At a very young age, Alex Rodriguez, who was born in New York, moved to Miami, after his father’s Manhattan-based business started failing. However, after moving to Miami, A-Rod’s father made the bold decision of abandoning his family and moving back to New York. This unexpected decision led to A-Rod’s mother Lourdes Rodriguez working two shifts a day to make ends meet at home.

But not for too long. Despite abandoning his family, Victor Rodriguez left young Alex with a passion for three things, one of which defined him at the young age of 17, and turned around the life of the entire Rodriguez family.

But what were the three things that defined A-Rod’s life and helped transform his family’s life?

The three things that define A-Rod today age back to the time he spent with his father:

Number one, as revealed by A-Rod on the Club30 with Henrik Lundqvist, was his love for baseball. He credited his Dominican roots for their family’s shared love of baseball. Second, it was his father’s entrepreneurship ambitions, which drove the shortstop to start A-Rod Corp in 1996. And finally, A-Rod claimed that his love for fashion too originated from the umpteen number of suits and shirts his father owned.

On the podcast, A-Rod said, “You know, growing up in born in New York raised in Miami, I was fortunate to have my father from age zero to ten before him and my mother split. He was passionate about really three things. Baseball number one, because we’re Dominican and that’s like a religion. Number two, he was an entrepreneur and great with numbers. And number three he loved fashion and I remember as a little kid being three years old and going into my father’s closet and there was like 30 suits and like 30 white shirts and I was like oh man I want that to be my closet one day.”

Read More: Amidst Deafening Boos From Yankees Fans, Alex Rodriguez Recalls Frenemy Derek Jeter’s Magic Words That Helped Him Turn Things Around

Notably, A-Rod concluded his baseball career with 696 homers, and is worth over $350 million today, with his two biggest assets being the Minnesota Timberwolves, and the Waldorf Hotel in Washington DC, previously owned by ex-president Donald Trump.

What record did Alex Rodriguez break when he made his Mariners debut in 1994?

The Mariners drafted A-Rod in the 1993 baseball draft. One year in, on July 8, 1994, A-Rod made his major league debut and became the first 18-year-old major league player in 10 years, and the youngest position player in Seattle’s history.

All in all, while A-Rod’s father abandoned his family at a very young age, he left young Alex with a massive baseball dream, which has invariably carried the slugger to a net worth of $350 million today.

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