Baseball won’t last forever for Alex Rodriguez. The $270 million he’s reportedly getting from the New York Yankees will only last about, like, three decades or something. No one can ever count on under $300 million. So the guy has to worry about the years after that. It’s the reason why he invested in real estate. He is the VP Executive director of Newport Property Ventures and currently owns 16 properties nationwide.

“When I landed my well-publicized 10-year, $252 million contract, I set about finding an investment vehicle that would ensure my financial fitness long after baseball,” Alex wrote, adding that de Roos’s book gave “me the confidence to form Newport Property Ventures. I began by investing in a small duplex in an emerging area of South Florida, which led to the acquisition of several other income-producing properties.” He didn’t just acquire. He binged. Property records indicate A-Rod’s company paid $58.7 million for Tampa complexes between 2004 and early this year. Those same properties, according to the county appraiser, have a current market value of $46.3 million.

Sounds like a page out of his “How To Slump When It Counts” beatbook. It’s not the only area he’s been striking out lately. His tenants have complained that A-Rod isn’t much of a landlord. To hell with that. They think he’s an ass.

A-Rod isn’t exactly a slumlord — some renters interviewed at his other properties had milder complaints — but he has become a landlord caricature among dwellers who hold him accountable for, say, the stack of molding mattresses by the dumpster at Newport Villas on MacDill Avenue…To them, he isn’t A-Rod, a regular-season crackerjack on the verge of a Yankees deal potentially worth $300 million. To them, he is Tight-Rod, an apartment tycoon, who, renters say, has jacked late fees to $100 from $50 on units that run around $600 a month.

Good thing for electronic bank transfers. Oh shit. The power just went out.

A-Rod’s Properties and Charity Suggest Some Stinginess [NYTimes, via Deadspin]
Image [MLB]