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Tag: alex rodriguez

  • What to Stream: ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps,’ Tracy Morgan, Kim Kardashian and ‘Downton Abbey’

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    The earnest superhero team-up tale “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” and Tracy Morgan returning to TV with a new comedy called “Crutch” are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.

    Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: The upstairs-downstairs drama “Downton Abbey” bids farewell in a final movie, Kim Kardashian plays a divorce attorney in Hulu’s “All’s Fair” and Willie Nelson continues to demonstrate his prolific output with the release of yet another new album this year.

    New movies to stream from Nov. 3-9

    — Guillermo del Toro realizes his long-held dream of a sumptuous Mary Shelley adaptation in “Frankenstein” (Friday Nov. 7 on Netflix). Del Toro’s film, starring Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi as his monster, uses all the trappings of handmade movie craft to give Shelley’s classic an epic sweep. In her review, AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr wrote: “Everything about ‘Frankenstein’ is larger than life, from the runtime to the emotions on display.”

    — Matt Shakman’s endearingly earnest superhero team-up tale “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” (Wednesday on Disney+) helps alleviate a checkered-at-best history of big-screen adaptations of the classic Stan Lee-Jack Kirby comic. Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn play Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, the Thing and the Human Torch, respectively. In 1964, they work to defend Earth from its imminent destruction by Galactus. In my review, I praised “First Steps” as “a spiffy ’60s-era romp, bathed in retrofuturism and bygone American optimism.”

    John Cougar Mellencamp performs both on stage and on one of two large screen television screens set up at the University of Illinois Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Ill. on Sept. 22, 1985 during the Farm Aid concert. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, file)

    — “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” (Friday, Nov. 7 on Peacock) bids goodbye to the Crawleys 15 years after Julian Fellowes first debuted his upstairs-downstairs drama. The cast of the third and final film, directed by Simon Curtis, includes Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery and Paul Giamatti. In her review, AP’s Jocelyn Noveck wrote that the film gives “loyal Downton fans what they want: a satisfying bit of closure and the sense that the future, though a bit scary, may look kindly on Downton Abbey.” Peacock is also streaming the two previous movies and all six seasons of “Downton Abbey.”

    — “The Materialists” (Friday, Nov. 7 on HBO Max), Celine Song’s follow-up to her Oscar-nominated 2023 breakthrough “Past Lives,” stars Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans in a romantic triangle. The New York-set film adds a dose of economic reality to a romantic comedy plot in what was, for A24, a modest summer hit. In her review, AP’s Jocelyn Noveck called it “a smart rom-com that tries to be honest about life and still leaves us smiling.”

    — AP Film Writer Jake Coyle

    New music to stream from Nov. 3-9

    — The legendary Willie Nelson continues to demonstrate his prolific output with the release of yet another new album this year. “Workin’ Man: Willie Sings Merle,” out Friday, Nov. 7, is exactly what it sounds like: Nelson offering new interpretations of 11 classic songs written by Merle Haggard. And we mean classics: Check out Nelson’s latest take on “Okie From Muskogee,” “Mama Tried,” “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here And Drink” and more.

    — Where’s the future of the global music industry? All over, surely, but it would be more than just a little wise to look to Brazil. Not too dissimilar to how Anitta brought her country’s funk genre to an international mainstream through diverse collaborations and genre meddling, so too is Ludmilla. On Thursday, she will release a new album, “Fragmentos,” fresh off the heels of her sultry, bilingual collaboration with Grammy winner Victoria Monét, “Cam Girl.” It’s a combination of R&B, funk and then some.

    — AP Music Writer Maria Sherman

    New series to stream from Nov. 3-9

    — Tracy Morgan returns to TV with a new comedy called “Crutch.” Morgan plays a widowed empty-nester whose world is turned around when his adult children move home with his grandkids in tow. The Paramount+ series debuts Monday.

    — Kim Kardashian says she will soon learn whether she passed the bar exam to become a lawyer, but she plays a sought-after divorce attorney in “All’s Fair,” her new TV series for Hulu. Kardashian stars alongside Glenn Close, Sarah Paulson, Niecy Nash-Betts, Naomi Watts and Teyana Taylor in the show about an all-female law firm. Ryan Murphy created the show with Kardashian in mind after she acted in “American Horror Story: Delicate.” It premieres Tuesday on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.

