A-Rod's second career might actually be more interesting than his first one. And his first one involved being one of the best baseball players of all time, so that's saying something.
Alex Rodriguez played 22 seasons in the majors, mostly with the Mariners, Rangers, and Yankees. Three-time AL MVP. Fourteen All-Star selections. He won the World Series with the Yankees in 2009 and put up numbers that would normally be a slam dunk for the Hall of Fame. The PED suspension in 2013 complicated that legacy pretty significantly, and he's been open about it being a mistake. But the talent was never in question.
After retiring in 2016, he pivoted hard into business and investing. He founded A-Rod Corp, which has investments across real estate, tech, and sports. The portfolio is pretty diverse, from fitness companies to real estate developments. He's also been a regular on the broadcast side as a baseball analyst, which makes sense given that the guy lived and breathed the sport for two decades.
On Shark Tank he shows up as a guest shark and brings a perspective that's very different from the Silicon Valley types. He understands branding, athlete partnerships, fitness and wellness products, and what it's like to build a public persona that people actually want to buy into. He's also not shy about his own failures, which makes him more relatable than you'd expect from a former superstar athlete.
Some career highlights:
- Three-time AL MVP (2003, 2005, 2007)
- 2009 World Series champion with the New York Yankees
- 696 career home runs, one of the highest totals in MLB history
- Founded A-Rod Corp with investments across real estate, tech, and sports