David Einhorn brings a couple of valuable assets to the Mets, over and above the $200 million cash infusion that will prop up the team’s sagging accounts once he officially becomes part of the ownership group, sometime in June.
For one thing, there was that viral shot of him in a homemade Dave Kingman uniform when he was 7-years-old, so from the jump he can brandish credentials among the long-timers and the die-hards. There was the speech he gave the other day at the Ira Sohn Investment Research Conference, the meat of which was his urging Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to step down, the coda of which ended thusly: “Let’s go, Mets!”
And there is the fact that, by all accounts, he is among the brightest of all the bright lights in a difficult time for the money men of the country, the guy who foresaw the demise of Lehman Brothers before anyone else. And after an extended period when the Mets’ ownership suite has been occupied by men who now proclaim to the world whenever possible that they were appallingly stupid in their business and baseball dealings, that’s a welcome gust of fresh air.
“A life experience,” is the way Einhorn himself explained his willingness to hand $200 million to an operation that by its own admission is hemorrhaging cash, and you have to give the man this much, if nothing else: He was willing to put his money where his dreams were.
If it’s hard for working people to not grow chilled when the words “hedge fund” are brought up, if it’s hard to hear Einhorn tell stories about hitting Wiffle Ball home runs into Bud Selig’s backyard as a kid in Milwaukee and not cynically mouth the words “inside job,” . . . well, it’s hard to deny the earnestness that was in his voice yesterday.
“This,” he said, “is something in which I have a great personal interest.”
But Einhorn hasn’t gotten where he’s gotten by playing the rube, despite his boyish looks and his youthful voice. I asked one longtime Wall Streeter to describe Einhorn’s secret yesterday. And this is what he said:
“His brass ones are the brassiest ones you’ll ever see.”
So let that be the first warning shot to the Wilpons. Einhorn didn’t offer up very much yesterday, not surprisingly. But two different baseball executives with knowledge of the details of the transaction said that one of the deal’s details almost certainly included a right of first refusal for Einhorn to purchase controlling interest of the team if it comes to that.
Einhorn is a charitable sort, has greatly supported Michael J. Fox’s foundation for Parkinson’s Disease, but the Mets are not a charity and he is not their benefactor. While one of the executives contacted by The Post yesterday said, “the Wilpons pretty much got everything they could have wanted,” this is only truly helpful to them if they can take advantage of the cash infusion and not only pay down their debt, but build an operation that looks and feels professional again.
GM Sandy Alderson is already in place, and that’s a start. Alderson and manager Terry Collins have rapidly altered the Mets’ culture of accountability, something that was completely missing in past years, and Alderson has a successful resume to build off.
But the Mets’ problems in recent years have started at the top, with an ownership group whose lack of savvy and gravitas was exposed to the world this week. It always was assumed that Jeff Wilpon was the predominant problem, a decision maker whose qualifications for his job began and ended with his birth certificate; after this week, it’s hard to lay it all at the feet of the son any longer.
It may turn out that David Einhorn’s money is only the first of his contributions to salvaging the Mets. He brings confidence and competence to a club that’s been sorely short on both in recent years. It would be wise for the Wilpons to pay attention.
michael.vaccaro@nypost.com