Two Large

Even in a world where size matters, sometimes two large is too much.  I refer to Steve Ballmer's purchase of the Los Angeles Clippers for two billion bucks.  Roughly four times the most recent purchase price of an NBA team (although it was Milwaukee, or something, so it doesn't completely correlate).

Anyway, I'm glad Ballmer got it.  The notion of Oprah Winfrey owning the Clippers annoyed me so much I ... well, I don't know what I was going to say.  But these teams are not baubles for accessorizing a lifestyle; they're public trusts.

Maybe not the Clippers, because, honestly, who gives a shit?  But surely the Mets belong to something larger than a couple of mouth-breathing knuckleheaded friends of Bernie Madoff.  The tragedy of the Mets is that they are owned by people who can, post-Madoff, no longer afford to play in the big leagues but are too selfish to put the public good ahead of their desire to remain owners.  And so the Mets operate on a budget that would better be attached to some second tier team like ... I don't know -- maybe the Kansas City Royals?  If that's still a team?  Wouldn't it be great if, heartened by the Clippers transaction, the Wilpons put the Mets up for sale?  Two large would not be too much for the Amazing Mets.  Maybe Ronnie and Keith can buy the team -- they're both loaded.

On a related, philosophical note, isn't it funny how stuff just dribbles out.  After all this time talking about Donald Sterling, it only now becomes public that his wife Shelly has control of the trust that owns the team because Donald has been deemed mentally incapacitated.  This from the Washington Post ...

Donald Sterling was reportedly recently ruled “mentally incapacitated” by experts, a move that cleared the path for his wife Shelly to sell the Los Angeles Clippers to former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and other news outlets.

The determination of “incapacitated” was made on behalf of the family trust that owns the Clippers and it was not known what definition, expertise or authority its lawyers employed in getting the finding, which under its bylaws appears to cut Sterling out of any decision-making role.

Go figure.  If somebody could get Fred Wilpon ruled as mentally incapacitated, we'd really be onto something.  I wonder if there's some kind of eminent domain thing that would allow the City of New York to buy the Mets.  Although now that Mike's stepped down it almost certainly won't happen.

I should paint Ballmer.