After the revelation that MLB loaned $25 million to the Mets last October, months before the Madoff "fictitious profits" lawsuit was filed against their owners, the team has continued to search far and wide for help from outsiders to fix their dire financial situation. They can't expect to receive any more help from MLB though: the commissioner's office will reportedly not make another substantial loan to the team, which makes the Mets sound like the wastrel cousin you know is never going to pay you back. But the team has forwarded a list of 30 potential "legitimate" buyers to MLB for approval.
CEO Fred Wilpon and COO Jeff Wilpon previously said they were willing to sell 20-25 percent of the team; over the weekend, their lawyer said that amount could go as high as 49 percent, as long as the Wilpons retain majority control. Among the candidates interested in buying the team are several prominent NY financiers: one group includes David Heller, the co-head of Goldman Sachs' securities unit, along with other former and current Goldman partners; another group includes Steve Starker, co-founder of the global-trading firm BTIG, Ken Dichter, the co-founder of Marquis Jet, and other New York investment professionals; and a third group, which includes former Mets coach Bobby Valentine, is being led by Anthony Scaramucci, the general manager of asset manager SkyBridge Capital, according to the Post.
But through all this mess, there are still many who are working tirelessly to defend the team, even as the details surrounding the Madoff lawsuit makes the Wilpons look worse and worse. That includes longtime Mets vice-president of media relations Jay Horwitz, who hasn't missed a game since his mother died in 1990, and who has had to handle the bulk of the press in the wake of the lawsuit: "A lot of it has been really unfair. I don't know two more decent, honest people [than Jeff and Fred Wilpon]. And I'm not saying that as a media person or employee. I'm saying it as a human being."
