"Put it in Bernie": Remembering Bernie Madoff

[batmagadanleadoff]

Madoff Nearly Ruined the Mets. The Team Has Moved On.



The death of the infamous investment banker who was serving a 150-year prison sentence recalls a chapter where a major-market team was forced to scramble to survive.



Excerpt:

There was a high-flying, if brief, period in Mets history when virtually every available dollar was cycled through investment accounts managed by Bernard L. Madoff. If the team signed a deal for radio rights, the station was asked for much of the money up front and it was handed over to Madoff, who made it multiply, seemingly without fail. If the Mets received a chunk of advertising cash from Pepsi or Budweiser, they would funnel that into the Madoff accounts, too. And when it came time to buy out Bobby Bonilla's player contract, they created an annuity, invested the immediate savings into a Madoff account, and expected to make millions on the transaction for both parties. “Put it in Bernie,” was how Saul Katz, the former president of the team, used to phrase it to colleagues in an indication of how intertwined the team's finances were with Madoff, who it was later discovered was running the largest Ponzi scheme in history. [***] [A]t the height of it, [Fred] Wilpon told a reporter at spring training in Port St. Lucie, Fla., “At least no one is sick.” Indeed, the owners survived the worst of it, mostly through the natural appreciation of major sports franchises. But it did not help that the team was terrible, failing to reach the .500 mark for the next six years.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/14/sports/baseball/bernie-madoff-mets.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Articlehttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/14/sports/baseball/bernie-madoff-mets.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article

[Ceetar]

no way the Mets didn't benefit from that for years/decades. If they'd pulled it out in '06-'08, or even in '00 maybe, you'd kind of forgive '10-'13.

[batmagadanleadoff]

=Ceetar post_id=62496 time=1619723745 user_id=102]
no way the Mets didn't benefit from that for years/decades. If they'd pulled it out in '06-'08, or even in '00 maybe, you'd kind of forgive '10-'13.

[batmagadanleadoff]

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=62499 time=1619724336 user_id=68]
=Ceetar post_id=62496 time=1619723745 user_id=102]
no way the Mets didn't benefit from that for years/decades. If they'd pulled it out in '06-'08, or even in '00 maybe, you'd kind of forgive '10-'13.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Edgy MD wrote: Stop trolling, please.

The day you ever take my side on this crap will be a record setter. Monkeys will fly out my ass. Where were you when he started?

[kcmets]

I have a copy of Wilpon's Folly by Howard Megdal, never got around to reading it.

Next on my to do list.

[MFS62]

Megdal lived off the Madoff story for years. And we thought it had ben put to bed.

But this story: (in the words of the Director of IT at Unilever)

Why?

Why this?

Why this now?

I admit the link is pay-walled, so I didn't read it. But does the article answer those basic questions? How?



Later

[G-Fafif]

This ran shortly after Madoff's death.

[Edgy MD]

Edgy MD wrote: Stop trolling, please. The day you ever take my side on this crap will be a record setter. Monkeys will fly out my ass. Where were you when he started?

I'm everywhere and nowhere.



You should reach out to KC and offer to take him out for a beer. You'll be glad you did.

[Frayed Knot]

There actually is a brand new book out on Madoff -- MADOFF TALKS by Jim Campbell -- but I don't think it's going to have much NYM-specific content in it.

After Madoff went away he began a correspondence with Campbell, a journalist he never met, and wrote often and lengthy letters and emails even as he

was barely, or not at all, in contact with his own family. He apparently doesn't deny anything but spends a lot of time egotistically rationalizing what he did

as if to show how none of it were his fault - sounding somewhat like a cross between the worst characteristics of Nixon and Trump.

Campbell also talked extensively with Ruth Madoff and at least one of the sons before he died.



Not sure it's one that I'm going to get around to.

[Ceetar]

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=62499 time=1619724336 user_id=68]
=Ceetar post_id=62496 time=1619723745 user_id=102]
no way the Mets didn't benefit from that for years/decades. If they'd pulled it out in '06-'08, or even in '00 maybe, you'd kind of forgive '10-'13.

[kcmets]

I've often thought the Wiilpons knew Bernie was a a crook.



Just commenting on the complicity slant.

Edited April 29, 2021 by Guest

[Centerfield]

Without the Madoff returns maybe Fred never gets full control of the team. But without the Madoff collapse maybe he doesn't have to sell completely. Either way, I'm glad the Wilpons are gone while I'm still somewhat young.

[Centerfield]

=kcmets post_id=62519 time=1619736482 user_id=53]
I've often thought the Wiilpons knew Bernie was a a crook. Just commenting on the complicity slant.

[Ceetar]

=kcmets post_id=62519 time=1619736482 user_id=53]
I've often thought the Wiilpons knew Bernie was a a crook.



Just commenting on the complicity slant.

[Frayed Knot]

The Wilpons -- Fred, Jeff, Saul, team accounts, personal accounts, etc -- lost a LOT of money via Madoff. Madoff was taking people's money and giving them entirely fictional statements detailing

that he was investing it in various blue-chip companies when in fact he didn't invest a dime of it, he was using it all to finance his own personal lifestyle. What would be the point in the 'Pons, or

anyone else for that matter, continually giving him more if they knew that this was the case? And the money they did withdraw at various times from their "accounts" based on those fictional gains

is what the court-appointed arbiter was later sent to claw back meaning that they had to pay back part of what they gained years earlier on top of their money which simply disappeared.

The combination of the two is what put them in a hole which caused the slicing of payroll nearly in half and from which they could never recover without selling the team, something they swore they

had no intention of doing until then.



Were they naive? Sure. Wroing to put all the eggs in one basket? In hindsight, yeah. Were there signs that they should have known better? I'll buy that.

But I can't fathom this idea that they knew he was a phony and just kept forking over money to him anyway on the off chance that he'd get away with it forever.

That doesn't make a lick of sense.

[kcmets]

Solid take FK, but I'd still be surprised they didn't half-know or a quarter-know the books were cooked.

[Fman99]

They're all crooks and scoundrels.