Metro

Met steal deal

Former Mets clubhouse manager Charlie Samuels (above) pleaded guilty yesterday to charges stemming from the theft of $2.2 million worth of team souvenirs — many of them signed by Met players. (Ellis Kaplan)

He must have been batty!

Sticky-fingered ex-Mets clubhouse manager Charlie Samuels dodged prison yesterday after admitting he swiped team caps, jerseys and other collectibles and sold them for millions of dollars.

Samuels, 55, of Arverne, Queens, was banned for life from Citi Field in Flushing, where the Amazin’s play their home games, as well as their minor-league ballpark in Brooklyn and the Mets’ spring-training facility in Port St. Lucie, Fla.

“The defendant had a dream job that any Mets fan would die for — and he blew it. He allowed his greed to get the better of him,” said Queens DA Richard Brown.

“The defendant was once a trusted employee of the New York Mets who, by his guilty plea, admits that he took advantage of his position and employers to amass a sports-memorabilia collection worth millions of dollars,” Brown fumed.

Samuels started working for the Mets in 1976. He was made equipment manager in 1983 and later became clubhouse manager and traveling secretary.

He is accused of stealing $2.2 million worth of autographed and unsigned collectibles for resale on the souvenir market, where fans are willing to plunk down thousands for team gear that has actually been used in a game.

The haul included 507 uniforms, 828 bats, 304 caps, 22 batting helmets and 10 equipment bags found in a friend’s basement in Madison, Conn.

The Mets fired him after an audit found he used team checks to cover his personal expenses.

He is expected to be sentenced to five years’ probation and was ordered to repay about $75,000 in back taxes to the state and city and restitution to the team and DA’s Office for the cost of the investigation.

The Mets’ longtime clubhouse boss pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal possession of stolen property and two counts of tax fraud.

He also had to cough up a nearly $25,000 partial payment to get out of Queens Criminal Court yesterday.

In all, he had to pay the team $24,955, the city about $14,738, the state another $20,843, and Brown’s office $15,000.

Samuels, who spent almost his entire adult life working for the Mets, was also accused of falsifying business records so he could skim $25,000 off meal money the Mets provide to umpires, and of cheating on his city and state taxes to save $24,000 over two years by not declaring tips that players gave him.

He had faced 8¹/‚ƒ to 25 years in prison if he had gone to trial and been convicted, and could still be locked up if he violates probation or fails to repay all of the cash.

Samuels, free on $75,000 bond, is scheduled to be sentenced on April 16.

The case was cracked by cops assigned to the NYPD’s Organized Crime and Rackets Bureau along with the Queens DA’s Office.