Madoff's Mets
Think before you speak. Think before you act. Simple rules for simple living. Too bad most of us don't do either and then cry foul at the consequences.
I talk about being a Met fan from time to time and even though the Yankees are unquestionably the baseball team that represents New York City...The New York Mets represent Wall Street and its recent fall from grace, better than any ball club in pro sports.
Much like a huge investment bank running around with its head disconnected from the rest of its body, the Mets are a great place to make money. Whether you are an aging superstar like Pedro Martinez, an overrated bum like Bobby Bonilla or a third rate General Manager like Omar Minaya, you can count on the Mets to line your pockets.
In fact, it really isn't that much of a stretch to compare the Mets' hiring tastes to that of a bank which scoops up coked up, hooker obsessed, ex-BSDs in hopes that they will make the register ring one last time before fading into obscurity.
The problem is...once the washout batter or the scummy banker leaves, their mess stays for someone else to clean up. Pushing the problems forward, leads to a confrontation point.
The preliminary punitive figures of associating with Madoff are in the ~$500,000,000 neighborhood, the Mets are almost a 1/4 Billion in the red ...on top of that.
The Tail Wags the Dog
How many times in your life did you tell a little lie? Take a shortcut? Is taking Adderall to study longer the same as taking Steroids to workout harder? Both are drugs. Both give you an edge on the competition. Slippery slope, ain't it?
I know that as a result of their congress with Bernie Madoff, the Wilpon family (which owns the Mets) is now left holding a pile of turds, worth less than nothing.
I wonder how many philosophical quandaries are running through the heads of Fred and Jeff Wilpon as they face clawbacks which may not only cost them their ownership in a Major League Baseball franchise but a huge chunk of their personal wealth.
Are they in denial? Are they grieving? Do they think that this too, shall pass? Or do they see what I see...
What About Me? What About You? What About Us?
I certainly never invested with Bernie Madoff and suspect none of you did either. But what if we had?
How would you feel in the Wilpons' position?
Are they getting what's coming to them?
I am going to ask Met fans to refrain from answering or at least attempting to restrain their emotions while doing so. This ownership has put the fan base through some terrible baseball times, so its easy for eager fans to wish them ill...
What I want to know is where we stand on the fraud front as a Wall Street related community?
I've been reminiscing over the Financial Crisis quite a bit lately and I'm still not sure what the industry's collective take on it is. I'm not sure I ever will be.
It's been a while since Bernie went away for an eternal weekend. He's been the sacrificial lamb for a lot of years worth of a lot of bad deeds by a lot of bad people.
Many of those people are still around. Some of them are your bosses. Some perhaps even friends. Some of them manage your or perhaps your families' money.
What do we think about them?
What would you say or do if something like this happened to you? If you woke up one day and realized that the steady returns you've been getting for years are now going to cost you your prized possession?...if not everything...
With whom does the responsibility really lie?
At what point should we be held responsible for looking the other way?
Fred and Jeff Wilpon will find out soon enough.
Hey Midas, how about you and I get a few dollars together and invest in the Mets. The Wilpon seem desperate enough to give us a say in operations and contracts.
On a side note, what do we think about Reyes? Do the Mets retain or trade? If retain, at what cost? 14 mil? 18 mil? The mets really need to think about giving players contracts with a lower base salary meshed with jam packed incentives for performance.
This franchise has been so bad at the business of baseball for so long (pre-Wilpon) that it's going to take years for people around baseball to understand they can't be fucked with. This is precisely why (the more time goes on) I realize that Alderson's hiring was really a Commissioner's Appointment to right this sinking ship.
As for Reyes, I love the kid and watched him come up. Unfortunately, he's a complete dumbass when it comes to the non-physical aspects of the game. You can get away with that at 22 and 26, but with his speed deteriorating I wonder whether he'll even be a top 10 SS in 3 years. The Mets haven't done him any favors both with clipping his wings in terms of his rambunctiousness and their shitty medical treatment.
I think it's best for both parties that they trade him at the deadline, hopefully while he's having a good year.
You gotta be realistic, if Carl Crawford (compare their numbers, they're pretty much a push) got 7/$140mil there's NO WAY you get Reyes for less than 5/$95 if he has a good year this year. If he has a shitty year, I don't even want to think about it.
Much like the economy overall, the Mets have to think about cuts and not spending.
I dont see the wall st/mets comparison. Wall street is a sucsessful institution that went through a rough period, continued paying huge salaries even when performance suffered, recovered to some extent but is more hated than ever by non finance people.
The mets are a franchise that people pity, not hate. I'm a Yankee fan and I don't mind the mets at all - find a plumber who feels the same about wall street. Wall street comparison works better with late 90s Yankees being the dark side and loose spenders when they performed badly the prior decade.
This is why I hate baseball.
95/5 sounds like quite a pay raise from the 11 mil he is going to get for 2011. Reyes has said time and time again that he wants to play for the mets and nowhere else...let's test that...I'd say offer him a contract with a 10-12 million base. 2.5 mil incentive for playing 140 games....another 2.5 mil for stealing 45+ bases. I agree that the mets need to cost cut...but Jose Reyes (along with D Wright) is the face of the franchise..he sells tickets...it would be hard to see the mets letting him go.
Wright is a god compared to Reyes among Mets fans. After the last couple of years Reyes is definitely not the face of the franchise anymore. If anything he's the face of everything that's wrong with the Mets: talent players who are paid a ton of money to get injured and complain. I wouldn't be upset if they just cut ties with him. He's obviously a great player when he's healthy, but how often is that?
Question for you, Midas...if the Mets represent Wall Street, then who do the Yankees represent? I think it's probably the old-school merchant-banking set. Interestingly enough, the times when the Mets were most successful (late 60's-early 70's and mid-late 80's) the Yankees were terrible.
If Reyes stays healthy he gets Carl Crawford numbers at 5+ years. If he's hurt, he still get a raise and one year tryout deal from somebody.
The Mets are like Wall Street.
The Yankees are the Fed
I would like to point out there is not nearly enough sports talk on this website, Wall-street focused be damned. Wouldn't hurt some of you to branch out once and awhile and take your eyes off the Journal for a few minutes..
But the journal features a sports section!
Agree with the comparisons about the Yankees and Mets Midas but even if Reyes has Crawford-like numbers this year he still doesn't deserve a deal like that, and who knows whether the Mets would give it to him. They are going to be getting a lot of room in the payroll after this year, but we all know that we need a pitcher or two before anything else.
Velit velit ipsam omnis reiciendis tenetur. Qui illo nulla commodi nemo quidem aut.
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