Jeff Wilpon

Last updated
Jeff Wilpon
Jeff Wilpon (cropped).jpg
Wilpon at Citi Field in 2016
Born (1961-12-09) December 9, 1961 (age 61) [1]
Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.
Nationality American
Education Palm Beach State College
Known forFormer Chief Operating Officer of the New York Mets
Investor in the New York Excelsior
SpouseValerie Goldman
Parent(s)Judy Kessler Wilpon
Fred Wilpon
Relatives Saul Katz (uncle)

Jeffrey Scott Wilpon (born December 9, 1961) is an American businessman who was an executive vice-president of Sterling Equities, and the owner of the Overwatch League Esports team the New York Excelsior. He is the former COO of the New York Mets baseball team and son of the former principal owner of the New York Mets Fred Wilpon.

Contents

Jeff and other Wilpon family members invested with Bernie Madoff's ponzi scheme that collapsed in 2008. [2] Unlike many who lost their investments, it was revealed in the Madoff firm's court case, Securities Investor Protection Corp. vs. Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (USBC SDNY No. 08-01789), that the family partnership run by Wilpon made $48 million in their dealings with the firm. [3] He was a member of the board of directors for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., [4] and is currently a trustee of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. [5]

Biography

Wilpon was born to a Jewish family, the son of Judy (née Kessler) and Fred Wilpon, the co-founder of the real estate development firm Sterling Equities and former majority owner of the New York Mets. He has two siblings. His sister, Robin Wilpon, is married to Phillip Wachtler, son of former Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, Sol Wachtler. [6] [7] His brother, Bruce Wilpon, is a partner at Sterling Equities [8] and was married to Yuki Oshima-Wilpon, daughter of Japanese billionaire Kenshin Ōshima. [9] [10] His uncle is Saul Katz. Wilpon is a graduate of Roslyn High School in Roslyn, New York. [1] He was drafted by the Montreal Expos in 1983 as a favor to his father but was cut by the Jamestown Expos without appearing in a game. [11] He served as chief officer of development and construction and oversaw the planning and development of Citi Field. [1] He formerly served as an executive vice-president of Sterling Equities. [12] [13]

Criticism

Wilpon was criticized by some for being too much of a meddler in the baseball operations for the New York Mets. In 2010, Joel Sherman of the New York Post wrote, "Let's give Jeff Wilpon the benefit of the doubt here for a moment. Let's say he is not short-tempered. Tone deaf. A credit seeker. An accountability deflector. A micro-manager. A second-guesser. A less-than-deep thinker. And bad at self-awareness. Fine, he's none of these things. But here is the problem: This is his perception in the industry as the Mets try yet again to fix their baseball operations department." [14]

Sherman also cited a baseball executive in regular contact with the Mets, who said, "Jeff is the problem with the organization, and he is never going to realize that. He cannot help himself. He has to be involved. He will never hire anyone who will not let him have major input. He will not hire anyone who does not run every personnel decision through him." [14] An AL executive added, "The only person with a worse reputation than Jeff Wilpon in the game is [Marlins president] David Samson." [14]

In 2009, Peter Gammons told ESPN Radio that Mets GM Omar Minaya "isn’t the General Manager. Jeff Wilpon is. Omar's the one out there to take the heat." [15]

In 2003, the team's previous partner, Nelson Doubleday, Jr., told The Star-Ledger : "Mr. Jeff Wilpon has decided that he's going to learn how to run a baseball team and take over at the end of the year… Run for the hills, boys. I think probably all those baseball people will bail... Jeff sits there by himself like he's King Tut waiting for his camel." [15]

Commentators on the internet and in broadcast media have referred to Jeff Wilpon as "Fredo" Wilpon, after the ineffectual member of the Corleone family, Fredo Corleone, played by John Cazale in The Godfather and The Godfather Part II . [16]

In September 2014, Wilpon was named as a defendant in a lawsuit by Leigh Castergine, the first female senior vice president of ticket sales in the history of the Mets. According to the civil complaint filed by Castergine's attorney, Wilpon repeatedly disparaged her for having a child out of wedlock and then terminated her employment when she complained to human resources. [17]

Personal life

He is married to Valerie (née Goldman) Wilpon. Their son, Bradley Wilpon, was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in 2014, and has played two summers for the Newport Gulls of the NECBL. [18]

Blizzard Entertainment announced in July 2017 that Wilpon had bought ownership in the New York Excelsior, one of the first seven teams planned for the professional esports Overwatch League. [19] [20] As of 2023, Excelsior was owned by NYXL (company). Sterling VC, a venture capital arm of Sterling Equities, is the primary investor in NYXL.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nelson Doubleday Jr.</span> American businessman

Nelson Doubleday Jr. was the owner and the next-to-last president and CEO of Doubleday and Company before its sale to Bertelsmann A.G. in 1986. He was instrumental in the company's purchase of the New York Mets in 1980.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Wilpon</span> American baseball team president

Fred Wilpon is an American real estate developer and former baseball executive. He was principal owner of the New York Mets from 1987 to 2020.

