How My First Baseball Coach Became a Forever Mentor: Alex Rodriguez’s Story

My family was still getting settled in Miami when I first came to Boys & Girls Clubs of Miami-Dade. My mom was simply looking for a safe, supervised place where my siblings and I could play after school. What I found was a second home and the spark that started my professional baseball career.

At nine years old, baseball already had my heart, but it was at the Hank Kline Boys & Girls Club where I first learned to play on an organized team. It’s also where I met the Club director, Eddie “El Gallo” Rodriguez, who became my first baseball coach and a forever mentor.

I spent most of my childhood without a father figure at home. While we weren’t related, Eddie naturally stepped into this role. He showed up for me every day, believed in my potential, and encouraged me to dream bigger, both on and off the field. The Club also brought my mom peace of mind, knowing my siblings and I had a safe, structured place to go to after school while she worked multiple jobs.

When the school day ended, school sports and hours at the Club filled my afternoons. I loved my Club athletics, but it wasn’t the skills I gained that mattered most; it was the values I learned from Eddie and other staff. Discipline, hard work, resilience — these fundamentals helped me lead my high school baseball team to the state championship. I didn’t leave the Club until after graduation when I joined the Seattle Mariners as the number one draft pick in Major League Baseball that year.

For the next 22 years, I played professionally with the Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers and New York Yankees — a fact that’s widely known. What many people don’t know is that throughout this time, I could always rely on Eddie for guidance and support whenever I needed it. Eddie is an icon himself, having devoted more than 50 years to mentoring young people at the Hank Kline Club. Along the way, he’s watched dozens of Club kids, including me, make it to the big leagues.

In 2021, I thought of Eddie as I dawned Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s signature blue jacket at my own BGCA Alumni Hall of Fame induction. Looking back, it’s clear that my Club experiences not only helped inspire my dreams but equipped me with the skills to achieve them.

Mentors like Eddie and countless others at the Club helped shape me into a better athlete. More importantly, they shaped me into a better leader, a better father and a better man.

Over the years, I’ve worked hard to give back to young people and communities just as they have, including as a proud board member for both my childhood Club and Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

I’m not the only professional athlete who spent their formative years at a Boys & Girls Club — far from it in fact. For decades, Clubs have enabled more kids to get in the game by removing costly barriers to sports, such as equipment and transportation. Yet, Boys & Girls Clubs don’t only nurture champions in sports; they nurture champions in life.

At over 5,500 locations, Club members spend their out-of-school time learning financial literacy, exploring careers, applying for post-secondary education, and building healthy habits.

Not every young athlete goes professional, but every child who plays sports at a Boys & Girls Club learns the same lessons I did: leadership, perseverance and teamwork.

These are building blocks that guide lifelong success. I would know — I’ve relied on them throughout my career in baseball and in business.

Life is a sport, and Boys & Girls Clubs of America is a team you can count on to help today’s youth become tomorrow’s leaders. That’s why America needs Club kids, and why Club kids need all of us.