Mets Make Off-Season Moves to Improve (Legal) Defense

 
Is a Potsie scheme coming into focus?

Perhaps sensing that Metsfans are the only constituency who will accept at face value the idea that the Wilpon's incompetence could outweigh their mendacity, the Mets have started harassing me over the email with protestations of innocence regarding the Madoff lawsuit affair:

The Trustee's lawsuit is an outrageous "strong arm" effort to try to force a settlement by threatening to ruin our reputations and businesses which we have built for over 50 years. This is a flagrant abuse of the Trustee's authority and we will not succumb to his pressure. The conclusions in the complaint are not supported by the facts. While they may make for good headlines, they are abusive, unfair and untrue. We categorically reject them. We should not be made victims twice over - the first time by Madoff, and again by the Trustee's action.

The Wilpons may be involved in a Potsie scheme here, thinking Madoff was really cool just because he said: "Aaaaaaaaaayy." In any event, the legalese in this email strikes me as reeking of desperation. After what they done to me, I have a hard time thinking of the Wilpons as victims, at least a harder time than I do sympathizing with folks like Elyse S. Goldweber who lost their entire retirement savings. But is this whole thing one more bumbling episode in the Wilpon's reign? Or a catastrophe that may lead to a Wilpon endgame?


The Mets three wisemen: what will they do next? (Photo: NY Times)

As far as I can see, it is entirely possible that in the coming months we will learn the Wilpons were in on the fraudulent scheme, as the lawsuit alleges. Compelling information could come out that the Wilpons were not the victims they have painted themselves as. I can easily imagine a whistle-blower emerging any minute now--surely someone in the Wilpon's employ must have seen something sensational that would get them a couple of bucks from the NY Post. Such revelations would be the kind of mother of all public relations disasters for owners that seem to have mastered the form.

It is also then possible that the Mets will need to be sold to a (hopefully more competent) ownership group, and potential buyers from the sublime to the ridiculous have started to poke the media.

"Martin Luther King Jr. died for the common man to do better in his life"..."That sort of legacy is going to take hold here." --Larry Meli, TV executive in group with MLK III interested in buying the Mets.

What are we to make of this quote? It is either highly offensive to the MLK legacy, or highly foreboding for the Mets future, I think. I guess there are worse owners than the Wilpons out there somewhere, but I admit to being curious about whether new blood would lift the 25 year dark cloud from over this franchise.

Some of my wonderful readers have been helping my self-esteem by clamoring for new winter content, but I really have no clue where this is headed. Is Madoff going to be remembered by Met historians as the man who broke the Mets, or the man who liberated the fanbase from a mediocre ownership? I ask you here: what do you guys think is going to happen?