Mets can't escape Madoff aura

By: Dan

The New York Mets have a lot going of issues to deal with in the 2011 season. A new manager in Terry Collins who's been out of Major League Baseball for almost a decade. The team's ace Johan Santana is once again starting the season on the disabled list. Their closer Francisco Rodriguez is still with the team after a turbulent end to last season involving a domestic abuse incident. All these events will work themselves out with time but one incident will haunt the team for at least the entire season.

That is the ties between the team's owner Fred Wilpon and disgraced Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff.

Wilpon is currently a party in a sealed lawsuit brought by former trustees that invested with Madoff at the behest of Wilpon. The suit alleges that the close business ties between Wilpon & Madoff would suggest that Wilpon must have known of his friend's fraudulent operation. The main part of their relationship involved Wilpon investing deffered amounts of long-term contracts of players like Bobby Bonilla with Madoff.

This lawsuit along with allegations that Madoff provided money for luxury suites in Citi Field, the new home of the Mets, has brought unwanted attention to both MLB and the team. The lawsuit is so prevelant that it had to be addressed by the team's television play-by-play team during the first game of the season.

This will continue for a long time. When a team's ownership is involved with a man that destroyed the financial lives of individuals, businesses, and charities it may never go away.