By Joe Schackman
Bud Selig has sat by silently as Fred Wilpon has run the Mets into the ground. If only they weren't friends.
In Haruki Marukami’s short story The Rise and Fall of Sharpie Cakes, the narrator of the story finds himself in a cake baking contest. He’s supposed to be making “sharpie cakes,” but there’s a big problem: he doesn’t really know what a sharpie cake is, and no one seems willing to explain what one is. All he knows is that at the end, the cake will be judged by “sharpie cronies,” a pack of birds that only eat these sharpie cakes. If they devour the cake, it’s a sharpie; if they spit it back up, then it’s just a normal cake.
He spends a week baking a variety of cakes he hopes will qualify as sharpies. But when he presents his unorthodox entries for judging, a fight breaks out amongst the cronies. Half of them love the cake, while the other half vehemently disagree. The controversy throws the entire place into chaos, leaving the narrator with nothing to do but walk out, a bit befuddled over how a bunch of birds managed to screwed him out of his money.
Believe it or not, this story parallels life as a Mets fan over the past few years. While our narrator spent hours baking cakes in hopes his dedication would be rewarded, I spent hours on the couch or at the park watching baseball, in hopes my dedication would be rewarded. Yet like the protagonist, the reward is not a glorious victory. No, the reward is having to watch a bunch of stupid cronies tear each other apart at the expense of a professional baseball team. The only difference? I can’t walk out. But how I wish I could.
There is no breaking news in the miserable and pathetic story that is the New York Mets. The sad details have been on full display for years now, ever since it was revealed just how intimately intertwined the Mets’ owners and convicted Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff had become. It should have been simple: the Wilpon family hitched their wagon to the wrong horse from the start, and would now pay the price. However, thanks to Bud Selig-- the ultimate baseball crony-- the Mets’ fans are now forced to come along for the ride.
Since the exposure of Madoff as a fraud and the Wilpons’ investment gains as ill-gotten, the Wilpons have done everything in their power to keep the Mets. That they would do so was expected, even if it was financially questionable. They’ve owned the team for decades and consider it a part of their family legacy.
Since the exposure of Madoff as a fraud and the Wilpons’ investment gains as ill-gotten, the Wilpons have done everything in their power to keep the Mets. That they would do so was expected, even if it was financially questionable. They’ve owned the team for decades and consider it a part of their family legacy.
But choosing devotion over fiscal responsibility has severely damaged the quality of the team that they put out on the field. First and foremost, the Wilpon’s cut expenses across the board. This offseason, the Mets set an MLB record by slashing its payroll by $50 million year over year. Then they cut an entire minor league baseball team. Even after taking those measures, the Wilpons must still sell a number of minority stakes in the organization to remain financially viable.
Yet despite their mounting debt and inability to draw fans or meet short term obligations, Major League Baseball has allowed the Wilpons to try just about every possible ploy to keep their team. Commissioner Selig loaned them money, and then when that wasn’t enough, he helped them secure a $40 million loan from Bank of America. Since then, he’s given the Wilpons tons of leeway in their desperate search for investors following a botched deal with hedge fund manager David Einhorn.
The one financial bright spot in this entire mess has been SportsNet New York (SNY), the Mets’ television network that was launched through a partnership between Sterling Equities (parent company of the Mets), Time Warner and Comcast. As it stands right now, the Mets own about 70% of the network.
However, a new deal may now have SNY purchasing shares of the Mets, about 16% of the team to be exact. The actual cash is coming from their partners, Time Warner and Comcast, but would be funneled through SNY and result in SNY owning 16% of a company that owns 70% of them.
As Forbes is reporting, this arrangement allows the Mets to use SNY as collateral in the deal. Should the team default, the Mets would potentially have to turn over their share of the network to Time Warner and Comcast, leaving any future buyers of the team without access to the very profitable network.
There is nothing illegal about this. But like everything else surrounding the Wilpons right now, the arrangement reeks of back-door deals and handshakes. The Wilpons are literally stripping the Mets for spare parts in front of our eyes.
Yet despite their mounting debt and inability to draw fans or meet short term obligations, Major League Baseball has allowed the Wilpons to try just about every possible ploy to keep their team. Commissioner Selig loaned them money, and then when that wasn’t enough, he helped them secure a $40 million loan from Bank of America. Since then, he’s given the Wilpons tons of leeway in their desperate search for investors following a botched deal with hedge fund manager David Einhorn.
The one financial bright spot in this entire mess has been SportsNet New York (SNY), the Mets’ television network that was launched through a partnership between Sterling Equities (parent company of the Mets), Time Warner and Comcast. As it stands right now, the Mets own about 70% of the network.
However, a new deal may now have SNY purchasing shares of the Mets, about 16% of the team to be exact. The actual cash is coming from their partners, Time Warner and Comcast, but would be funneled through SNY and result in SNY owning 16% of a company that owns 70% of them.
As Forbes is reporting, this arrangement allows the Mets to use SNY as collateral in the deal. Should the team default, the Mets would potentially have to turn over their share of the network to Time Warner and Comcast, leaving any future buyers of the team without access to the very profitable network.
There is nothing illegal about this. But like everything else surrounding the Wilpons right now, the arrangement reeks of back-door deals and handshakes. The Wilpons are literally stripping the Mets for spare parts in front of our eyes.
By allowing all this to go on, Selig has done the Mets, and the league, a disservice. Standing idly by while one of baseball’s biggest-market teams crumbles under its own debt and mistakes does nothing to advance the good of the game.
Perhaps the worst part is that, as a fan, there is nothing to be done. Selig has refused to put the Wilpons out of their misery, leaving fans to watch helplessly as the cronyism of Major League Baseball tears this team apart. Maybe our narrator could walk away and laugh about the absurdity, but not me. There’s nothing left to do but keep baking those cakes.
Perhaps the worst part is that, as a fan, there is nothing to be done. Selig has refused to put the Wilpons out of their misery, leaving fans to watch helplessly as the cronyism of Major League Baseball tears this team apart. Maybe our narrator could walk away and laugh about the absurdity, but not me. There’s nothing left to do but keep baking those cakes.
Joe Schackman is a co-founder and editor of Began in '96
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