30
2011
It Must Be Mets Baseball Season – Bernie Madoff Is In The News
An article by 
If any of you have the utter joy living in the Northeast I’m sure you’re well aware that this has been one of the roughest winters in a long time if ever. Six snowstorms including a major blizzard and we haven’t even made it into February yet.
The moment I walked into my local A&P it was as if I had stepped into an 80′s disaster flick. I swore I saw someone who looked like Charlie Sheen scream “Wolverines!” carrying a box of Hot Pockets in the frozen food section.
I witnessed more gallons of milk, loaves of bread and cartons of eggs leaving the shelves, that I realized either we’re having yet another blizzard or everyone in New Jersey is on a rabid French toast fix.
There’s nothing I want more than for Spring to be sprung already. Luckily we have just two more weeks to bear until pitchers and catchers report in Arizona and Florida. Of course being a Met fan, we all know Mets baseball season is around the corner when the familiar name of Bernard Madoff meanders his way into Mets news yet again.
Whether you consider this is news or not depends on your point of view I suppose and if you, like me, have heard this for quite some time already. It seems that the Wilpon family desire to bring in a minority owner (or owners?) to alleviate any possible financial effects non-baseball related issues have with Sterling Equities.
In layman’s terms, just in case the Wilpons owe more than Mr. Met’s blood to Irving Picard, trustee in charge of recouping the financial losses incurred by Madoff’s victims.
This is nothing new in professional sports. Teams tend to usually have majority and minority holders as Matt Cerrone points out over at MetsBlog. For those Mets fans who are fanatically desiring new ownership, the Wilpons bringing in a partner, by default, actually gives that idea a slight possibility.
It’s doubtful that the Wilpons would outright sell the franchise but then again, I’m sure everyone thought Bernie Madoff was just a shrewd investor at one point. And that the Madoff scandal had little if any effect on the Wilpons. Remember that line? That’s where I have to part ways with a few of my other fellow bloggers. Anything is possible.
I remember a time where I was lambasted by more than a few of my colleagues who said I was making a mountain out of a molehill, when I wrote a piece regarding the effects the Madoff scandal will have on the organization. Truth, like time, is slow moving but totally inevitable.
In a book by Erin Arvedlund, “Too Good To Be True”, the author took the position months ago that the Wilpons would end up selling the team. Kerel Cooper of the blog site On The Black was linked by the Wall Street Journal, when a video of Mets executive David Howard taped on the Fox Business Channel, had him totally refuting Arvedlund who’s prediction that the Wilpons were interested in selling the team. It was confirmed by the Wilpons themselves just a few days ago, of their intent on selling “a portion” between 20-25%, of the team while maintaining operational control. That’s what we know, now.
Cooper made a great point at the time when he asked, “Why would Arvedlund make this stuff up?” I agree. In a time where libel suits are issued like parking tickets, I found and still find it hard to swallow everything the Wilpons have said regarding Madoff. Be it their right to remain silent it still doesn’t bode well for any prospective buyers, willing to essentially loan the Wilpons a few hundred million in exchange for tremendous risk. Joe D said it best in his piece the other day as well.
However the truth of the matter is – at this point – what can any of us do? I can’t agree with some of the fanbase, if you want to call them that, who have this burning desire to see the Wilpons fall apart like a house of cards.
As a Met fan I find it hard to understand why any supposed Met fan would wish that, even in spite of the Wilpon’s seemingly questionable business practices. We may never know, with any certainty, what the Wilpon’s motives were in regards to the entire Madoff situation. The case so far is sealed and all parties are refrained from commenting. I sincerely hope that whatever happens doesn’t effect the team on the field.
My God is it Spring yet?