Solomon "Sol" Wachtler is an American lawyer and Republican politician. He was Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1985 to 1992. Wachtler's most famous quote, made shortly after his appointment as Chief Judge, was that district attorneys could get grand juries to "indict a ham sandwich".

Stephen Francis Phillips is an American baseball analyst and former baseball executive. He served as the general manager of the New York Mets from 1997 through 2003. He worked as a baseball analyst for ESPN from 2005 until his dismissal in October 2009. He currently serves as an MLB analyst on TSN and TSN 1050 radio as well as the host of The Leadoff Spot on SiriusXM's MLB Network Radio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandy Alderson</span> American baseball executive

Richard Lynn "Sandy" Alderson is an American baseball executive. He was most recently the president of the New York Mets. He previously served as the general manager of the New York Mets from 2011 to 2018, an executive in the Oakland Athletics and San Diego Padres organizations, and the commissioner's office of Major League Baseball. As a front office executive, Alderson led the Athletics to a World Series championship in 1989 and led the Athletics to the World Series in three straight seasons. Alderson led the Mets to the 2015 World Series.

<i>Playing for Peanuts</i>

Playing for Peanuts is a 10-episode documentary television series about minor league baseball. The ten episode series follows the South Georgia Peanuts of the independent South Coast League during the 2007 season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kelvin Torve</span> American baseball player

Kelvin Curtis Torve is a former Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball First baseman, and current head coach of the American Legion Baseball Post 22 Hardhats in Rapid City, South Dakota. Torve batted left and threw right.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2011 New York Mets season</span>

The 2011 New York Mets season was the franchise's 50th season and its third at Citi Field. Following a poor 2010 season, the Mets sought their first postseason appearance since 2006. However, they failed to make the playoffs for the 5th straight season.

Saul Katz is a real estate developer, former president of the New York Mets and accused Bernie Madoff co-conspirator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York Excelsior</span> American professional esports team

The New York Excelsior is an American professional Overwatch esports team based in New York City, New York. The Excelsior compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's West region. Founded in 2017, the team is one of twelve founding members of the Overwatch League and is the first professional esports team to represent the city of New York. The franchise is owned by NYXL, which was founded under the name Andbox by venture capital fund Sterling.VC, supported by Sterling Equities. They also own NYXL Academy, an academy team for NYXL that competed in Overwatch Contenders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NYXL (company)</span> American esports organization

NYXL is a collective esports and gaming organization based in New York. Launched under the name Andbox in 2019 by Sterling.VC, an investment fund backed by Sterling Equities, to operate esports franchises New York Excelsior and New York Subliners, it was the first esports organization in New York to span multiple franchises. The organization established two more esports teams by 2021, and in March 2022, it rebranded as NYXL.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">JJonak</span> South Korean professional esports player

Bang Sung-hyeon (Korean: 방성현), better known by his online alias JJonak, is a South Korean professional esports player, best known as a competitive Overwatch player. Bang signed with the New York Excelsior (NYXL) for the inaugural season of the Overwatch League. In his time with NYXL, Bang won two stage titles and was named the league's regular season most valuable player in 2018. Following the 2021 season, Bang left the NYXL and signed with the Seoul Dynasty. Prior to the beginning of the 2022 season, he left the Dynasty due to health issues. Bang's skill in Overwatch led to the developers to make a special and unique skin for him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NYXL Academy</span> American Overwatch esports team

NYXL Academy, formerly XL2 Academy, is an American esports team for the video game Overwatch that competed in Overwatch Contenders (OWC) as an academy team for the New York Excelsior of the Overwatch League (OWL). The team is based in New York City, New York and plays in the North America West region of OWC. Since inception, NYXL Academy has qualified for the playoffs in every season of play. XL2 took a hiatus from OWC play beginning in November 2019. The team returned to play in 2023, under the name NYXL Academy.

