Yes, Joey It's Kidney Stones; Yes, Mets' Fans, We Got Coal in Our Stockings Once Again- Get Used to it! PART TWO - David Rubin

Part Two: Parallels and The Future

By David Rubin

In part one of this post, we briefly discussed a situation I found myself in, professionally, wherein the owner of a restaurant had been severely under-capitalized and found himself on the precipice of disaster. I was tasked with trying to save his business, and sad to say, it wasn't to be, for a number of reasons. At this point, where the Wilpons are concerned, there are far too many parallels to their situation NOT to lay them out and compare possible conclusions.

This restaurant was built with, primarily, other people's funds, and was under-capitalized from the beginning. The owner had never been in the hospitality business before, and the person running the show for him had been a great operator when working under a tight, corporate system; when in charge for himself, he over-spent on non-necessary items, which left them cash poor when it came time to make some major, vital purchases. The majority of the staff were hired out of necessity, not out of long-term (or even short-term) planning. Creditor debt began mounting prior to opening; checks were bouncing left and right; "Peter" was constantly "robbed" to pay "Paul" and there were no "clean" transactions; and, ultimately, the owner was sold a bill of goods when it came time to the all-mighty P&L (Profit and Loss Statement) that dictates whether or not your business can stay alive. The owner tried to keep the doors open even when facing insurmountable debt and no hope for either re-financing of said debt nor bringing in an angel-investor at such a late date...and his pride prevented him from recognizing that, despite the best of intentions, he had taken a historically-important venture and essentially burnt it to the ground.

Now imagine going to work every day, trying to make heads or tails out of this situation, knowing that no matter what you do or how much you move that "sales-needle" forward, it's never going to be enough to make up for past wrongs. Finally, you recommend that the owner sells the property before there's nothing left to sell and the rest of his assets become nothing more than collateral to sue against in order to collect monies way past due. Now imagine running this establishment AFTER the manager who put this place into such financial straits walked away, knowing the many things he'd done wrong, but refusing to admit to them? Furthermore, once your long, long day is finished, imagine going home, turning on the computer, linking into your MLB feed and watching your beloved team of 45+ years, only to be subjected to the same situation in your down-time as the one you face during your work-time?!! Baseball, the great "escape" for the working-man becomes, for Mets fans, yet another source of pain, confusion and resentment, in spite of the Wilpons best intentions.
Let's compare the situation I was in to the one the Wilpons find themselves in now; I'll repeat my paragraph from above, and add-in the parallels to the Wilpon/Katz situation:
This restaurant was built with, primarily, other people's funds, and was under-capitalized from the beginning. The Mets were purchased by the Doubleday/Wilpon team, with the Doubleday fortune serving as the majority cash backing. Fred assumed ownership by buying Nelson Doubleday out, utilizing the ill-gotten Madoff gains to do so...

The owner had never been in the hospitality business before, and the person running the show for him had been a great operator when working under a tight, corporate system; Fred Wilpon LOVED the Brooklyn Dodgers, but of course he was never in the baseball "business"...

when in charge for himself, he over-spent on non-necessary items, which left them cash poor when it came time to make some major, vital purchases. Omar Minaya, indeed...
The majority of the staff were hired out of necessity, not out of long-term (or even short-term) planning. Too often, we found that Omar has spent a ton of money on a handful of big stars, but he always had trouble both stocking the AAA-team with major league-ready replacements as well as finishing his rosters with the same gusto he put into signing top talent...
Creditor debt began mounting prior to opening; checks were bouncing left and right; "Peter" was constantly "robbed" to pay "Paul" and there were no "clean" transactions; and, ultimately, the owner was sold a bill of goods when it came time to the all-mighty P&L (Profit and Loss Statement) that dictates whether or not your business can stay alive. All you need to do is read Howard Megdal's great e-book, "Wilpon's Folly" to see just how badly in debt this organization finds itself in...the Wilpons obviously believed that by opening a new ballpark, they'd have a license to "print money"; yet here they are, saddled in debt to build Citi-Field, whose attendance is far below the team's expectations, and looking at both short-term and long-term crushing debt.

(To purchase Megdal's e-book, click here.)The owner tried to keep the doors open even when facing insurmountable debt and no hope for either re-financing of said debt nor bringing in an angel-investor at such a late date...and his pride prevented him from recognizing that, despite the best of intentions, he had taken a historically-important venture and essentially burnt it to the ground. I can't forget how, not long ago, Met VP Dave Howard ridiculed a reporter who had the temerity to imply that the team was going to need a cash-infusion and possible ownership change due to mounting losses and the potential for huge loss via the pending Madoff-Clawback lawsuit; the Wilpons had one "angel investor" lined up in Einhorn, but their greed and pride blew that deal; there have been no officially announced "$20 million dollar investors" months after this new plan was unveiled; and, most upsetting of all, the Wilpons' tenuous financial situation is causing the millions of Met fans around the world to once again lose hope that their beloved team will ever be relevant again, let alone challenging for a World Series Championship, while under their stewardship.

For me, (and for most baseball fans, and for that matter, sport fans in general) baseball has been an escape from every-day life, whether school-work growing up or the many "wonderful" situations we as adults face on a daily basis. It's hard to get excited about a team that offers little to no hope for future success, based mostly on the fact that the current ownership group is in such chaos financially that there is no end in sight...until (and hopefully it comes very soon) the inevitable happens and the team is mercifully sold to someone with deep pockets and a great commitment to restore New York's only National League team to the glory the fans so richly deserve.

Until that time, I've personally pledged not to buy any memorabilia, tickets, etc, that in any way might put any $$ back into the Wilpons' coffers. It worked in Los Angeles, as fan backlash helped tilt Frank McCourt to selling the Dodgers (along with a well-made case by MLB); the Wilpons have one decided advantage, being that Commissioner Selig is a noted FOW (Friend of the Wilpons) and so they have received numerous life preservers that (practically) no one else would have received. It might take a while for a complete ownership change to happen, but perhaps, finally, the resolution of the Madoff lawsuit will bring closure to the organization and the Wilpons/Katz combo will have no choice but to sell, once and for all, and a new, well-capitalized ownership group will restore our hope and pride...until that time, I'll ALWAYS root for my Mets, but I'll also root for great change to happen, sooner than later, like I did before the team was sold TO the Wilpons some 30+ years ago...

So yes, Joey, they WERE Kidney Stones...and yes, Met Fans, we received coal in our stockings yet again...but I'll clean them out again before the next holiday season, in hopes that they'll be filled with the only present we all really want - a NEW YORK METS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP!!!