About the Author: Joe Spector
I'm just your regular Joe. Staff writer @ Metsmerizedonline.com. Happily married and a father to a baby girl. I attended my first Met game at the ripe old age of 3 where my father scored a foul ball and had it signed by Lee Mazzilli, Joe Torre and Joe Pignataro. It was my Holy Grail - 'till I buried it in the backyard. I have my own website where you can read my drivel at your leisure @ www.thespectorsector.net
14 Comments + Add Comment
NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 42 | 28 | .600 | - |
| Nationals | 34 | 35 | .493 | 7.5 |
| Phillies | 34 | 37 | .479 | 8.5 |
| Mets | 25 | 40 | .385 | 14.5 |
| Marlins | 22 | 47 | .319 | 19.5 |
Last updated: 06/18/2013
Recent Comments
- D. Meeker: on Wheeler Deals, Mets Sweep Braves In Nightcap, 6-1: I found that piece of information on...
- DrDooby: on Mets Acquire Eric Young Jr. For Collin McHugh, DFA Cowgill and Promote Brown: Blah. Young instantly becomes the fastest Met....
- DrDooby: on The Future Is Here: Six Scoreless In Wheeler’s MLB Debut: A nice first outing, especially before a...
- ray sadecki: on Mets Acquire Eric Young Jr. For Collin McHugh, DFA Cowgill and Promote Brown: So this is where the core bores...
- Boomer: on Wheeler Deals, Mets Sweep Braves In Nightcap, 6-1: We’ve been waiting for this doubleheader for...
Latest From Mets Minors
Check Out These Great MLB Links!
Photographs From Gordon Donovan
Fans Follow Us On Twitter!
1332 Fans Like Us On Facebook!
2341 Fans Read Our Feed!
1702 Fans Subscribe via Daily Email!
You wonder why some of us “supposed Mets fans” want to see the Wilpons fall down like a house of cards? Wow. You might be more myopic and tone deaf than Fred is. We “supposed” Mets fans have no stake in the Wilpons. Our stake is in the New York Mets as fans and the sooner the purge cleans out the toxins, we will all be better off. I know you have a stake in the bones the Wilpons throw bloggers, but the rest of us shutter at the thought of Jeff Wilpon–just like his dad- sans brains, ability and education- running this team. That is unless you like the product on the field. But from the standpoint of us “supposed” Mets fans who have been watching since the late 70s, this regime needs to go and this is our best chance. There is no point even discussing baseball moves when you know the Wilpons lurk in the background like the keystone cops that they are.
M. Donald, a truly outstanding reply. I wish I could write so well. Anyway, I guess Spector and company beleive we have to worship the $$ that Fred Wilpon so illicitly earned to be true Met fans. I am proud to be a “supposed” Met fan. The sooner the poison is gone, the sooner this will be a franchise people will be proud to root for.
It’s convienient to call the Wilpons “poison”. Why are they a “poison” exactly other than ASSUMING they were tied to Madoff’s waist? I agree that they haven’t told everything regarding Madoff but I’m not one to take it to the next step that they were in on what the man was doing.
For you to assume that is irresponsible. Let them go in front of a jury first at least. Second, you’re “poison” has given us the highest NL payroll for almost a decade. Granted they spend it poorly but to again, assuming that they are “poison” shows exactly what you know.
But you’re right Harry. You and others like you would much rather there be a void in ownership than have the Wilpons, kind of like the situation the Expos were in when MLB had to step in and take control. How did that turn out for them Harry? It almost happened to the Rangers if not for Ryan and his investors as well.
I’m not pinning a gold medal on the Wilpons for a job well done but to want them to fail will only hurt the team on the field, bottom line. So unless they can find a buyer (which I doubt by the way) who would buy 100% of the team, why wish failure on their part?
If you don’t think that a complete Wilpon financial meltdown would effect the team then you and your ilk are smoking something.
So yeah I stand behind my statement, supposed Met fans.
Nobody here accused the Wilpons of being complicit here. The Wilpons are inept owners that is the toxin I am talking about. I root for a team who has had incompetent leadership since the day Frank Cashen untied his bowtie in 1991.
