Wilpons Need to Go, and They Need to Go Now

Courtesy: Newsday.com

Over the past few days, the news of the financial relationship between Bernie Madoff and the Wilpons has started to come out. The more I read about it, the more I believe the Wilpons are full of crap.

They've lied about about their money woes, and they've lied about how deeply involved Madoff was with the club's finances.

Since the Ponzi scheme was discovered in 2008, the Wilpons have offered little information as to what their relationship was with Madoff.

To me, it's simple. If you weren't close, you just say so. Make a clear statement. When you only share bits and pieces of information, and then sources begin to speak of  how deeply Madoff was involved with the team, well it's going to come back to bite you.

That's exactly what is happening to the Wilpons. Former employees are speaking out and saying that Madoff was a part of the team's business plan.

According to the New York Times:

"When the Mets negotiated their larger contracts with star players — complex deals with signing bonuses and performance incentives — they sometimes adopted the strategy of placing deferred money owed the players with Mr. Madoff’s investment firm. They would have to pay the player, but the owners of the club would be able to make money for themselves in the meantime... And when the costs of disability insurance spiked, the former employee recalled, the Mets began to self insure. They did it by investing premiums with Mr. Madoff."

People have been saying that the Wilpons were aware of the scheme by Madoff. Whether this is true, I have no idea. I would like to think it's false. I would hope, from a moral standpoint, the owners of the Mets would not be so stupid as to knowingly work with such a criminal.

If the relationship between the Wilpons and Madoff is as Irving Picard describes in his lawsuit against the Mets, I would like to think, from a financial standpoint, the Wilpons are not that dumb when it comes to business.

I am no financial expert, but when some one like Madoff has an 18 percent return on investments, and there is no explanation as to how he is making that happen, some kind of alarm should go off, especially  for someone with as much business experience as Fred Wilpon.

Whatever their relationship, whatever their involvement, the Wilpons time as owners of the Mets is almost up.

If you think this will not have an effect on the players, think again. Besides being hounded by the media (which you know will happen) and asked about the situation, they must also go through yet another season of instability.

The Mets finally went out and got a GM and manager that fans are excited about, and gave fans something to look forward to this season. Now this has to happen.

It's time for the Wilpons to cut the crap, and get out. Let the team, media, and fans get back to concentrating on what should be the main focus...baseball.