Apparently, there is crying in baseball.
Scores of big names in baseball – including legendary Dodger hurler Sandy Koufax and former Met Timothy Teufel – are on the list of alleged $50 Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff’s clients.
READ THE ENTIRE LIST OF MADOFF VICTIMS (PDF)
The epic 162-page list – released Wednesday night following a bankruptcy hearing for Madoff Securities – also includes the Amazin’s owner Fred Wilpon, and a virtual lineup card of his relatives as well as the New York Mets Foundation.
Wilpon’s Brooklyn Baseball Company – which operates the Brooklyn Cyclones, a minor league affiliate – is also named on the list, as is Coney Island Baseball.
Reps for the notoriously private Koufax were asked by The Post last month if he had invested with Madoff, but he did not return calls for comment. Attempts to reach him Wednesday night were unsuccessful. Koufax and Wilpon – childhood pals – both invested in Madoff through Sterling Equities, Wilpon’s real estate company.
A spokesman for Sterling Equities did not return a call for comment when the list was released earlier Wednesday evening.
It is not immediately known exactly how many millions Koufax or Wilpon’s entities lost.
In addition, Mets’ president Saul B. Katz was also named as a Madoff victim, as was former team VP and treasurer Harold O’Shaughnessy, who declined to comment.
The news of the extensive losses on the Mets comes as the team prepares to move into it’s new $800 million stadium.
“We’ve said all we’re going to say on this matter [Madoff] before,” said Mets spokesman Jay Horowitz.
The team previously insisted that Madoff’s swindles would “not affect the day-to-day operations and long-term plans of the Mets organization and the Citi Field project.”
The team recently stated that they would keep their payroll at about $143 million, roughly the same as last season. They just re-signed pitcher Oliver Perez to a three-year deal and Mets officials have said they would not pursue top-dollar, free-agent slugger Manny Ramirez.
It wasn’t just the boys of summer who got beaned by Madoff, who allegedly pulled off one of the biggest swindles in Wall Street history.
Norman Braman, the former owner of the Philadelphia Eagles, is also on the list of former clients and has previously admitted a big hit in the wide-reaching scandal.
Another client on the list is former New York Islanders great Bob Nystrom.