Frankly, it could be worse than the Wilpons, but how much worse?
The De Roulet’s
M-
It was actually directed at Harry who said that esentially whatever the Wilpons have earned have done so illicitly, with Madoff’s help. That’s irresponsible and even libelous but that’s on him.
who knows what you get with a new minority owner (never mind full owner).
Hell, 5 years ago if the Wilpons wanted to do this to raise capital for some other endeavor, it might have been Madoff being offered the stake in the club!
I remember that! Good job! Wow.. Givenp how close the Wilpons and Madoffs… wow. What a though.
I care as much about the Wilpons as I do about about my cable company. Both provide me with something I like. The Wilpons provide me with the Mets. My cable company provides me with ESPN. When my cable company screws up my service I want a new cable provider.
The Wilpons have screwed up my Mets. I want a new Met owner. There is no “war” between the fans and the Wilpons. We don’t care who owns the team. All we ask is that the ownership make a consistent, honest, good faith, investment that provide a competitive team.
The Wilpons have not been honest. The Wilpons have not dealt in good faith. The Wilpons have CHOSEN not to field a competitive team for the next few years. This is NOT what fans want.
Someone speculated jokingly about month or so ago that Sandy Alderson was not so much hired by the Wilpins as appointed by MLB to ensure the Wilpons don’t take down the Met franchise with them as they navigate through this mess. Seems like there is much more to going on between the WIlpons and MLB that we know about.
BS that they have “chosen” to put a bad team (not competing) on the field for the next couple of years. Talk about illogical, since the simplest way for them to make a ton of money is put a winning team on the field.
They’re just not capable of doing that. New ownership is needed.
Lifelong, it was me and I wasn’t joking, I was speculating. Lots of things all occurred at the same time.
After ground was broken for Citi, the Madoff thing hit. Then projected revenue’s went WAY down while payroll went way UP. Then the clawback and the principal business started slipping overall and to some way more than that.
There were trades made to save the bottom line and it just seemed to me that perhaps Selig did for the Wilpon’s what Rozelle did for the Mara’s only not so much in an on field product but in a putting the Franchise back on a firm footing kind of way.
Let’s get this deal cut before the season starts. The Wilpon’s need to sell the franchise and turn it over to new ownership that is capable of supporting it financially without any overtones from the evil crook. Selling a 25% interest is only looking for charity to bail out the Wilpons and continue the current boondoggle approach. A majority interest, or better still 100%, needs to be sold expeditiously. With new ownership the Mets will be set free from the overhanging cloud and initiate a new era of striving for excellence. The sooner the Wilpons make the transition from owners to fans the better.
‘However the truth of the matter is – at this point – what can any of us do? I can’t agree with some of the fanbase, if you want to call them that, who have this burning desire to see the Wilpons fall apart like a house of cards.
As a Met fan I find it hard to understand why any supposed Met fan would wish that, even in spite of the Wilpon’s seemingly questionable business practices. We may never know, with any certainty, what the Wilpon’s motives were in regards to the entire Madoff situation. The case so far is sealed and all parties are refrained from commenting. I sincerely hope that whatever happens doesn’t effect the team on the field.’
***************
Well said.
There is a big difference between ‘wanting to sell the team or any part of the team’, and having to do so out of necessity. It’s very clear the Wilpons don’t want to. It’s clear to me when they previously said they would not entertain it, it was before they were looking at a billion dollar lawsuit.
Selling the team outright? Yeah….not as easy as some of you believe it to be. Even if this was the route they were going down, no way it happens before the season. Probably doesn’t happen before the season is over. Meanwhile, operations will likely be in limbo. When the new owners come in, you think they’re just going to start throwing good money after bad? No, ’cause that would mean they have worse business sense then some of you believe the Wilpons apparently have.
It’s a cliche but it applies. Be careful what you wish for.
This could drag on forever and the next owner(s) could be worse for the fan base than the current ones.