Already having prominent roles with Fox and ESPN there is no shortage of Alex Rodriguez in the media, but the former superstar baseball player will now add one more outlet to his resume by joining Barstool Sports.
A-Rod will partner with Dan Katz, better known by Barstool fans as “Big Cat,” to create a new seven-part podcast series called The Corp. The pairing stems from A-Rod’s appearances on the popular Barstool podcast Pardon My Take, which Katz co-hosts.
“The chemistry between Alex and Dan was very strong, and fan reaction was overwhelming. As a result, we created a running joke about Dan working for A-Rod Corp. It became a meme, and a fan favorite joke for Barstool Sports fans. I talked to Alex about, ‘Hey, is there something here?’” Barstool CEO Erika Nardini told the New York Post.
The Corp will focus on business success and failures offering a guest list featuring Kobe Bryant, Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcoran, Mike Francesa from WFAN, 76ers co-owner Michael Rubin, Starwood Hotel founder Barry Sternlicht and social media expert Gary Vaynerchuk.
“All of our guests had one thing in common: they all had miserable falls,” A-Rod told Yahoo. “And they all had the ability to get back up, dust off, and redefine themselves. That jumped off the page to me, and how much they own their failures. And I speak a lot about my situation and my comeback.”
The Corp will launch Thursday, releasing all seven episodes of the series at once. “I wanted to do something different, because I think there’s a little bit of saturation and exhaustion in podcasts,” Katz told Yahoo regarding Barstool’s decision to release the podcast similarly to a Netflix series.
“So instead of constantly promoting a new episode every week, this is all there at once, you can binge-listen to it. And they’re evergreen — this is something you could listen to in a year from now. I also wanted it to be different from PMT, because I won’t beat around the bush, PMT is my passion and my love and what I wake up excited to do every day. This way it doesn’t feel like it’s taking away from my bread and butter.”
The addition of The Corp means Barstool now carries 25 podcasts on its growing platform. For the consumers that quickly binge the seven-episode series, Katz and Nardini have already planned a second season of the podcast with A-Rod.
Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.
Brandon Contes is a former reporter for BSM, now working for Awful Announcing. You can find him on Twitter @BrandonContes or reach him by email at Brandon.Contes@gmail.com.
