, I... I would tell them that, you know,

please have some patience.

Let this process play out.

You didn't deny the charges.

Do you deny that you use PEDs?

Like I said, I think we'll have a forum

to discuss all of that.

If you didn't use PEDs, why don't you just say it?

I... there's a lot of things that have been thrown

to the wall, and at some point,

we'll sit in front of an arbiter and give it our...

give our case.

And that's as much as I feel comfortable

telling you right now.

Like anything else, you gotta just put your blinders on and...

and do your job.

On the outside, it appears that Alex Rodriguez

is dealing with it, managing, playing baseball.

But so much swirling around him right now.

The only place he can't get asked the question...

unless it's by an umpire...

about something is on the field.

Everywhere else he goes, he goes home and watches TV,

any sports channel is talking about Alex.

Now batting for New York, the third baseman,

number 13, Alex Rodriguez.

I was somewhat prepared for that type of reaction,

because at that point,

I'd been going to opponents' ballpark

and getting booed everywhere.

That's just par for the course.

But this was different.

This wasn't about, like, hey, you're gonna beat my team.

This was like, hey, I don't like you.

So it was different.

Well, this is the first time we've seen something like this

since Alex Rodriguez returned, and I think we can say

with some certainty what the intent was after Dempster

hit him on the 3-0 pitch.

I mean, this is a little bit unusual.

It's uncomfortable.

You knew this was gonna happen at some point.

And it affected you.

-Yeah, but on the field... -I'm okay on the field.

It's kind of a strange thing.

Like, on the field, I can roll with anything.

Now he hits a deep drive.

Straightaway center field, and gone!

He's hit a lot of them in his career,

but I bet you he enjoyed that one more than most.

It was a hard day today, that's for sure.

A long day.

How angry were you when you got hit?

Yeah, I was pissed off.

Another hit for Rodriguez.

Considering how many players have spoken out

about you playing through your suspension,

are you concerned about this moving forward?

My hardest time was off the field.

You know, dealing with all the distractions.

It's been crazy.

I'm gonna do my very best to focus on baseball.

Every day there was, like, 20 different stories.

Calling you all these names, calling you Pablo Escobar,

calling you Whitey Bulger.

Somebody else said there's a RICO case open,

like, all these kind of

very aggressive allegations.

I mean, we live in a world where people believe

everything they read.

And I'm like, dude, I just crossed the line.

But like, I'm not Whitey Bulger.

Like, I've never committed a crime in my life.

Alex Rodriguez here has created a stir

as he made his way to the batter's box.

That was tough for us.

My job, I said before, was to try to limit distraction,

and in this particular case, I mean, how do you stop it?

I feel bad, like I said.

I mean, I'd much rather not be sitting here

talking about suspensions.

I'd rather be sitting here talking about a baseball game.

-It's official... -Alex Rodriguez is no longer

on speaking terms with the Yankees front office

because of the possibility of a looming lawsuit.

Alex Rodriguez taking aim at Major League Baseball,

accusing them of a smear campaign

to destroy his reputation.

He's suing people.

He's suing Major League Baseball,

and threatened to sue the Yankees.

He's going down with guns blazing.

It was a war against the union, the owners, the league.

And I was right in the middle of it.

It's a little like watching an accident in slow motion

over the last couple of weeks.

You know when the event is over,

somebody's gonna be hurt.

You don't know whether it's just A-Rod,

the Yankees, Major League Baseball, or all of the above.

Yeah, it was a soap opera, man.

I mean, it was a complete mess.

'Cause it was long and nasty and expensive

and, without a question, the worst time of my life.

Strike three.

And then we went to arbitration

and fought that 211.

Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez

goes before a Major League Baseball arbitrator today

to argue that his 211-game suspension

should be called off.

They lay out their case, we lay out our case,

but we didn't get anywhere.

I mean, they... they kicked our ass publicly

and in... and in the courtroom.

It was revealed during arbitration

the Rodriguez team admitted paying $305,000 for evidence.

You know, obviously, when it first happens,

you're gonna do whatever you gotta do

to try to make things what's supposedly right.

