Bernie Has Been Arrested

Last week, Jeff Wilpon, an owner of the New York Mets, was on the telephone when his father and fellow team owner, Fred, tried to reach him.  Jeff usually asks his father if he can call him right back.  For the first time ever, his father said no.

“Bernie has been arrested,” his father told him.

There has been plenty already written — and surely truckloads of words yet to come — about one of the all-time great shysters, Bernard Madoff.  If there were a Hall of Fame for the lowest level of humanity, this guy Madoff is a first ballot inductee.

Then I read a little story that Bernard Madoff is not only a close friend and trusted investment advisor to Fred Wilpon, but a New York Mets season ticket holder, too.  Two tickets.  $495 per seat.  $990 a game.  Only $80,190 for the season.  Get ‘em while they’re hot!

Why am I not surprised.  Given the price of season tickets in the new New York ballparks, who else could afford it?  

Look to your left, look to your right, hold on to your wallet, you never know who may be sitting next to you at Citi Field next season.  Then again, it’s probably not this schmuck.  He may be spending the summer far away from the green grass, Citibank billboards, and fresh air of Flushing, New York.  Madoff may be in a little prison cell, having to call on his memory and imagination to conjure up what’s taking place on the diamond of his beloved Mets.  Maybe Fred and Jeff Wilpon can give him the happy recap during a conjugal visit.

After all, Bernie has been arrested.