Mets owners too weak to stand their ground with Beltran
By Joe Noa
The tenure of Carlos Beltran as New York Mets manager ended without him managing a single game. He’s gone because team ownership was too weak to keep him.
The New York Mets still manage to get into the center of baseball controversy even when it is not their fault. Maybe the Wilpons and General Manager Brodie van Wagenen should be the Pinocchios in the GEICO commercial sequels. One day they say that what happened in Houston is not a Mets issue, only to force out new manager Carlos Beltran shortly after. Look closely and see their growing noses.
A little history. The Bernie Madoff scam nearly bankrupted Fred and Jeff Wilpon because of sheer greed. They thought Madoff was making them more returns on their investment. Deferred payments to players like Bobby Bonilla and Bret Saberhagen could be taken care of with Madoff’s handling of Wilpon’s 500 accounts. The return on their investments would be enough to pay Bonilla’s long term annuity and they could use the money for other things.
Except Madoff’s scam was exposed and the pyramid scheme collapsed with false entry returns. It was estimated that the Wilpons lost $500 million and had to get loans from MLB just to stay afloat when in reality, that was grounds to force the sale of the New York Mets and end the mismanagement of this team. Instead, then-Commissioner, Bud Selig pulled them out of certain bankruptcy.
Recently things seem to be turning around. The Mets bought the minor league franchise in Syracuse and relocated their AAA players. Syracuse, New York, much closer to Flushing than where their players were previously, Las Vegas.
There was finally some optimism that the Mets are turning a corner and now being run like a Major League team in the media capital of the world. Not like a double AA team in the middle of nowhere. After nearly 10 years of forced debtors prison, the Mets were coming back out into the light.