We had hired an attorney who hired, I guess

an investigative company.

And that investigative company said

that there was a hard drive that was available

that had a series of information on it,

and if we wanted to... to buy it.

And we said yes.

Was there any valuable information on that?

It was blank.

I mean, at the end of the day, I'm a ballplayer,

and I didn't know how to handle it.

It was... it was difficult.

Rodriguez wanted MLB's commissioner, Bud Selig,

to testify during this arbitration.

Well, today, the arbitrator decided

Selig does not have to testify.

-How do you force the issue? -We don't.

I mean, you know, we can't, you know,

go kidnap him in Milwaukee and bring him here.

I remember feeling angry and frustrated.

You know, if you're gonna give me a lifetime ban

or give me a 211 ban, I mean, we deserve to hear from you.

But when he didn't show up, I knew we were cooked.

♪ Sports Radio 66 and 101.9 FM, WFAN ♪

-A-Rod, welcome. How are you? -I've been better.

Tell me what happened today.

Well, we got a ruling that, uh,

the commissioner does not have to come in from Milwaukee.

And I lost my mind.

I banged a table and kicked a briefcase

and slammed out of the room and... and just

felt like the system...

I knew it was restricted, and I knew it wasn't fair.

But what we saw today...

A-Rod is his own worst enemy.

He always has been.

He's got a flaw.

PEDs... they said you did mountains of PEDs.

-Did you do any? -No.

Did you obstruct a witness?

-There was no obstruction. -There was no intimidating.

-There was none of that. -None of this?

None of that.

So they don't... there's not one thing you did?

No.

Hey, I'd be fighting, too, if that's the case.

He didn't say no quietly.

He came to my show and swore up and down, on the air,

off the air, that he was telling the truth.

It's outrageous if you're lying,

and it's outrageous if they're wrong and they didn't...

you didn't do anything.

That's even more outrageous.

So somebody's really badly wrong here.

I said, you realize that if you're lying,

you're never gonna climb out of this.

And he was in such a, you know, belligerent mood.

That day, all he wanted to do was tear Selig's head off.

The man from Milwaukee that put this suspension on me

with... with not one bit of evidence,

something I didn't do, he doesn't have the courage

to come look at me in the eye and tell me,

this is why I did 211?

I shouldn't serve one inning.

And I felt like in many ways, while I was guilty,

I thought I was backed into a corner.

Think about what I've been through.

If you are any other player of the 13 players,

with what I've been through, do you think anybody's

gonna fight Major League Baseball?

I don't think anybody has the money to do it, first of all.

I don't think he's vindictive.

I don't think he's hateful.

I think he just doesn't get it sometimes.

I didn't know if you were innocent or guilty,

because let's be honest, we know hundreds

of baseball players did steroids.

And you did steroids once, so I don't know if you

did steroids again or not. That's your business.

I knew what I was doing, and I thought

I can thread the needle.

And, you know, Bud Selig said, no way.

You are gonna get suspended for 211 games.

This has been a disgusting process for everyone,

and I'm more embarrassed than anyone

to be on the front pages in the news.

This is the game that I love more than anything,

and I feel like, this is what I have my PhD in, is baseball.

Even in his darkest day, I felt bad for him.

I probably shouldn't have, but I did,

because I saw a vulnerability there.

Hey, I appreciate you coming in.

And I guess we'll find out what's gonna happen.

This is obviously not the end of this by any stretch.

He didn't see, I don't think,

any other way out at that point.

It's like he had gone too far with the story

to change the story, until he had no choice

but to change the story.

Yesterday, one of the best baseball players of all time

was hit with the longest doping suspension in history.

After a contentious private hearing,

Major League Baseball's arbitration judge

took the Yankee third baseman out of the game

all of next season.

In my judgment, his actions

were beyond comprehension.

You put all the drug things on one side,

and then all the things that he did to, in my...

impede our investigation.

I think 211 games was a very fair penalty.

I was so pissed when I saw Bud Selig not show up

for the arbitration, not show up when I called

for a man-to-man meeting alone,

but he shows up on "60 Minutes."