    — The old saying about truth being stranger than fiction applies to Netflix’s new four-episode limited-series “Death by Lightning.” It’s a historical dramatization (with some comedy thrown in) about how James Garfield became the 20th president of the United States. He was shot four months later by a man named Charles Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen), who was desperate for Garfield’s attention. Two months after that, Garfield died from complications of his injuries. It’s a wild story that also features Betty Gilpin, Nick Offerman, Bradley Whitford and Shea Whigham. The series premieres Thursday.

    — HBO offers up a new docuseries about the life of retired baseball superstar Alex Rodriguez. “Alex Vs. A-Rod” features intimate interviews with people who are related to and know Rodriguez, as well as the man himself. The three-part series premieres Thursday.

    — The next installment of “Wicked,” called “Wicked: For Good,” flies into theaters Nov. 21 and NBC has created a musical special to pump up the release. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande lead “Wicked: One Wonderful Night,” a concert event that premieres Thursday on NBC and streams on Peacock Friday, Nov. 7. Additional film cast members like Michelle Yeoh, Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode and Ethan Slater appear as well.

    — Alicia Rancilio

    New video games to play from Nov. 3-9

    — It’s going to be a while until the next Legend of Zelda game, but if you’re craving some time with the princess, check out Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. In this spinoff, a prequel to 2023’s Tears of the Kingdom, Zelda travels back in time to join forces with the Six Sages in a war against the invader Ganondorf. You can also drag another human into battle with split-screen or the GameShare feature on Nintendo’s new console. Like the previous collaborations between Nintendo and Koei Tecmo, it’s more hack-and-slash action than exploration and discovery. It arrives Thursday on Switch 2.

    — Lou Kesten

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  • Lynk forges ahead with public market debut despite SPAC’s dwindling reserves | TechCrunch

    Lynk forges ahead with public market debut despite SPAC’s dwindling reserves | TechCrunch

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    Satellite-to-phone connectivity provider Lynk Global will head to the public markets via a merger with a shell company led by former professional baseball player Alex Rodriguez.

    The two companies confirmed the deal on Monday after announcing a non-binding LOI with Rodriguez’s special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Slam Corp, in December. According to an investor presentation filed with regulators, the deal could give Lynk a $913.5 million post-money valuation.

    Much of the capital from the transaction will not come from the SPAC itself, however. In that same presentation, Lynk says around $800 million of the new capital will come from existing shareholder equity rollover, $110 million from private-investment-in-public-equity (PIPE) and a scant $25 million from cash held in trust by the SPAC.

    Lynk, which has already entered some international commercial markets including Palau, is looking to compete on an even larger scale with initiatives like Starlink’s emerging sat-to-cell, Apple’s Globalstar partnership and AST Space Mobile (which completed its own SPAC merger in April 2021). Lynk has launched eight satellites that it calls “cell towers in space,” but it ultimately plans to operate a constellation of 5,000 birds in low Earth orbit. The next two are anticipated to launch in March.

    The company is hoping that its patented technology — which is compatible with any unmodified cell phone, even those operating on 2G networks — will be able to compete with these larger and better-capitalized players. The business model is also a little different: Lynk plans to contract with mobile network operators (MNOs) and telecom providers, and these partnerships will help the company leverage these firms’ existing spectrum rights in orbit.

    “We aim to position Lynk as the trusted wholesale provider to MNOs, not direct to consumer,” the company explains. “Lynk’s technology can allow MNOs to expand network coverage while continuing to own the relationship with their subscribers.”

    Essentially, Lynk would provide minimal coverage where networks have none, allowing emergency messaging and other services anywhere on the planet. Whether the networks charge extra for certain services (though emergency connectivity would always be free), or offer it as a value-add in their existing pricing, or find some other way to capitalize on the feature, is up to them.

    The company further says that its satellites are ready for mass production, taking just one month each to assemble now and costing around $650,000 to launch, according to the presentation.

    The financing will be used to grow production to 12 satellites per month; at that rate, Lynk told investors that it aims to have 74 satellites in service by the fourth quarter of 2025, driving $175 million per month in annualized revenue.

    A wave of space companies over the past two years have headed to the public markets by eschewing the traditional Initial Public Offering and merging with a SPAC instead. But the vast majority of those have badly missed their revenue projections; many, including Spire, Momentus and Satisfy were given stock exchange delisting warnings for failing to keep their stock prices above $1. Others, like Astra and Terran Orbital, merely faced the threat of delisting.

