Alex Rodriguez to appear on Shark Tank in the fall

Former MLB player and current CEO of A-Rod Corporation Alex Rodriguez will be a guest shark on the TV show Shark Tank in the fall.

Alex Rodriguez is enjoying his post-baseball life. On Monday, he appeared at a presentation by Fox along with fellow Fox Sports hosts and commentators Joe Buck, Troy Aikman and Jimmy Johnson to promote the fall television season. He continues to work on a new show tentatively titled Back in the Game in which he shares his business expertise with professional baseball players to prevent them from falling into financial duress after their careers are over. It was also announced recently that A-Rod will be a guest shark on the TV show Shark Tank in the fall.

Shark Tank gives inventors a chance to present their money-making ideas to a group of wealthy investors, including Mark Cuban, Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary and Barbara Corcoran. Some of the best-selling Shark Tank investments have been the Squatty Potty, Scrub Daddy and Groovebook. The show has had its failures also, including one company called Sweet Ballz that sold ball-shaped cakes. Mark Cuban invested $250,000 in the company, but the co-owners squabbled over the business and one ended up suing the other.

At one time, Alex Rodriguez was one of the best and most famous baseball players in the world. Now that he’s retired from baseball, he’s moved on to another field. He is the CEO of A-Rod Corporation, which is a holding company that invests in a number of areas, including fitness, construction and real estate. As his baseball career came to an end, A-Rod sought out the advice of successful businessmen such as Barry Sternlicht, who is the founder and CEO of Starwood Capital Group. A-Rod also met with Warren Buffett, who is second to Bill Gates on the Forbes list of world’s richest billionaires. He’s hoping to learn as much as he can about the investment area as he begins a life beyond baseball.

A-Rod is not the only guest shark slated to appear on the ninth season of the show. The founder of Virgin Group, Richard Branson, will also be a guest shark, along with Sara Blakely (founder and owner of Spanx), Bethenny Frankel (founder of Skinnygirl) and Rohan Oza (Vitaminwater and Smartwater).

As a major league baseball player, A-Rod made close to $450 million in his career. He famously signed two of the biggest contracts in baseball history. In his first foray into free agency at the tender young age of 25, he signed a 10-year, $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers. That made him the most-hated former Mariner of all-time in Seattle. He was loudly booed every time he came back to play the Mariners for the rest of his career.

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A-Rod played three seasons in Texas before being traded to the New York Yankees before the 2004 season. After three seasons with the Yankees, A-Rod opted out of the 10-year, $252 million deal and signed a new contract with the Yankees worth a then-record $275 million over 10 years. He hasn’t played since retiring last July, but will still be collecting paychecks from the Yankees through the end of this year. On top of the money still coming from the Yankees, A-Rod is being paid by the Texas Rangers through June of 2025 because he took some of the money he was owed by them in deferred payments.

As a guest shark on Shark Tank, A-Rod will be able to use some of that baseball money to invest in whatever idea impresses him. It will be interesting to see how his personality meshes with the show’s regulars. The interaction of the sharks is one of the key components of the show.

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As owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban has a sports background and could look to team up with A-Rod on a deal. Robert Herjavec also seems to like investments in the physical fitness area. Then there’s Kevin O’Leary, also known as “Mr. Wonderful.” O’Leary is the black hat on the show. He might have some choice words for A-Rod, the business novice. We’ll find out when A-Rod makes his guest appearance in the fall.