And I was just like, okay, this is...

it is what it is.

You know, thank God the arbiter dropped it to 162.

His attorney tells ABC News

he will file a new lawsuit

to overturn A-Rod's historic

162-game suspension,

handed down by an arbitrator

this weekend.

You know when you keep running from a problem,

and you want the thing to go away,

the only way it's gonna go away

is when you face the music and it's over.

That's basically where we were at.

Four- or five-hour phone calls with lawyers

for eight, nine months, it takes a toll on you.

You start asking yourself,

with everything you have gone through,

where you've come from,

what you've been able to accomplish,

and everything we're doing, where are we?

You put yourself into this mess.

You gotta take ownership for yourself.

Good people in my life that...

that were trying to help me.

But the one that stands out is...

is Jim Sharp.

I like him.

He has been a good friend to me, and I have to him.

He's been tested.

And this steroid problem,

I think, was the depth for him.

Jim has a very good relationship with...

with Rob Manfred.

He called me, and at this time, he wasn't representing me yet.

And he said, Alex, I'm concerned because

not only are you ruining your baseball career,

but you're starting to screw up your life.

You can find yourself, as they say, in a hole,

and if you do, quit digging.

It looked to me like by lawyering up

and filing a bunch of lawsuits,

what we were doing was nurturing it.

I told him, you know, you've got to understand,

this is serious, of course,

but it's not a crime or anything.

This is a rule in baseball,

and you don't have to treat it so seriously

that you're trying to impress the client

by being assertive and...

and aggressive.

In fact, from the beginning, I thought the best way

to do this was to back away and let it get some hair on it.

I called him back and I said, hey, I need your help.

I'm certain I'm done with my baseball career,

but can you help me get my life back together?

And he said, yeah.

If it's okay with you, let me call

Rob Manfred in the morning.

The next morning, I had a meeting with the commissioner.

He said, what can I do for you?

I said, I understand you've finished your investigation.

Yeah, he said.

Lord, I'm so glad that it's done.

I said, I'll tell you what you can do.

You can let me see it.

He asked me, he said, what are you up to?

I said, let me see it,

and I think within 48 hours,

I'm going to start dismissing all these cases,

if I can get the authority to do it.

I looked at it about five minutes.

That was all I needed.

I left and I called Alex.

And he said, I think I have a plan together.

We should put all these lawsuits

and just put them down.

And then that's exactly when I threw up the white flag.

It's been revealed that the Yankees third baseman has

withdrawn his lawsuit against Major League Baseball,

the commissioner Bud Selig, and the Players Association,

which for all intents and purposes signals his surrender

and acceptance of the 162-game suspension

that was handed down...

-I said, that's it. -It's over.

This is a fucked-up way to end a pretty good career.

For the first time in 20-plus years,

I wasn't in spring training.

And then I started seeing the games start,

and I'm watching every night on YES Network.

I was like, this is really strange.

I remember waking up one night, and I'm like,

I'm the only dumb-ass in the world

that has pocket aces

and figures out a way how to lose the hand.

I mean, you have hundreds of millions

of dollars guaranteed to you.

You have three MVPs, you have a world championship.

Your legacy is cemented.

You're going straight to the Hall of Fame.

And then I crossed the line,

and I caused myself all of that,

plus the embarrassment and the shame

and my reputation.

I cringe when I think about how much I've hurt myself,

and I have no one to blame but myself.

And...

Yeah, I mean, looking back at it now, it was like...

why?

Yeah.

I'll never forget, I was looking at those mountains,

and it felt like, you're never gonna be able to climb it.

And to a degree, I was like, why am I here?

I've already ruined everything.

It was a blessing that I had started with Dr. David

prior to the Miami news article breaking.

It was good to have him by my side at that time.

We spent hours and hours and hours

on the Yankees, the suspension, Bud Selig.

There was so much hate there.

I was really angry inside.

Still, I wasn't, like, at that place

where I was accepting everything.

Dr. David would, like, put a quick stop to that and just...

he would always turn it back to me and says,

what was your... what was your part in this?

And at first, I just really rejected that way of thinking.

I wasn't thinking clearly.

I was, um...

I was the victim.

And just missing things.

Just, like, not seeing things.

Well, Major League Baseball had something against me,

versus, like, I screwed up, and they were doing their jobs.

And if I didn't screw up, even if they wanted to hurt me,

they... they couldn't hurt me.

And how there's a cause and effect of my actions, you know?

And then, you know, months, months, and years later,

I started feeling like, okay.

I understand exactly what happened here, and it's on me.

But that was a long bridge to walk,

a lot of work, a lot of time.

I mean, we went all the way back to... to birth,

early days in New York.

He said, tell me about Victor.

Oh, well, Victor, man, he was...

I was on that couch right there.

Oh, Victor, he was really smart, good-looking,

really good with numbers, loved baseball.

We used to love playing baseball together.

He said, man, you're so full of shit.

Which I was, 'cause I was dancing around it.

I was still kind of bullshitting,

like, protecting my dad.

The first time that it hit me, like, hard

was when I would have to go and do my writing assignments.

He would give me homework assignments,

and I would have to come up with vignettes

where I would have these mock conversations with my father.

And I would tell him, I'm a terrible writer, so.

And he says, it's not the point about how good of a writer

you are, it's about your emotions.

So I said, okay.

Now, I'm, like, eight years old here, okay?

How are you, my son?

I say, I'm not doing well, Dad.

Why not, son?

Because you abandoned us...

Mom, Joe, Suzy, me.

When we needed you most, you left us.

I was only ten.

My father... that's not the case at all, son.

I love you.

You're my prince, my number one.

I say, really?

You're full of shit, Dad.

My dad says, but son, I've always loved you.

We were attached at the hip when we lived in New York

and DR from age one to ten.

Then your mom, Miami, it was tough, you know?

Look, I don't expect you to understand this.

These are the things that occurred back then.

I say, Victor... not Dad, Victor...

stop.

You're bullshitting me.

You're full of shit.

You've done it for 43 years.

Enough is enough.

You've lied to me from day one.

That's why I'm so full of shit myself.

I grew up around it.

I thought I can get away with everything like you,

bullshit myself through life.

My dad says, what are you talking about?

How about 2014, my full-year suspension for using PEDs,

then acting like a fucking asshole,

doubling down, blaming everyone?

Sounds familiar yet?

Does it remind you of anyone, Dad?

Dads says, I'm gonna go now.

Hmm.

Of course you are.

That's par for the course.

Except for one big difference.

This time, I'm ready. Goodbye.

Don't fucking come back.

Let's hit it.

I always bring up the guys who have it really together...

Jeter, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady.

Very strong families, very strong parenting.

A-Rod didn't have that.

I think when you don't have a sense of self,

and you're a young person trying to fit in,

you could take the path of adjusting your personality,

your likes and dislikes and your behavior,

according to the company that you keep.

I think he was kind of an immature guy.

He missed a lot of developmental steps,

when you're in your 20s, and suddenly

you're making so much money and you're a big deal,

and that's hard.

That's really hard for people, I think.

And if they don't have this solid foundation of people

in their lives...

maybe a father figure, for Alex, who was missing...

it is very destabilizing to have that level

of fame and attention.

So I think all these things contribute to...

to maybe not feeling completely secure in who you are.

From the age of 19, for 162 nights,

he was on TV for three and a half hours,

and you were watching him.

And then you followed him into the locker room

for another 45 minutes, and you were watching him.

We didn't know how to handle his fame,

'cause there's not a playbook to it.

And so it was... it was trying for all of us in that respect.

You know, the difference between Alex and I is,

I learned a lot playing with my dad,

watching him.

You know, how to set up pitchers,

how to be a pro, how to do all these things.

I'm looking at someone that I look like

and who loves me for me... not for what I do, just for me.

When I was in Little League, I used to always look

for my parents in the stands,

and it just made me comfortable.

It was the same thing when I was in the Major Leagues.

I looked for my parents. It made me comfortable.

I think it comes back to the kid whose dad wasn't there.

He chases acceptance.

