Here's an odd way of phrasing things in USA Today. There's a story about A-Rod, and the effects his contract has had. Referencing his $252 million contract, they say

"Three years later another elite shortstop in his prime with an MVP award commanded less than one-third of that amount on the free-agent market."

So far, so good. Several paragraphs down they then say:

"As an example of the drastic change in baseball's economy that followed, Miguel Tejada signed a six-year, $72 million deal — or three and a half times less than Rodriguez — "

I'm reasonably certain that 3.5 times less would be something like negative 500 million, not 72 million. :)