Less Wilpon?

[A Boy Named Seo]

FK with the excellent Know Thine Ownermy

[Ceetar]

=Centerfield post_id=27635 time=1575499955 user_id=65]
I wonder if SNY suddenly turns on the Wilpons the minute the check clears.

[Lefty Specialist]

I'm a little suspicious about all this. It's just a weird arrangement, saying that Fred and Jeff are still running things for five years. If you're going to buy the Mets, why not just do it? Why have this bizarre interregnum where there are lame-duck owners? I need a little more confirmation before I get too excited.



But yeah, I'm definitely determined to stay alive for five years and outlast the Wilpons.

[Edgy MD]

Tim Healey wrote: After the five-year window during which the Wilpons keep their titles, Steven Cohen will be the Mets' "control person," which is basically baseball's term for owner.

Thanks for mansplaining that one, Tim.

[MFS62]

Lefty Specialist wrote: If you're going to buy the Mets, why not just do it?

They want to wait for the statute of limitations on Cohen's business dealings to expire.

Later

[LWFS]

Steve's a sweetheart. Like most modern sports franchise owners. https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/billionaire-steven-cohen-ramps-up-gop-donations-amid-hedge-fund-comebackhttps://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/billionaire-steven-cohen-ramps-up-gop-donations-amid-hedge-fund-comeback

I mean, yeah.



[YOUTUBE]https://youtu.be/-OO9LloDSJohttps://youtu.be/-OO9LloDSJo[/YOUTUBE]

[Fman99]

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=27629 time=1575498700 user_id=68]
But I know the Wilpons and that's enough. You know what else? I'm running out of toilet paper. But because I might get struck by lightning, I won't risk going to the store. I'll just walk around with shit all over the outside of my ass until the invisible man in the sky answers my prayers and magically drops a pack of Charmin in my bathroom like he was TV Barbara Eden or something.



It might get worse. Oh my.

[G-Fafif]

https://twitter.com/metsbackpage1/status/1202433234157625344?s=21https://twitter.com/metsbackpage1/status/1202433234157625344?s=21

[Lefty Specialist]

Is it too late for a dark-horse late entry in the Tabloid Derby?

[smg58]

I don't get the whole control thing. Will the Wilpons be the majority stakeholders or not, and if not, why let them keep "control" over how the team is run? What am I missing?

[Centerfield]

=Ceetar post_id=27656 time=1575507942 user_id=102]
=Centerfield post_id=27635 time=1575499955 user_id=65]
I wonder if SNY suddenly turns on the Wilpons the minute the check clears.

[LWFS]

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=27629 time=1575498700 user_id=68]
=Ceetar post_id=27628 time=1575498270 user_id=102]
=batmagadanleadoff post_id=27626 time=1575497328 user_id=68]
=Ceetar post_id=27599 time=1575493057 user_id=102]


And of course, there's no real reason to think Cohen would make things better. He does seem better at crime at least.

[batmagadanleadoff]

And of course, there's no real reason to think Cohen would make things better. He does seem better at crime at least. Really? Two first place finishes in 31 seasons and willful indifference to investing in history's largest Ponzi scheme, thus miring the Mets in a decade long financial squeeze and you're skeptical about an ownership chqnge? You're fucking nuts. You know nothing about the guy expect he's not Wilpon. But I know the Wilpons and that's enough. You know what else? I'm running out of toilet paper. But because I might get struck by lightning, I won't risk going to the store. I'll just walk around with shit all over the outside of my ass until the invisible man in the sky answers my prayers and magically drops a pack of Charmin in my bathroom like he was TV Barbara Eden or something. It might get worse. Oh my. Ceetar wasn't saying this won't end well; he was just counseling some restraint in this here fist-pumping jamboree. Also, nothing he was saying was false; as FK detailed, Cohen is a pretty big piece of fraud-with-legs.

Yes, yes and yes but my first reaction wouldn't be that Cohen might be worse than the Wilpons even though it's "technically" possible , because it can hardly get any worse. Two first place finishes yada yada yada.



Meanwhile, I sure wish someone could flesh out this quote appearing in the NY Post:



https://nypost.com/2019/12/04/steve-cohen-is-mets-godsend-that-should-bother-the-yankees/While denying it publicly, the Mets have spent at least the past year looking behind the scenes for a whale seeking to buy a majority stake. Saul Katz — Fred Wilpon's brother-in-law, real estate partner and part-owner of the Mets — has been wanting to divest, sources say. His children are said not to be gung-ho about having Jeff Wilpon lead the franchise into the future. It led to recognition that a messy succession was coming in which the family might splinter enough to lose control of the team.



I always imagined that if the Wilpons were ever to sell their majority interest in the Mets it would come about because Saul Katz wanted to sell his share. But what I can't figure out is why wouldn't the Wilpons buy out Katz? I mean, they would have to anyways if they wanted to continue owning the Mets, unless they envisioned Katz's heirs staying on as co-owners in some joint arrangement with the Wilpons. Does this mean that perpetual ownership of the Mets by the Wilpons wasn't possible without Katz's kids holding on to their inherited interest in the Mets as well? Does this mean that the Wilpons don't have the resources to buy out Katz?



The other take from this is that jeez, everybody thinks Jeff Wilpon's an asshole.

[Lefty Specialist]

I'm betting that yes, the Wilpons are too highly leveraged to buy out Saul Katz. But here they get to have their cake and eat it too. They're the heads of the franchise for another 5 years, but Cohen pumps more and more money in each year. They cash out with billions, literally.



Paging Elizabeth Warren:



Cohen is one of the world's more famous art collectors, sometimes spending nine figures on a single work. In 2015, he spent $141.3 million on Alberto Giacometti's “Pointing Man” sculpture — more money than the Mets have ever spent on an individual player's contract.



[FIMG=200]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EK_ciQCXsAAviDi.jpg[/FIMG]

[Centerfield]

That's a lot to pay for a statue of Glenn Sherlock waving everyone home.

[batmagadanleadoff]

So youse might not believe this but I might have some supernatural psychic powers that brought about this development that the Wilpons are about to sell their majority interest in the Mets. I thought about telling this story yesterday but figured that nobody would believe it. But today, I'm suddenly in the mood to tell it so here goes:



The last coupl'a weeks, I've been posting images of this baseball card set I made last year. These cards:



[FIMG=363]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49096249647_d374abfa8c_c.jpg[/FIMG] [FIMG=363]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49095764133_6690413c57_c.jpg[/FIMG] [FIMG=363]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49095821518_df33219c68_c.jpg[/FIMG]



when I realized that I didn't finish the set. I still needed to make a Steven Matz card. Which I finally did last week. Actually, I made several Matz cards. About a half a dozen. The Matz cards tell a story. And then I realized that I never made a manager card for the set. So a few days ago, I made a Mickey Callaway card. The Callaway card is the epilogue to the story told in the Matz cards. And yesterday, as I was putting the finishing touches on the Callaway card, the Wilpon story broke. Here's the Callaway card:



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49173275498_427b2a580f_c.jpg>

[batmagadanleadoff]

So youse might not believe this but I might have some supernatural psychic powers that brought about this development that the Wilpons are about to sell their majority interest in the Mets. I thought about telling this story yesterday but figured that nobody would believe it. But today, I'm suddenly in the mood to tell it so here goes:



The last coupl'a weeks, I've been posting images of this baseball card set I made last year. These cards:



[FIMG=363]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49096249647_d374abfa8c_c.jpg[/FIMG] [FIMG=363]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49095764133_6690413c57_c.jpg[/FIMG] [FIMG=363]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49095821518_df33219c68_c.jpg[/FIMG]



when I realized that I didn't finish the set. I still needed to make a Steven Matz card. Which I finally did last week. Actually, I made several Matz cards. About a half a dozen. The Matz cards tell a story. And then I realized that I never made a manager card for the set. So a few days ago, I made a Mickey Callaway card. The Callaway card is the epilogue to the story told in the Matz cards. And yesterday, as I was putting the finishing touches on the Callaway card, the Wilpon story broke. Here's the Callaway card:



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49173344498_a29e0877c7_c.jpg>

[Ceetar]

finances are all hidden and secret and all. I imagine Katz' kids just want the payout more than they're worried about Jeff, no matter what they think of him. You can't really argue that the franchise isn't constantly increasing in value making you richer and richer. Do we have any inkling of what the breakdown is at Sterling? Like if Katz actually own/control more of the company? It's not like they're really going to be divested of Wilpon, he'll still be mucking around there right?



And I saw someone insinuate that Cohen had 20% already..did he buy out the other three minority owners at some point? I didn't think so.



Sterling owns 68% (they bought back the SNY shares, which was just a fancy way to pay for the Mets while Sterling assets were frozen), Fred, Jeff, Katz each have a 4% share individually. That's the reported 80%. I'd guess they'll sell Katz 4%, plus the Sterling 68, bring it to 76?

[LWFS]

finances are all hidden and secret and all. I imagine Katz' kids just want the payout more than they're worried about Jeff, no matter what they think of him

[Lefty Specialist]

Wait. Time traveling aliens? Can they speed up the 5 years needed to get rid of Jeffy and Fred?

[batmagadanleadoff]

=Ceetar post_id=27748 time=1575566228 user_id=102]
finances are all hidden and secret and all. I imagine Katz' kids just want the payout more than they're worried about Jeff, no matter what they think of him.

[Vic Sage]

the other thing we know is that he'll be the richest owner in baseball, with a stated willingness to spend that money on players. I'll take that over the Ponzi-impoverished Wilpons nickel and diming us in the biggest media market in the world.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Vic Sage wrote: the other thing we know is that he'll be the richest owner in baseball, with a stated willingness to spend that money on players. I'll take that over the Ponzi-impoverished Wilpons nickel and diming us in the biggest media market in the world.

Who wouldn't? Ceetar, that's who. His posts about Cohen have now gone way beyond his other nutty idea that it's distracting to ever talk about the Wilpons.



Meanwhile, there's some more breaking news: ESPN is reporting that according to Fred Wilpon, the Mets would've signed both Wheeler and Cole if Sandy Alderson didn't talk the Wilpons out of making those moves.

[Ceetar]

I didn't say I wouldn't take Cohen, I said it's impossible to know what a Cohen-run franchise would look like. Hell, we've already seen a rich, 'committed to spending', alpha type owner run a franchise in NY. poorly for the most part. There are richer owners all over baseball, doing worse jobs.



It'd be like hearing Chris Christie was going to be the next president.

[batmagadanleadoff]

=Ceetar post_id=27779 time=1575572040 user_id=102]
I didn't say I wouldn't take Cohen, I said it's impossible to know what a Cohen-run franchise would look like. Hell, we've already seen a rich, 'committed to spending', alpha type owner run a franchise in NY. poorly for the most part. There are richer owners all over baseball, doing worse jobs.

[Ceetar]

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=27782 time=1575572329 user_id=68]
=Ceetar post_id=27779 time=1575572040 user_id=102]
I didn't say I wouldn't take Cohen, I said it's impossible to know what a Cohen-run franchise would look like. Hell, we've already seen a rich, 'committed to spending', alpha type owner run a franchise in NY. poorly for the most part. There are richer owners all over baseball, doing worse jobs.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Oh, I see. Baseball owners are fungible. Lorinda de Roulet shoulda held on to the team, then. She'd be two billion dollars richer and everything else'd be the same.

[Centerfield]

It's pointless to argue with him. I do it too, then ask myself why I bothered.



Anyone with half a brain can see that the team was going to go nowhere with the Wilpons at the helm. They were never going to commit to building a division winner, they were never going to commit to a rebuild. So all we could hope for is a mid-80s win team catching fire and getting hot. Which happens about once a decade. So any new owner, even if we knew nothing about them, would be a welcome change.



Yes, there is a risk that the incoming group could be even worse than the Wilpons, but the chances are low. And what little we do know about him, is encouraging. He's smart, successful, had deep pockets, and most importantly, is too busy to play GM. He put out a notice to his investors yesterday that his time would not be divided.



He's probably at least a little bit evil too. Which is perplexing. What do you do when the guy who will provide great personal benefit to you (in this case, a winning baseball team) also happens to be a terrible guy. Do we perform mental gymnastics and pretend he's not? Do we justify being happy by arguing that anyone who's successful enough to be an owner is also a bad guy? (not completely true) Or do we just accept it and say this is a downside to achieving our goals. This must be what it's like to be Republican.



Anyway, it's an exciting time. And although the deal could fall through, and we don't know any of the details yet, and because the Mets may still be saddled with a terrible TV contract courtesy of the Wilpons, we have no idea how any of this will pan out. But we have something today that we didn't have yesterday. And that's hope.



So fuck you Wilpons. Hurry up and get the fuck out.

[Edgy MD]

I think the Wilpons are, like, the fifth-worst ownership group in the New York area, so I'm not so sure the chances of doing worse are that low.

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: I think the Wilpons are, like, the fifth-worst ownership group in the New York area, so I'm not so sure the chances of doing worse are that low.

depends if you count Dolan twice or not.





Also I have plenty of hope. Hell, Diaz locates his slider a half inch lower on average and the Mets might've made the playoffs last year.



And again, we know almost nothing about the proposed deal or what will happen in 5 years precisely. . What's to say Mr "too busy to play GM" doesn't just say "oh, I guess let's just let minority owner Jeff Wilpon continue to be at the helm"?



And how do we know he's smart? Specifically smart about things like baseball?