He wants to be accepted, and he wants to be loved.

And you keep score with success, homers and RBIs

and batting average, maybe money.

He wanted so much to be respected and loved.

And he wanted everything,

and he seeks it in the worst ways,

the worst ways, that backfired terribly.

I mean, it's just part of him, and I think that's...

in a lot of ways, it's been his curse.

I just don't think he had that perspective

or that parent to, like, pull him aside

and say, what are you doing?

That's where the self-confidence comes in

and the groundedness and the rootedness of somebody's,

like, moral fiber.

And he was lacking in those areas.

He just was.

I don't know, they might have still gone that way.

Maybe his father didn't have skills

that he would have needed.

Maybe he didn't.

Maybe he wouldn't have suffered the loss of his dad

but maybe he wouldn't have been aggressively trying

to become the best he could.

Otherwise, I mean, who knows, right?

I'm not sure if I would have accomplished what I did

on the field with a present father,

but I certainly think that having a present father

would have helped me avoid

some of the dumb-ass decisions that I've made.

Being here, like, at ground zero, just keeps you honest.

And I would say that my entire mission, post-Dr. David,

basically comes down to two things,

and I think about these two things every single day.

One is decreasing, diminishing your ego,

and the other one is increasing self-awareness.

Before Dr. David, it was opposite.

And Dr. David, we would always tell each other,

watch me here and don't let me get slippery.

Making sure you're saying what you mean and mean what you say,

like, all these things are...

they sound, like, so basic.

But the truth of the matter was, they weren't basic to me.

Thank God that I finally learned,

'cause if I didn't, I wouldn't be here.

I thought you were so much better

once we got on the real road, after the reps.

I thought you were gonna say than Tashi.

I... I am though, right?

Actually, I think at this point,

you're more advanced than Tashi.

When I served my suspension,

one of the most pivotal moments

was when I sat Natasha and Ella down in my office,

and I'm telling them what happened

and why I'm serving a suspension.

It was really important for me to be as honest as I can be

for an 11 and 7-year-old.

And not bullshit them, because I never wanted them

to feel like they have to bullshit Dad.

And I remember they both gave me a hug.

And they said, uh,

don't worry, Dad, you can do this.

And Ella, who was five, said,

Dad, you don't need anybody's help.

You can still hit home runs.

He's always said to me, he's like,

you can tell me anything.

Whatever you're going through, I've done worse.

And so he's like, I don't care what you try,

what experience you have with people.

He's like, I've done worse.

And so that's always kind of been like a safety blanket.

All phones, everything's disconnected here, right?

-Like, no... -Yes, Dad.

Snap, WhatsApp, none of the messages.

Okay, here we go.

You need your full attention.

You're gonna go straight.

I do think he's become so much more aware.

From what I've heard about him back in those years

was that, like, he just, like, could not put his pride aside,

was just a mess, kind of.

Like, I... he's even showed me, like,

old clips and stuff of him speaking,

and it's just not the same person.

Like, he's truly, like, evolved in that sense.

-That's good. -That was a little jerky beef.

What?

I think when for a big part of your life,

you're a narcissist...

and I say I'm a recovering narcissist.

That was foreign for me, to, uh...

lean into being a father.

Quite honestly, I don't know if I could be a good parent

without Dr. David.

I didn't have a dad that I can copy and paste.

I was, like, shooting darts in the... in the dark,

hoping for the best.

And he helped every facet of my life.

He made me a better baseball player, a better teammate,

more humble, full of gratitude.

And we thought about quitting baseball.

It was like, maybe I just try to piece my life back together

but maybe just disappear and not...

and not play again.

I thought it was obvious the Yankees

didn't want me to come back.

You never have to face the music again.

You don't have to face your demons.

You don't have to go back to stadiums and get booed,

and I would've disappeared.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I didn't wanna be remembered for my darkest moment.

I thought, after being body-slammed at 40 years old,

broken down, when nobody thinks I can do it...

That the comeback matters too.

That season was probably the single most

important season in my life.

And I'll never forget this.

