This Week’s “What the Heck?” Moment

Major League Baseball is in a state of change this off-season. With former commissioner Bud Selig stepping down, commissioner-elect Rob Manfred will take over starting this season in 2015. With him comes new people to head MLB committees. One of those new heads is Fred Wilpon. His committee: finance.

For those of you who are not familiar with Wilpon, he is the owner of the New York Mets. He is well known for being a cheap owner and runs his team like they are in a mid-sized media market despite being in the largest media market in the United States. This leads to constant critique from the New York and baseball media. However, Wilpon being appointed to this committee makes a ton of sense. He is going to strive to save MLB money. He will keep their budget tight while make the wallets of his fellow owners fat.

Now, many of you may be questioning why this is this week’s “What the Heck?” moment. It seems like such a logical job for Wilpon as it will benefit MLB and himself. He will take his penny pinching techniques and perfect them on an even larger stage. Here is the issue. Wilson was part of the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme. The man who is now in charge of Major League Baseball’s money was duped by Bernie Madoff. Let that sink in for a minute. Fred Wilpon—who lost millions of dollars in a pyramid scheme—now runs the finance committee for a multi-billion dollar business.

Great job Major League Baseball! You may be making strides towards shortening game lengths, but you dropped the ball here. So I ask you, Rob Manfred, “What the heck were you thinking?”