Despite being considered the best baseball player in all of Major League Baseball in his time, Alex Rodriguez finally managed to be crowned in a World Series in 2009 with the New York Yankees, the only one of five postseason series they played in this era. Before the 2008 season, the team’s general manager, Brian Cashman, managed to convince Rodriguez with a historic contract at the time, for 10 years and $275 million.
And during all this time, A-Rod‘s personal problems were evident and that’s why it was such a risky gamble for so much money.
Rodriguez finally delivered on that commitment and that season he stepped up at the important moment and put in one of the most important postseason performances of his career to finally become a Major League champion.
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Around that time, A-Rod revealed how the work of the late owner, George Steinbrenner, helped the team emotionally, as he tried to introduce therapy to the players and normalize it as just another tool for player development.
Alex Rodriguez remembers how therapy was key to taking the next step
In a recent video shared by Bloomberg Originals on Instagram, Alex Rodriguez recalled how this change in the way mental health and performance was approached in the locker room was critical for the team that season, but also how there was a “stigma around therapy, around sports” and how “we’ve come a long way”.
Rodriguez explained that when George Steinbrenner was still running the team, the Yankees met a sports psychologist named Chad and how he was introduced to the team: “George Steinbrenner said, ‘I want to introduce you to Chad. He’s very, very good. His office will be right next to mine. Come see him whenever you want,'” he shared. Although he acknowledged that initially no player entered Chad’s office for two years.
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Then Steinbrenner changed his approach and decided to reintroduce him but now as a ‘performance coach’, everything changed: “23 of the 25 of us who participated in the squad approached,” which made clear the power of labels and how athletes’ attitudes towards mental health can change with the right approach.
“The athletes convinced us that he was a performance coach”. The change in language helped to break down barriers and the players “accepted the support they needed to perform at their best”.
For A-Rod and the 2009 Yankees, this change allowed for a mentality that propelled them to win the World Series that season. Rodriguez went 1-2 with two walks and two runs scored in Game 6 as the Yankees defeated the Phillies 7-3 to win their 27th World Series. Just when the team needed him to perform the most, he did so and reversed his postseason misfortunes. He also won the Babe Ruth Award and also became the MVP of the 2009 postseason.