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Alex Rodriguez likes to stay busy.
Need proof? Take one look at the former Major League Baseball superstar’s daily calendar.
Coming off a lengthy, productive and lucrative athletic career, Rodriguez could have retired quietly and stayed out of the limelight. Instead, he runs an impressive portfolio of businesses, started broadcasting on national platforms and has recently launched a successful podcast that merges business and sports.
“He’s very eager to do a lot of things,” said Ron Berkowitz, founder of Berk Communications, which manages Rodriguez’s PR and marketing. “My inbound requests are ridiculous — and he wants to do everything, but there is limited time because of his current endeavors and his broadcasting roles.”
His most visible gigs are as a broadcaster on Fox Sports 1 and ESPN. Not an obvious transition at first, Berkowitz said Rodriguez now enjoys showcasing his deep knowledge of the game.
“The biggest thing about Alex, everybody knew it — the first thing sports reporters would say is he has the best baseball mind,” Berkowitz said. “People loved talking baseball with him, so it got me thinking, ‘Would he want to go in the booth?’ It took some convincing since it wasn’t his style, but now he’s like the voice of the game.”
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Berkowitz has known A-Rod for nearly 30 years and worked with him consistently since 2013, and sporadically in the previous years.
More recently, Rodriguez took to the podcast airwaves with Barstool Sports. Along with “Big Cat” Dan Katz, “The Corp” was a seven-part series covering business and sports. The episodes included guests Kobe Bryant, radio host Mike Francesa, Philadelphia 76ers owner and Fanatics founder Michael Rubin, Starwood Hotels founder Barry Sternlicht, “Shark Tank” star and real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk.
All seven episodes were released at the same time in early December, and a second season is already in the works.
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The podcast was part of trying to find places people would least expect to find Rodriguez, Berkowitz said.
“[Barstool CEO Erika Nardini] and Alex hit it off and they did something different,” he said. “It’s not the norm, and people loved it. The episodes were incredible, bringing on Kobe and Michael Rubin, Barbara Corcoran. Alex being able to bring stuff out of people was something people didn’t know he could do.”
He was also the first Latino guest “shark” on “Shark Tank” and hosts a CNBC show, “Back in the Game,” where he helps other former professional athletes who went broke get back on their feet financially.
For someone who could be public facing without so many extra projects, Berkowitz said it’s all about internal drive.
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“Guys like Kobe, Lebron, Shaq, Magic, Alex, are built in a completely different way,” Berkowitz said. “There are very few guys who transcend beyond sports into the business world like those guys. But younger guys are starting to think like that.”
All of Rodriguez’s post-career activities could, in some way, be traced to the time off he had upon being forced into a late-career, 162-game suspension in 2014. Instead of letting that time cast a shadow on his life, he used it to fuel his professional life.
“It was really tough to see someone go through that, and he really did kind of reinvent himself because of it,” Berkowitz said. “He’s often said it was his darkest days, but he wouldn’t change a thing and that it made him a better person. In that pit, he really found himself. It’s been a crazy ride and all the credit lies with him. It’s nothing short of incredible.”
