Alex Rodriguez is determined to be a "great father" because his own dad was absent a lot.
The former baseball star – who has two daughters, Natasha, 13, and Ella, 10, with his ex-wife Cynthia Scurtis – had a strained relationship with his late parent Victor but it taught him the way he doesn’t want to behave with his own kids.
He told ‘Entertainment Tonight’: "My father passed about three years ago.. He left us [when I was] 10. And then we reconnected in a four-game series against Minnesota.
"It was Father’s Day weekend, and it was a four-day series and Kev, it was probably the best four games I’ve played in my career. And it was the only four games he got to watch me play."
The games took place in 2000, 10 years after he’d last seen his dad, and saw Alex hit a home run for the Seattle Mariners.
He recalled thinking: "I’m going to put on a show for you, so you know, Dad, what you walked away from.’
"Ever since he left me and my family, I always thought, I never want to do that. I want to be a great father, a present father."
The sports commentator – who is in a relationship with Jennifer Lopez – is very happy in his role as "personal assistant" to his daughters and is always willing to help them out.
He said: "When I get home, I am the personal assistant to a 13 and a 10-year-old daughter.
"I’m a professional Uber driver to all their events and soccer practice and all that. And I’m focused on killing that job."
Alex recently admitted he and Jennifer – who has nine-year-old twins Max and Emme with ex-husband Marc Anthony – often include their kids on their date nights.
He said: "We just like to keep it simple – anything with the kids, a movie, chocolate chip cookies."
Alex Rodriguez wants to be a great dad