    Slam Corp has also had its own troubles: Despite the company raising $575 million from public investors in February 2021, it has since had to return the vast majority of those funds due to ongoing shareholder redemptions after the company failed to find a promising merger prospect. Lynk anticipates just $25 million from that trust, which assumes a 96% shareholder redemption rate.

    But despite these track records, Lynk plainly sees a different future for itself on the Nasdaq. The transaction is expected to complete sometime in the latter half of the year, whereupon Lynk will trade under the ticker symbol $LYNK.

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    Aria Alamalhodaei

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  • Central Park Views And Celebrity Neighbors Are Highlights Of This NYC Condo

    Central Park Views And Celebrity Neighbors Are Highlights Of This NYC Condo

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    A two-bedroom condo in famed architect Robert A.M. Stern’s celebrity-filled 15 Central Park West takes in panoramic views of the park.

    The apartment sits on the 27th floor of “the Tower” of the two-building complex, overlooking the iconic green space and the Manhattan skyline that borders it.

    The building was constructed in the mid-2000s and has been home to numerous celebrities and public figures, including actors Denzel Washington and Robert De Niro, musician Sting, baseball player Alex Rodriguez and former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein.

    While the building is relatively new, its limestone facade was sourced from the same quarry as the Empire State Building and the New Classical style complements its neighbors on the iconic street. It also has a long list of amenities, including a 75-foot pool, 14,000-square-foot fitness center, basement wine cellar with tasting bar and 20-seat screening room.

    The unit features 11-foot ceilings and tall windows that frame the protected view. The more than 2,300 square feet of space includes two large en-suite bedrooms and a half bathroom. The master bedroom has a large walk-in closet outfitted with shelving and inset lighting, along with a modern light fixture.

    “It’s the ideal pied-à-terre,” says listing agent Thomas Duger of Elegran.

    Duger noted that the position toward the middle of the 43-story tower provides a great vantage point.

    “Sometimes, when you’re too high up, you lose perspective of the park,” Duger shares.

    The current owners have renovated the apartment, and finishes include light-colored herringbone wood floors, detailed moldings and a half bathroom with a full slab of onyx marble.

    “To have a new-ish condo in a building of this nature, there’s nothing like it,” Duger says.

    The apartment was recently listed for $13.5 million.

    The building is in the center of cultural life in Manhattan, close to Broadway theaters and Lincoln Center, and blocks from the Museum of Modern Art and the American Museum of Natural History.

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    Lisa Chamoff, Contributor

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  • Report: A-Rod to Start Sports Investment Fund Worth ‘Billions’ | Entrepreneur

    Report: A-Rod to Start Sports Investment Fund Worth ‘Billions’ | Entrepreneur

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    Former New York Yankee and legendary MLB player Alex Rodriguez has certainly cemented his place in sports history.

    Now, the slugger is reportedly looking to make waves in the sporting industry behind the scenes.

    Per reports from the New York Post, A-Rod is looking to create a private equity fund that will take stakes in professional sports teams in the U.S. including the MLB, NFL and NHL, and international soccer and cricket teams.

    Rodriguez is hoping that the fund will have assets “in the billions,” a source close to the situation told the Post.

    The superstar is currently in the process of purchasing the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves with billionaire entrepreneur Marc Lore. The pair completed another $290 million payment toward the acquisition in March of this year. They still have one more payment installment before they become majority owners, which is slated to happen by the end of March 2024.

    Rodriguez is also chairman and CEO of the aptly named A-Rod Corp, an investment firm that backs companies across many industries, which is helping fund his deal to acquire the Timberwolves.

    Should the MLB star’s new fund take flight, he would most likely not be able to invest in minority stakes for NBA teams as he would already be the majority owner of a competing team.

    “Alex’s successful purchase of the Timberwolves franchise has drawn the interest of large PE firms and institutional investors who are courting him to create sizable PE funds that would invest in the broader sports and real estate universe,” the source told the Post.

    Rodriguez has reportedly hired recruiters to him find managers for the fund.

    Through A-Rod Corp, Rodriguez has invested in the MMA sporting league PFL, where he sits on the board of directors.

    His net worth is an estimated $350 million.

