DUNEDIN - As the slugging first baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays, Carlos Delgado has a four-year contract worth $68-million.
This season alone, Delgado will earn $18.5-million - about $2-million less than all of the Tampa Bay Devils Rays combined.
Yet Delgado, 31, is something of an oddity among Major League Baseball's elite.
Like some - a group that includes New York Yankees stars Mariano Rivera, Mike Mussina and Derek Jeter among others - Delgado owns a home in the Tampa Bay area for spring training.
Unlike the rest, however, Delgado lives in relative modesty. His 2,000-square-foot villa home has an assessed value of $182,000, or less than two games' worth of salary. It's in a newer neighborhood with a lot of older retirees. And it's just minutes from the Jays' spring training camp.
"It's convenient," said Delgado, who rides his gray Gary Fisher bike to spring workouts. "I spend most of my offseason in Puerto Rico, but this is my 15th spring training, and renting a place gets old. It's nice to have my own stuff."
A significant number of players from the teams that train in Tampa Bay feel the same way. Every spring, Yankees, Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies come to town, and nearly 150 major leaguers need a place to stay.
Most choose to rent an apartment or condominium for the two months they are here. But a few have their own homes - even if they are in town for as little as six weeks.
There are a variety of reasons: Florida has no state income tax. The winters are mild, and the summers are bearable when your job takes you out of Florida during July and August. Historically, homes have been a good value, too.
"Everybody realizes this is a growing state," said Jim Fregosi, who managed the Phillies for six seasons from 1991-1996 and the Blue Jays in 1999 and 2000. He has lived in East Lake since 1991.
"Pinellas is kind of running out of land," Fregosi said. "Whatever you buy here, for however long you're here, it's a good investment."
To cover living costs, players are paid $68 a day during spring training for meals plus a $240 weekly housing allowance, said Matthew Gould, a spokesman for Major League Baseball. But for some of baseball's biggest stars, $716 every week doesn't begin to pay for their lifestyles:
Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter spends his spring in a $1.9-million, 5,000-square-foot home in Avila, one of Tampa's swankiest subdivisions. It will take Jeter 21 games this year, or 13 percent of the regular season, to make enough money to cover the cost of the house.
Yankees relief pitcher Mariano Rivera recently spent $615,000 to become Jeter's spring neighbor. He'll make $10.5-million this year.
Yankees hurler Mike Mussina owns a 4,400-square-foot estate in Lutz a few miles north of Jeter and Rivera. He purchased his home in 2001 for $625,000.
Blue Jays pitcher Roy Halladay, who this winter signed a four-year, $42-million contract to stay with Toronto, lives in a $500,000 home in Lansbrook. Ten games into the regular season, Halladay will have made enough money to pay for his house, the $8,700 in property taxes and buy a Ferrari 360.
Halladay, who is married and has a 3-year-old son, Braden, said his family spends much of the offseason in their Pinellas County home. During the season, he lives in Toronto.
He calls it "the best of both worlds."
"I hear it can get pretty hot here in the summer," said Halladay, last year's American League Cy Young award winner. "Luckily, by then, we're in Toronto. We've always liked it down here."
Halladay, 26, and an avid golfer, said he is in the process of buying a 5-acre lot to build a new home. He said his family plans on living here long after his baseball career is finished.
"We're looking to stay," Halladay said. "We really like it."
Then there's Delgado, whose humble environment complements his laid-back personality.
Last spring, he was the dinner guest of Judith and Arthur Auster, who live nearby. The group talked for hours, but not about baseball.
"He proved to be a very delightful guest," Arthur Auster said. "He's a great conversationalist."
Delgado said he originally bought his Dunedin home to avoid a state income tax on his $18.5-million annual salary.
But as he's gotten used to his surroundings, Delgado has grown fond of his adopted community and its easy-going neighbors.
"They're great people," Delgado said. "A 2- to 3-hour dinner with anyone could be tough, but with Art and Judy, it was nice."
Bart Given, who manages team travel for the Blue Jays, said only a handful of players have their own homes in the Dunedin area. Of the 51 players in camp, 20 rent condos with Oakwood Corporate Housing, a California-based real estate service. Furnished homes from Oakwood range from $75 to $104 a night based on a minimum 30-day stay.
An equal number of players find temporary housing on their own, Given said.
Like the Blue Jays, most of the Phillies rent a condo or an apartment while they are in Clearwater, said Frank Coppenbarger, who handles travel arrangements for the team. Coppenbarger works with local real estate agents to help provide housing for players, he said. Or players can stay in a hotel.
"We work with them on whatever they need," Coppenbarger said.
A few Phillies, like leftfielder Pat Burrell, have their own place.
Burrell lives in The Grande, a Sand Key condo high-rise. He bought his 15th-floor three-bedroom, three-bath home in 2000 for $810,000. The 2,521-square-foot unit also comes with a sun room and a 373-square-foot terrace overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. He paid $13,500 in property taxes on the condo last year.
Burrell, who is 27 and single, will make $1.25-million this season.
"Everybody has different needs and interests," said Dan Shaughnessy, author of Spring Training: Baseball's Early Season. Shaughnessy, who is also a Boston sports columnist, is spending spring training following the Red Sox from a Hilton-chain hotel in Fort Myers.
"A lot of (baseball players) are used to living in a certain lifestyle," Shaughnessy said. "I'm on the road a lot, too, and I think hotels are great. They have maid service, an answering service and they bring stuff when you ask for it."
But hotel rooms don't come with their own boat houses.
Pat Hentgen's spring home in East Lake does.
A 14-year veteran who pitches for the Toronto Blue Jays, Hentgen owns an 8,000-sqaure-foot home that would sell for about $1.9-million, according to the Pinellas County Property Appraiser's Office.
Hentgen's digs include a boat house, a dock and three different patio decks. The home also has a boat lift and private access to a canal that leads into Lake Tarpon.
That's in addition to a pool, spa and a 1,500-square-foot garage. Hentgen and his wife, Darlene, also own an East Lake condominium and maintain a permanent home in Michigan.
The way real estate is appreciating, Hentgen's place will be a money-maker down the road, Shaughnessy said. But he wonders:
