Selena Roberts gets sickening evidence about Alex Rodriguez

The information Selena Roberts (NY Times) discovers about Arod is so vile I had to stop reading for periods of time. She checks out his filthy real estate holdings in Tampa and his so-called charities:

• (NY Times): "Past a psychic’s storefront and coin laundry on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Tampa, Fla., a sign reading “We ♥ Our Residents” is planted beside manicured shrubs and an iron gate with a fresh coat at the entrance of Newport Riverside apartments.

The paint is camouflage for the mottled backside of the complex, where an exhausted appliance sits on a porch, cardboard is taped over broken window panes and missing spindles give rickety banisters the look of a snaggletooth smile.

• Some residents here tell tales of roaches overtaking kitchen cabinets in a bumper-to-bumper crawl to the corn flakes, of carpets stained in the 1990s and quick-trigger evictions."....

"This is one of six apartment complexes in the Tampa area, and one of at least 16 nationwide, that Rodriguez owns and operates as the chief executive of Newport Property Ventures.

• An examination of his high-rolling corporate side, as well as a glossy A-Rod Family Foundation short on largess, reveals a portrait of Rodriguez as a player about to enter Yankee Take II solely for business purposes, primarily as a branding tool. He emerges as an obsessive pursuer of cold, hard numbers on and off the bases, with serially disingenuous nods to his ever-challenged image."....

"Rodriguez’s brother-in-law, Constantine Scurtis, is the company manager — the one whose signature is on nearly $50 million in mortgages for properties in Tampa, according to records — but some of the cashiers and cooks who live at places like Newport Riverside know who holds their house keys."....

• "Messages left on the voice mails of Rodriguez and Scurtis at Newport Property Ventures’ offices in Coral Gables, Fla., were unreturned. Repeated efforts to reach A-Rod through three layers of publicists — think booby traps around a precious stone — were unsuccessful."....

"Money is A-Rod’s identity, engraving his social standing, with Warren E. Buffett on his I.M. buddy list. As any Buffett-phile knows, philanthropy stats are valued, too.

• But A-Rod is a star constantly locked in a contradiction of conscience as evidenced by his charity. But the homey surface of the AROD Family Foundation’s Web site, which promotes a slogan of helping “families in distress,” belies its cap on generosity.

Rodriguez has earned nearly $200 million over the past decade, but, according to 990 tax records dating to 1998, he is a cheap tipper to his foundation.

• In eight years of available documents, donations averaged $30,000 a year and gifts distributed to the community averaged $13,000 a year. In 2002, A-Rod did not contribute more than $5,500. In 2006, the foundation did not give away more than $5,090 despite a fund-raiser that collected $368,000."....

Items from NY Times article by Selena Roberts, "A-rod's Property and Charity Suggest Some Flimsiness," 12/7/07

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