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    Emily Rella

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  • NBC’s ‘Sunday Night Football’ rolls with new broadcast crew

    NBC’s ‘Sunday Night Football’ rolls with new broadcast crew

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    LOS ANGELES — Broadcast crews sometimes face the same challenges as the NFL teams they cover. Both adjust to personnel changes, schedule adjustments and study game tapes.

    Although NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” featured new faces in the booth and production truck before the season started, the broadcasts continue to deliver at a high level.

    “Sunday Night Football” is on pace to be prime time’s top show for the 12th consecutive year. Through last Sunday’s overtime game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Arizona Cardinals, it is averaging 19.8 million viewers, a 2% increase over last season.

    “Everybody made a big deal out of all the changes, but I’ve known these guys forever. I’ve worked with them 1,000 different ways,” analyst Cris Collinsworth said. “We all have ideas, but it has been very collaborative from the beginning.”

    Collinsworth, NBC’s top analyst since 2009, remained in his role while everything else shuffled around. Mike Tirico took over play-by-play after Al Michaels went to Amazon’s Prime Video. Melissa Stark became sideline reporter after Michele Tafoya moved on and Rob Hyland took over as coordinating producer. Fred Gaudelli remained with NBC and is executive producer for Amazon’s “Thursday Night Football.”

    Collinsworth doesn’t do his slide into the frame during the opening segment anymore. That seems to have resonated the most with fans.

    “I’ll never get away from that, so I gotta come up with a new gimmick,” Collinsworth said. “I get people that will slide from behind the corner of buildings. It’s just fun.”

    Tirico and Collinsworth called 21 games — mostly Thursday nights in 2016 and ’17 — before this season. Tirico and Hyland worked together on Notre Dame , Triple Crown horse racing and Olympics prime-time shows.

    “I’ve worked with Rob on probably 75% of the NBC events I have done, and I got to work with (director) Drew (Esocoff) the past couple of years on games. So there were so many answers to any of those questions you would normally have coming into a new situation,” Tirico said. “The familiarity allowed all of us just to start from a far more advanced place than if we would have come in not knowing each other.”

    Stark, who returned to the sidelines after a 20-year hiatus, had worked with Esocoff on ABC’s “Monday Night Football” and knew Tirico and Collinsworth.

    “It’s been awesome. To join such a talented and well-run group, all I had to do is concentrate on my job because everybody else is doing their jobs at such a high level,” she said.

    Esocoff kept intact most of his camera crew and technicians.

    WEEKLY PREPARATIONS

    With Collinsworth owning Pro Football Focus, the announce and production teams get a PFF scouting report on the upcoming matchup on Monday. Collinsworth then sends a series of four videos, each averaging 30 minutes, on Wednesday and Thursday, looking at each team’s offenses and defenses with keys and tendencies.

    After meetings and phone calls with teams, there’s a production meeting on Saturday morning at the hotel where most of the production team meets with Tirico, Collinsworth and Stark to trade final ideas or hone things they might use during the broadcast.

    The crew spent part of a production meeting before the Chiefs-Chargers game looking at off-balance throws from former All-Star shortstop Alex Rodriguez because some of Patrick Mahomes’ delivery is similar. During meetings with Mahomes, he mentioned Rodriguez was his favorite baseball player growing up.

    The production meeting looked at 10 throws from Rodriguez, with one showing similarities in deliveries even though they are from different sports.

    “It’s a broadcast, not a narrowcast. If we can’t make it relatable to fans of other sports or casual fans, we’re not doing our job,” Hyland said.

    ROLLING WITH CHANGES

    The schedule is the biggest challenge for “Sunday Night Football,” with this season being no exception. Because originally scheduled second-half matchups sometimes fall flat, there have been four times when a game was flexed. Sunday night’s game between the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers replaces the Los Angeles Rams against the Chargers.

    The four flexes before the regular season’s final week are tied with 2018 for the most in a year.

    “It gets to be expected late in the year. We have a group of 200 that is used to it,” Esocoff said of the schedule changes. “It’s a grind sometimes getting mobile units from one place to another, but it usually comes off like expected.”

    Flexes can have some benefits. When the game on Nov. 20 between the Kansas City Chiefs and Chargers replaced the Cincinnati Bengals at Pittsburgh Steelers, it marked a rare time where “Sunday Night Football” had a team for two straight weeks. The Chargers were at the San Francisco 49ers a week earlier. Meanwhile, the Chiefs were making their second SNF appearance in three weeks.