As I drove to the stadium, I made a promise to myself...

whether I go 4 for 4 or 0 for 4,

I'm gonna enjoy it,

because I do not know when they're gonna

take the uniform away again.

♪ You know it's been a long, long road ♪

This is his first appearance in a big league game

since the end of 2013.

I never thought we'd see him again, ever.

I thought he'd never play again.

I thought he'd never be in the public eye again.

That one is driven out to right center, and A-Rod gets

his first hit of the season.

But, you know, Alex does have...

he's got cubes.

High drive, left field.

There it goes!

I'm 40 years old.

I'm out of jail.

I'm a fucking New York Yankee.

-Here's the throw. -Here's the play.

-Nice! -He's in there!

And I went out and had one of the best years of my career.

This one is off the top of the wall, and gone!

He tried to make amends with people,

and he also accepted blame.

If he tried to, like, A-Rod himself through it,

I don't think it would have worked,

but I think he was pretty genuine.

1-1.

Lined into right center field. That's a base hit.

It'll go to the wall!

That'll tie the score.

Number 660.

Home run number 661 breaks the tie with Willie Mays,

and it breaks the tie...

You come back from a year's suspension

and have 33 home runs.

It shows how great the guy is.

Pop fly ball.

Deep down the center.

There it goes!

Yeah!

A grand slam.

I said, you're Lazarod.

You just rose from the dead.

People don't come back from this.

He's only the second man in history to get 2,000 RBIs.

Not only does he come back, but he's come back

more popular than ever before.

He was dead!

There's no coming back from that, and somehow he did.

♪ Find your way back ♪

It's carrying.

It's back near the wall, and just like Derek Jeter,

his 3,000th hit is a home run.

♪ Find your way back ♪

I'm on a journey of being

a man with integrity and character, and someone that...

that you can bet on and you can trust.

You can go a whole lifetime without changing a fucking 5%.

And the fact that I've changed so much,

I can only credit Dr. David for putting up with me.

So even though Dr. David is not around anymore,

he still lives in me.

If Dr. David was here, I'd be ragging on him,

and I'd give him a big hug,

and try to make him feel really uncomfortable around you guys.

And then I would give him a bunch of compliments,

and he would tell me to stop.

He hates that. He doesn't want it.

He's a very, very private person.

That's why you gotta...

like, we're in the middle of nowhere here in Evergreen,

and this... where the sessions are.

But I...

He was so tough on me.

He was really hard on me.

I thought too hard, at times.

But in the end, I know why he was doing it.

He saved my life.

The last two seasons, and as Jack alluded to, 2015,

a Renaissance season.

33 home runs and drove in 86 runs.

But this season, limited to 62 games,

just 9 home runs, 3 for 30 since...

He was getting beat a little bit with the fastball.

Once that happens and you're an older player...

The Yankees said he was over matched,

and when you put that classification on a player,

you're not gonna use that player very often.

I love this game, and I love this team.

And today, I'm saying goodbye to both.

Talking with Hal Steinbrenner here

on "The Michael Kay Show."

Every account in the media, Hal,

is that this was very cordial,

and it was not confrontational.

Just wanted to have an honest conversation with him

and convey to him kind of where we're going,

that we're gonna start to bring up young players.

With that happening, in all likelihood,

it's not gonna mean that he's gonna be getting more at-bats.

And he understood that. He understood that.

I wanna thank my mom, who's watching at home,

and my daughters, my family, my friends,

former managers, coaches, teammates.

Thank you for your support.

You've been through so much with me.

I cried when he said he was gonna retire.

I was so sad for him. I didn't want him to retire.

It was, like, sad for me to see him finish.

But on the flip side of that, I respected him

for walking away when he was still, you know,

agile and able to play.

Please welcome to the field number 13.

He's grown a lot, man.

We've all grown.

We've just been able to figure out that it was all necessary

for us to be where we are today

with our kids, with our family.

Yeah.

Yeah, Alex is a good person.

He's good.

He probably wishes he could do things over again,

because I tell you, he'd be a Hall-of-Famer

on the first ballot.

The 2-2.

Line drive, base hit!

Souza cannot cut it off. It'll go to the wall!

