Cynthia Rodriguez Nicolas (née Scurtis), the ex-wife of Alex Rodriguez, as soon as tried to dealer a reconciliation between the baseball star and his estranged father.
Earlier than Cynthia, 52, and Alex, 50, have been even married, she proposed a gathering between Alex and his father, Victor, who left Alex and his household when he was simply 9 years previous.
“I may hear an angst in him, a craving to reconnect,” Cynthia defined within the first episode of the HBO docuseries Alex vs ARod, which premiered on Thursday, November 6. “I felt that he wanted to have a gathering along with his dad.”
So, in 2000, Cynthia took issues into her personal palms and floated the concept of trying to trace down Alex’s father on her personal. (Cynthia and Alex have been married from 2002 to 2008 and share daughters Natasha, 20, and Ella, 17.)
“At first it was type of like a tough ‘No,’” Alex stated within the docuseries. “I didn’t wish to open up these wounds once more. After which she began working me and telling me why this may very well be helpful, that I might have regrets if he passes and we don’t shut the loop.”
Cynthia received in contact with Alex’s cousin, who knew the place Victor was residing, and the group agreed to satisfy throughout a Seattle Mariners four-game highway journey to Minnesota in June 2000. Alex was drafted with the No. 1 total decide by the Mariners within the 1993 MLB Draft and spent the primary seven seasons of his profession with the franchise.
“The primary day, Cynthia picks him up and takes him to, like, T.J. Maxx or one thing and buys him 4 fits, as a result of he likes to put on fits on a regular basis,” Alex remembered.
On the airport, Cynthia noticed Victor and “knew instantly it was his dad.”
“I went as much as him, and he held my hand and he known as me his daughter,” Cynthia stated of their preliminary assembly. “He was similar to, I don’t know, it was unhappy. I believed, ‘Wow, how did this occur?’”
The trio had adjoining rooms in a resort in Minnesota — Alex and Cynthia in a single room, Victor within the different — which was meant to foster dialog between Alex and his father, who he hadn’t seen in 14 years.
“I hoped that they’d rekindle and that among the previous wounds would heal and that they’d have time collectively to share,” Cynthia stated. “Possibly they misplaced these adolescence collectively, however they might recapture one thing now.”
Nevertheless, issues have been instantly extra tense than therapeutic.
“The primary few days was a number of silence on my half,” Alex recalled. “It felt awkward. I felt dangerous for Cynthia as a result of she was like Decide Judy within the center, attempting to make small discuss and slightly joke right here, slightly joke there. I wasn’t having it.”
Cynthia and Victor went to all 4 video games of the Mariners’ sequence towards the Twins. Throughout that point, Alex realized a reconciliation along with his father was most likely not within the playing cards.
“I keep in mind it was the third recreation and I see them each clapping up there and I search for for a second and I’m like, ‘Yeah, that is what you walked away from. F*** off,’” Alex stated.
He added, “These are the one 4 video games that he ever noticed me play.”
Victor died in 2014.
The primary episode of Alex vs ARod is accessible on HBO Max, with episodes two and three premiering on November 13 and November 20, respectively.