    That meant production crews didn’t have to shoot updated introductions for new players or edit graphics of acquisitions in new uniforms.

    When the Miami game against the Chargers was flexed to prime time on Dec. 11, the team had to shoot and tape linebacker Bradley Chubb and running back Jeff Wilson in their Dolphins uniforms after they were involved in midseason trades.

    ———

    AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP—NFL

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  • Alex Rodriguez Appears To Be ‘Happy’ With Girlfriend Jaclyn Cordeiro But Isn’t ‘Terribly Serious’ At The Moment, Source Says 

    Alex Rodriguez Appears To Be ‘Happy’ With Girlfriend Jaclyn Cordeiro But Isn’t ‘Terribly Serious’ At The Moment, Source Says 

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    By Melissa Romualdi.
    Published:

    Alex Rodriguez and his new girlfriend, Jaclyn Cordeiro, make a perfect match- they are both “fitness obsessed.”

    A Miami source recently told People that the fitness instructor and founder of Jacfit “may be as strict about her own regimen as he is.”

    “Alex and Jaclyn are both fitness obsessed and into exercise and body building,” the insider added.


    READ MORE:
    Alex Rodriguez Goes Instagram Official With Girlfriend Jac Cordeiro

    It appears that Cordeiro’s interests in fitness align with what Rodriguez tends to look for in a partner.

    “He would not date anyone for a few months or longer who was not into daily fitness,” the source explained. “It is a major part of his life.”

    According to the source, Cordeiro is into weightlifting, nutrition and body building maintenance just like the former MLB star. She often shares many workouts and nutritional information on her Instagram account. Earlier this week, she posted a video of herself working out alongside Rodriguez.

    “They also share parenting in common,” the source continued, adding “I think she is serious about him.” Cordeiro has two of her own children while Rodriguez is a dad to two daughters- Natasha, 18, and Ella, 14.

    However, the source told the outlet: “I don’t see Alex getting terribly serious about anyone now.”

    “He is a good father and went through a lot with the Lopez breakup,” the insider elaborated. “But he seems to be happy for the moment. I just don’t see anything more than that, at least for now.”


    READ MORE:
    Alex Rodriguez Reveals Whether Or Not He’s ‘Good Husband Material’, Reflects On Ex Jennifer Lopez Marrying Ben Affleck

    Another source close to A-Rod told People that Cordeiro is “beautiful, bright and educated as well as driven in her career and her life” and that the fitness fanatics “are happy as a couple,” the magazine reports.

    “They are enjoying their lives now,” the source shared, “but I don’t know how serious it is.”

    Rodriguez and Cordeiro were first linked romantically in October, via a report by Page Six. 

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z4-Ay30E2g

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    Melissa Romualdi

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  • AP source: Aaron Judge, Yankees reach $360M, 9-year deal

    AP source: Aaron Judge, Yankees reach $360M, 9-year deal

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    SAN DIEGO — Aaron Judge has issued his ruling: Court remains in session in the Bronx.

    Judge is staying with the New York Yankees on a $360 million, nine-year contract, according to a person familiar with baseball’s biggest free agent deal ever.

    The person spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday on condition of anonymity because the AL MVP’s contract had not been announced.

    Judge, who hit an American League record 62 homers last season, will earn $40 million per year, the highest average annual payout for a position player. The contract trails only Mike Trout’s $426.5 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels and Mookie Betts’ $365 million pact with the Los Angeles Dodgers for biggest in baseball history. Trout and Betts were already under contract when they signed those deals.

    The Yankees made a long-term offer to Judge before last season that was worth $213.5 million over seven years from 2023-29. But the outfielder turned it down in the hours before opening day in April.

    The 6-foot-7 Judge bet on himself — and won.

    Judge surpassed Roger Maris’ AL home run mark to power New York to an AL East title. He also tied for the major league lead with 131 RBIs and just missed a Triple Crown with a .311 batting average.

    New York was swept by Houston in the AL Championship Series, but Judge became the first AL MVP for the Yankees since Alex Rodriguez in 2007.

    By rejecting the Yankees’ preseason offer, Judge gained $146.5 million and an extra two guaranteed seasons. The Northern California native also visited with the San Francisco Giants last month, and there likely were more teams monitoring the market for the slugger who turns 31 in April.

    Judge’s decision will have a domino effect on several teams and free agents. His status held up at least some of New York’s offseason plans — given the size of the contract — but general manager Brian Cashman made it clear his team would wait patiently while Judge contemplated his options.