Gardner will score.

He has an RBI double, and the Yankees

have tied the game at 1.

He probably should get in now.

I know a lot of people feel different,

but I'm not a baseball purist.

Swing and a miss.

Betances strikes out the side, and the Yankees win 6 to 3,

and Alex Rodriguez goes out with a victory.

One of the greatest careers in baseball history,

and it concludes in pinstripes tonight.

The first time that I knew Dr. David's work

was really working, I was, like,

4 home runs shy of 700.

And my instinct said, come on, Hal.

Let me just get four more, man.

Four more, and I can do it.

Give me... give me a month.

I've worked so hard for this.

And I thought about it for, like, five minutes.

And I said, you know what?

696 with the Yankees was greater than 700

with another uniform on.

I think the way I handled that made me really, really proud,

because A-Rod would still be playing right now.

So the curtain comes down on the complicated but brilliant

career of Alex Rodriguez.

I think that after the suspension,

he retired in peace.

And while he may never, you know,

step foot in the Hall of Fame,

I just think he was a Hall-of-Famer day one,

you know?

Only a fool would say A-Rod wasn't a great player.

He won three MVPs.

He's in the top 10 or top 20 in most statistics.

He had 3,000 hits. He had 2,000 RBIs.

He had 2,000 runs scored.

He had 696 home runs.

He won Gold Gloves at shortstop.

Even with those numbers, as outstanding and amazing

as they are, not gonna happen.

Not gonna happen.

And that's the blessings and the curse,

and that's what makes him that Shakespearean figure.

What was going through your mind as you made that walk?

Well, it was exciting.

That's... that's where I played, you know,

a lot of my baseball over here.

That's where we won the World Championship in 2009.

And, uh...

This is my favorite moment, when my girls come out.

I mean, through it all, to be able to have that opportunity

to close my career like this,

I felt an incredible amount of gratitude.

I'll cherish that for the rest of my life,

to walk out of that stadium with a full house,

with a standing ovation, with my head high.

And in the middle of that suspension,

I felt that was an impossibility.

I can't say enough about these fans.

Um...

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.

I believe you are defined by your mistakes,

but you are also further defined

by how you mend your mistakes.

You can never get rid of it.

There's not a full erasure.

I don't think you ever get out from under them,

but you could write another chapter.

Like, we have to always mitigate risk.

But also, I don't see any risk whatsoever on that, because...

You know, it's funny.

In some regards, he's really landed a lot better

than I ever thought possible.

If I had told you then that he'd be doing network baseball

as a broadcaster, I mean, that's a very

visible, coveted position.

Would you ever think this is a guy who would go out

with Warren Buffett and own a professional sports team

and be an incredible success business-wise?

He's got two adoring daughters that he loves.

If he's looking for more than this,

I'm gonna have to slap him around.

He's doing okay.

-Send those next. -Send those.

I guess the question I'd ask him is,

have you finally found yourself?

Are you finally comfortable with who you are?

In a weird way, that suspension,

you know, thinking about it ten years later,

while I cringed and I'm embarrassed

and I burned bridges,

someday... not quite yet... I'll be able to say

that's the best thing that happened in my life.

Because I took that opportunity to pause,

turn the lens inward...

And I've come out on the other side.

Not a Hall-of-Famer, which sucks,

but a happier person.

I was in there for a really, really long time,

and I thought it was everything.

But...

it's the Hall of Fame. It's not heaven.

I know the haters are saying... they're saying,

like, yeah, BS, I don't believe it.

I'm sure there's people watching here that are like,

what do you call it? Like, hate-watch.

And no matter what I say, they're gonna spin it

to why they're gonna hate me more, right?

They're gonna think I'm slippery,

and they're gonna find something in this documentary

to say, see, I told you so.

That's why that guy's an asshole.

I don't trust him. I don't like him.

And that's fine.

But I'm done saying I'm sorry.

I'm done.

Like, new day.

Moving on.

A fucking new decade.

I'm in a great place,

and I sit in my gratitude and my humility

to move forward, and I choose to ignore those

who will always be haters.

God bless you.