Wilpon says he’s not selling the Mets

Fred Wilpon is denying the reports that circled yesterday that he’s being forced to sell the Mets on account of all of his losses to Bernie Madoff:

Erin Arvedlund, who penned “Too Good to Be True,” pegged the Wilpons’ losses to Madoff at $700million - the same figure Fred Wilpon’s friend Larry King used in a magazine article earlier this year. That loss is too steep for the Wilpons to be able to retain ownership of the Mets, Arvedlund concluded . . . The speculation was met by a forceful denial from the Mets Friday.

“The author of the book has no knowledge or facts related to the Mets business operations or finances,” Danielle Sessa Parillo, the team’s director of communications, said in a statement on behalf of the Wilpons. “Her speculation that the Mets - or any part of the team - is for sale is completely false and is irresponsible.”

To further counter that, Wilpon and MLB President Bob DuPuy are saying that the Mets are just fine and dandy, financially speaking. In support, they cite “the Mets’ financial reports, which are filed quarterly,” and say that they “have shown no financial distress.”

It’s probably worth noting at this point that (a) Major League Baseball never allows anyone to see such reports; and (b) such reports are routinely used by MLB and the teams to cry poor, forming the basis of calls for salary caps and player concessions and new publicly-funded stadiums and all of that. So forgive me if I’m not 100% convinced by this line of reasoning.