    In the end, that approach worked.

    “So we’ll wait, we’ll wait for this process to play out,” Cashman said Monday at baseball’s winter meetings in San Diego. “And that means staying active in the conversations and negotiations.”

    Judge, 30, was selected by New York in the first round of the 2013 amateur draft and made his big league debut in 2016, homering in his first at-bat.

    A year later, he was one of baseball’s breakout stars. He hit .284 with 52 homers and 114 RBIs in 2017, winning the AL Rookie of the Year award. The four-time All-Star has 220 homers and 497 RBIs in seven big league seasons.

    “A guy of his stature and his greatness hopefully spends his entire career into Monument Park and into the Hall of Fame as a Yankee,” New York manager Aaron Boone said Tuesday.

    The average annual value of Judge’s deal trails only New York Mets pitchers Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, at $43.3 million. Verlander’s deal was reached Monday and hasn’t been announced, but a person familiar with it told the AP he would earn $86.7 million over two years.

    ———

    Blum reported from Qatar.

    ———

    AP Baseball: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports

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  • Aaron Judge’s Rough Start Highlights Random And Fluky Nature Of The Division Series

    Aaron Judge’s Rough Start Highlights Random And Fluky Nature Of The Division Series

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    It was just merely two weeks ago when Aaron Judge returned home fresh off hitting his 61st homer to tie Roger Maris for the AL record.

    Two weeks after the seventh game of fans standing up and getting silent in anticipation of those at-bats, Judge stood in the middle of the Yankee clubhouse facing a wider group of questioners.

    Not because he homered or produced the game-winning hit and most certainly not because it was a regular-season game.

    Instead, Judge stood in the middle of the clubhouse in front of a blue Yankee banner with a corporate sponsor to explain to some people who appear only for postseason games what suddenly has “gone wrong” for him in the small sample known as postseason.

    And the final jeopardy answer according to Judge is timing.

    “When you are a little late, you miss some pitches you usually do some damage on and you are usually swinging at stuff that you don’t,” Judge said. “I’ve had two bad games in my career multiple times. It’s part of it. You have to learn from your mistakes. You have to get ready for the next one. There are no breaks right now.”

    In the crapshoot known as the postseason that sometimes produces more random results than a Strat-O-Matic card, Judge is 0-for-8 through the first two games. He has seen 45 pitches and seven third strikes.

    Adding up to the sound from some segments of the crowd on Friday. Boo!!

    The boos were not present when he swung and missed at a Shane Bieber cutter to open the game about 10 minutes before Giancarlo Stanton hit a two-run homer. The boos were non-existent when he swung and missed at the same pitch in the third and did not occur in the fifth when Judge looked a fastball that appeared slightly outside and prompted him to briefly glance back at plate umpire Jeremie Rehak.

    Then in the seventh of a tie game with the crowd anticipating a big moment came this sequence against Trevor Stephan: swinging strike on a fastball, foul tip on another fastball, ball one on a splitter and then a swinging strike on the same pitch.

    The four-pitch sequence was followed by the boos and online the hashtag of #notmymvp. As for how he took the booing, it was about what you would expect if you ever listened to him in interview settings.

    He took the boos in stride while conceding the obvious after hearing not even Hall of Famers Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter were immune from listening to on occasion.

    “There’s nothing I can do. I gotta play better,” Judge said. “That’s what it comes down to. Didn’t do the job tonight.”

    And a lot of Judge not getting the job done in the postseason is against Cleveland.

    In nine postseason games against Cleveland he is 2-for-37 with 28 strikeouts. In his other 29 games, Judge is a .274 hitter (29-for-106)

    Still even with Judge’s lack of results against whatever arm from Cleveland faces him, the Yankees are 6-3 in those games with a five-game ALDS win in 2017 and a two-game sweep in the pandemic-induced and now actual wild-card round in 2020.

    And it probably explains why Terry Francona was not biting on a question about his team’s strategy for the slugger produced his fourth career postseason game of four strikeouts and the 92nd all-time in the postseason and 42nd instance in a division series game.

    “I don’t mean to be rude, but if I did, I’m not sure I’d really want to share it,” Francona said. “It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. I think sometimes hitters can’t hit a button, and as good as guys are, sometimes guys take 0-fors.

