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A-Rod Should Fix What Needs Fixing

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 14, 2007

According to an article in The New York Times, baseball superstar Alex Rodriguez's connection to Tampa doesn't end when the New York Yankees leave town at the end of spring training.

According to the Times, the American League's most valuable player this past season could easily be called an inattentive landlord for the condition of some property he owns here.

"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," wrote sports writer Selena Roberts.

The apartment building just north of Martin Luther King Boulevard is one of six Tampa-area complexes that Rodriguez owns and operates. His brother-in-law is the company manager, but, as Roberts noted, "A-Rod is the face on their leaky faucets."

Rodriguez is an easy target because of the money he makes. Just Thursday, he signed a 10-year contract with the Yankees for $275 million. Given his wealth, he should be sensitive to the perception that he is taking advantage of less-fortunate families.

A-Rod should fix what needs fixing.

As Oprah Winfrey said when she learned that some girls at her school in South Africa had been abused, "The buck stops with me."

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