Kenshin Ōshima is a Japanese billionaire and founder of finance company SFCG Co.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sterling Equities</span>

Sterling Equities is a diversified, family-run group of companies based in Great Neck, New York whose portfolio consists primarily of holdings in real estate, sports, and media in the New York area. These include the New York Mets, the Brooklyn Cyclones, SportsNet New York, the New York Excelsior, Sterling Project Development, and a number of real estate investment portfolios and real estate services businesses. The firm became embroiled in the Bernie Madoff Scandal exposing a relationship between Sterling Equities partners and Bernie Madoff spanning 20 years. The partners eventually settled a billion dollar suit with the Madoff Trustee, Irving Picard, for $161 million.

The 2020 New York Excelsior season was the third season of New York Excelsior's (NYXL) existence in the Overwatch League and their first under head coach Jeong "imt" Yong-cheol. New York planned to host two homestand weekends in the 2020 season at the Hammerstein Ballroom in the Manhattan Center. While the first homestand took place, all other homestand events were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pine (gamer)</span> Gamer

Kim Do-hyeon, better known as his online alias Pine, is a South Korean professional Overwatch player of the Overwatch League (OWL). Kim began his professional career with LW Blue in the Overwatch APEX series. In 2018, Kim signed with the New York Excelsior for the Overwatch League inaugural season. After playing for two seasons with New York, he announced his decision to retire from professional Overwatch, becoming an active streamer affiliated with Andbox, NY Excelsior's parent company. He returned to active competition with the Dallas Fuel for the 2021 season. Kim is currently a free agent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saebyeolbe</span> South Korean professional Overwatch player (born 1995/1996)

Park Jong-ryeol (Korean: 박종렬), better known by his online alias Saebyeolbe, is a South Korean former professional Overwatch player. In his prime, he was considered one of the world's best Tracer players. During his career, he played in the Overwatch League (OWL) for the New York Excelsior and Seoul Dynasty and in Overwatch Apex for AIM Arrow and LuxuryWatch (LW) Blue.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Yazigi, Monique (June 21, 1998). "Bringing a Son Up Right (Right Up to the Top)". The New York Times. S.O.B.'s is how his son Steven Rubenstein, 28, characterizes the 18-member breakfast club he started with Jeff Wilpon, 36, a son of Fred Wilpon, an owner of the New York Mets baseball team.
  2. ↑ "Sandy Koufax among those swindled by Madoff". Sports Illustrated. February 5, 2009. Retrieved August 13, 2009.[ dead link ]
  3. ↑ Kamalakaran, Ajay (October 21, 2009). "NY Mets owners made about $48 million in Madoff dealings". Reuters. Retrieved October 21, 2009.
  4. ↑ Press release announcing appointment
  5. ↑ Organization bio of subject
  6. ↑ New York Times: "Mets Are Prominent on the Madoff List, but Say They’re Fine" By RICHARD SANDOMIR February 5, 2009
  7. ↑ Long Island Business News: "The son in law also rises" March 31, 2006
  8. ↑ "Partners – Sterling Equities". sterlingequities.com. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  9. ↑ Taylor, Craig (November 26, 2005). "We love each other Yuki Oshima-Wilpon & Bruce Wilpon". The Guardian.
  10. ↑ "La casa imposible, su objetivo habitual por la calle - La multimillonaria Yuki Oshima-Wilpon busca una vivienda muy especial en las cocinas de Mónaco" (in Spanish). La Nacion. May 13, 2006.
  11. ↑ Chass, Murray (14 September 2004). "Mets' Brain Trust Isn't Thinking So Straight". The New York Times . Retrieved 29 July 2022.
  12. ↑ Times Herald Record: "Jeff Wilpon won't rest until Amazin' mission is complete" By Michael P. Geffner March 29, 2008
  13. ↑ Current list of partners at Sterling Equities
  14. 1 2 3 Sherman, Joel (September 19, 2010). "Mets need GM bailout". New York Post. Archived from the original on November 20, 2010. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
  15. 1 2 "Gammons: Jeff Wilpon is GM of the Mets". MetsBlog. October 15, 2009. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
  16. ↑ "WILPONS ARE ON THEIR OWN". New York Post. May 2, 2003. Retrieved October 2, 2017.
  17. ↑ "Civil Complaint Against Mets and Jeff Wilpo" (PDF). Retrieved September 10, 2014.
  18. ↑ Greenwich Times: "Brunswick graduate Bradley Wilpon drafted by Red Sox, will play at Penn" by David Fierro July 5, 2014
  19. ↑ Gartenberg, Chaim (July 12, 2017). "Blizzard announces first Overwatch League teams and owners, including Robert Kraft and Jeff Wilpon". The Verge. Retrieved July 12, 2017.
  20. ↑ "How the Wilpons built a winner outside the Mets". New York Post. May 9, 2018. Retrieved May 9, 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.