    “Until you get through a series successfully, I don’t think anybody if going to stand up here and pound our chest,” Francona said. “He’s too dangerous. We know that.”

    Perhaps if Cleveland wins the next two games, Francona can share the details for pitching to Judge. Some of those pitchers who allowed any of Judge’s 62 homers during the regular season might be interested but until then the other Yankees are certainly not abandoning ship on the player who carried them most of the season.

    “He’s had 10 or less at-bats,” Stanton said. “It’s just a small sample size that you can use. He’s got time and it’s over now. So that don’t matter. We got to win two out of three and he’s going to help us do so.”

    The small sample can produce weird individual results. Just ask the likes of Alex Rodriguez, who was 8-for-44 in 13 ALDS games from 2005 to 2007 and then went 8-for-22 in his next six ALDS games before going 4-for-32 in his final nine games.

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    Larry Fleisher, Contributor

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  • Baseball great Alex Rodriguez reflects on steroid abuse, his past with J-Lo | CNN

    Baseball great Alex Rodriguez reflects on steroid abuse, his past with J-Lo | CNN

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    Editor’s Note: Watch “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” on CNN TV Sundays at 7pm ET. New episodes with full-length interviews are availble on HBO Max each Friday.



    CNN
     — 

    Baseball great Alex Rodriguez is opening up about mistakes in his personal and professional life, and how they are shaping his growing business empire.

    In an interview on CNN and HBO Max’s “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?”, Rodriguez said the performance-enhancing drug scandal that marred his legacy was “the most embarrassing moment of my career.”

    “The hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life was face my daughters Natasha and Ella and tell them this is the mistake that Daddy made,” he told host Chris Wallace

    Rodriguez said that because of the stringent culture of professional baseball, he was denied a happy ending to his otherwise legendary baseball career.

    “I understood my mistake, and I’ve taken full responsibility for it,” he added.

    The 14-time Major League Baseball all-star said he was “bullish” about the future of baseball despite warning signs that viewers are less motivated to watch games.

    Rodriguez, who just last week was passed by Albert Pujols on the MLB’s home run list, says if he were MLB commissioner he would “open the floodgates,” and give fans more access to America’s pastime.

    “We have to be proactive, meaning I would put cameras on guys,” he told Wallace. “The players that are driving to the park, I want to see them at home.”

    Rodriguez wanted coverage to expand so that fans have insight into the clubhouses, batting cages and bullpens.

    The World Series winner also advocated for Major League Baseball to plant its flag on America’s Independence Day, much like the National Football League does with Thanksgiving.

    “If you look at July 4, it’s a wide-open day. There’s no football, there’s no basketball, there’s no soccer,” he said, noting that the MLB should make the Fourth of July “all about baseball.”

    “Every game, we’re going to wire (put a microphone on) these guys and we’re going to have interviews, and everybody is at home watching baseball at a barbecue with their families.”

    Another change that Rodriguez wanted to make to baseball included increasing financial literacy education for players – like teaching them about capital markets, investments and the importance of balancing a checkbook.

    “I read something where it was over 50% of athletes were going bankrupt after their playing days,” Rodriguez said. “That’s a tragedy.”

    In his post-playing career, Rodriguez has turned his own focus to business. He told Wallace his investment firm, A-Rod Corp, is a “mini-Berkshire Hathaway” – referring to the multinational conglomerate owned by billionaire Warren Buffett, who Rodriguez considers a mentor.

    A-Rod Corp is an investment firm that houses his vast real estate holdings, as well as private equity and venture capital investments.

    “If you were to put value in our enterprise, it’s probably somewhere between 1 billion and 2 billion,” Rodriguez told Chris Wallace.

    The former shortstop also discussed his break-up with pop icon Jennifer Lopez. Lopez married actor Ben Affleck in July 2022 after she and Rodriguez ended their multi-year relationship the year prior.

    “With Jennifer, look, it was a good experience. And I wish her and the children – who are smart, and beautiful and wonderful – I wish them the very best,” Rodriguez said.

    Telling CNN’s Chris Wallace that, despite his multiple high-profile relationships, he now feels that his previous relationships and the impact of his 2014 suspension from the MLB have made him “husband material” in the future.

    Wallace asks A-Rod if he thinks he’s ‘good husband material.’ See his response

    “I think I’m going to make a wonderful partner or husband and father post-suspension because of the lessons learned of my biggest mistakes.”

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