Neal Justin: Alex Rodriguez gets the softball treatment in HBO documentary

Neal Justin, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Nov 12, 2025

Published in Baseball

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MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesotans have gotten used to accepting Timberwolves and Lynx co-owner Alex Rodriguez as a buttoned-up exec, willing to hang just outside the spotlight.

“Alex vs. ARod,” a three-part documentary that clocks in at over 200 minutes, takes us back to his bad-boy days, but not without lots of explanations and excuses. The Wolves public relations department couldn’t ask for more positive propaganda.

The first installment, now streaming on HBO Max (new episodes premiere at 8 p.m. Thursdays on HBO), barely mentions his divisive ego and seasonlong ban because of his use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Instead, the focus is on his obsession with baseball and how the weight of the world fell on his shoulders when he started playing in the major leagues at the tender age of 18.

Directors Gotham Chopra and Erik LeDrew want viewers to believe that his shortcomings were due largely to high expectations and the fact that his father deserted the family when Rodriguez was only 10.

Rodriguez’s stake in Minnesota teams is barely mentioned in the film, but it does dedicate considerable time to the short-lived reunion the then-Seattle Mariner and his dad had during a 2000 road trip to the Metrodome.

“It was probably the best four games of my career,” says Rodriguez, who is so subdued and reflective in fresh interviews that you might not notice the numerous obscenities. “I just put on a show for four days. It was phenomenal.”

It’s not until the end of part two that the film starts digging into the drug use and subsequent attempts at deception. Rodriguez, as he has for many years, is contrite and apologetic.

“I’m a recovering narcissist,” he says.

But other aspects of his personal life are skimmed over. His rivalry with fellow Yankee Derek Jeter is treated like a scuffle over who gets to ride shotgun. There are shots of his most famous girlfriends, including Cameron Diaz and Kate Hudson, but no real commentary on his quest to be a big cheese off the field.

The talking heads, which include family members, former manager Lou Piniella and Katie Couric, have some nits. But there’s not one commentator in the bunch who wouldn’t cast a vote for him to be in the Hall of Fame.

The real emotion comes in the final installment in which Rodriquez details his experiences in therapy with the late Dr. David Schnarch. He even goes so far as to revisit the secluded offices in Colorado where they had their sessions.

“He saved my life,” Rodriguez says, as he starts to tear up.

Chopra and LeDrew, who previously worked together on the equally sympathetic project “Man in the Arena: Tom Brady,” would have had a more balanced doc if they had recruited more Rodriguez detractors (former MLB Commissioner Bud Selig declined an opportunity to be involved). But that would have screwed with the film’s overall theme of redemption.

In the end, “Alex vs. ARod” wants to sell you on the idea that the 50-year-old superstar’s greatest sin was loving baseball so much that he didn’t make enough time to love himself.

Maybe. But you don’t have to be a Red Sox fan to leave room for skepticism.