This story is a partnership with The Street, part of Sports Illustrated’s exploration of the ways sports and finance intertwine—from the NIL revolution to online betting, business-minded athletes and more. For more on sports and money, see SI’s October 2023 Money Issue or go to TheStreet.com.
Alex Rodriguez always assumed he would be a businessman, not a professional athlete. That wasn’t him doubting his talents on the field, but even from a young age, the future Yankees World Series champion and three-time league MVP was simply being pragmatic.
“I always remember that I wanted to be in business, and I wanted to be a major league baseball player. I thought the business route was more realistic,” he says. “Because really, don’t we all want to be baseball players, but usually, we don’t make it, right? So that was kind of where it started.”
Business, however, had a lot more room for success, so the man who would grow up to be one of the greatest baseball players of all time followed both paths.
“It started probably when I was, like, 10 years old. I always had two passions, and they’ve been two B’s: baseball and business,” he says.
The shortstop and third baseman credits his father, who owned a shoe store in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, as being his inspiration.
“Before we had these iPhones, like, they called him the human calculator. He was really good with numbers,” Rodriguez says. “If you bought three shoes, most people needed to get a calculator out or something. And he would just say, like, the total is $322 plus 42 cents. And that includes tax and everything. They thought he was like a magician.”
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Even as a young prodigy in baseball, Rodriguez was very aware that every player has a limited time they can play the game.
“It was weird because I was thinking about life after baseball before my rookie season,” he says. “I just think that the connectivity to baseball and business was always good. They both have numbers involved. So that’s kind of my language.”
That has served Rodriguez well in his appearance as a guest “Shark” on Shark Tank, a show where investors make real-time decisions about investing in the companies presented on the program.
“When you spend 20 years playing, you start getting this pattern recognition, whether that’s the way the deal sounds, whether it’s valuing a business with revenue and profits,” he says. “And then the one thing that is a huge overlap is with founders and great athletes, there’s a lot of commonality. And usually they’re very coachable,” he shares.
A-Rod’s business empire started with a single purchase that was also inspired by his childhood.
“We were lifelong renters as a kid with my mom. And I remember we had to move every 18 months because the landlord kept raising the rent,” he says. “So one of my early prayers that was answered was, if I ever get an opportunity to change places with a landlord, I will.”
The opportunity to do that came about a decade later, he says, when he had the chance to buy a duplex for around $250,000.
“I needed a little bit less than $50,000 for a down payment. And off we went,” he says. “And that was the start of what I've been doing now for almost 25 years. We’ve acquired over 20,000 multifamily apartments. And we’ve acquired almost 10,000 single-family homes.”
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Rodriguez made the purchase that launched his empire partially from advice he was given by Earvin “Magic” Johnson in the early days of his playing career. It’s advice he freely shares with people he mentors now.
“You gotta start somewhere, and you gotta start small,” he says. “What I liked about multifamily apartments, it was in my circle of competence. And it was something that generated cash flow. And it also had appreciation and tax benefits.”
The slugger turned CEO has also used his experience as a renter to make decisions that are good for his business and his tenants.
“In a perfect model, you keep your tenants in one place for five or 10 years, and that will be ideal, and you don't want turnover. So one of the things we try to provide is obviously better security, better lighting,” he says.
Rodriguez runs his businesses with a long-term mindset he got at least partly from his friend and mentor Warren Buffett.
“Any business that we own, we think about owning it for 100 years. And the reason we do that, and being a private company, is we’re able to do things in the short term that over time would increase enterprise and bring value and protect what we’re doing with the brand,” he says.
