Cespedes Isn't Cheap Either

For $27m the Mets bought themselves a power-hitting outfielder with a rocket arm.
Yoenis Cespedes turned around and spent a lot of that money and fancy cars and motorcycles (kinda), showing up for the first week of spring training in a different one every day.

Starting with a customized Polaris slingshot

Then it was a Lamborghini Aventador which allegedly spits fire out of the exhaust pipes like the Batmobile. He reported let a Mets staffer drive it to go get waffles.
The car reportedly costs more than $400,000.

Next up, an Alfa Romeo Competizione, which costs $250,000 and had been driven around by Wilmer Flores.

But those cars are so impractical, he needs something more down-to-earth, like this Jeep. Which after all the modifications (done by a company called "Avorza" whose name appears on several of these vehicles) cost a mere $80,000.

And then there's his Ford F-250 truck which had $30,000 of upgrades done by Avorza.

And finally, Cespedes rolled up in another Slingshot, this one likely for days when he's feeling down, because it's painted blue, as opposed to red.

Update: Reports of Derrick Coleman's Demise Not Exaggerated At All

Near the end of 2008, Derrick Coleman denied internet reports he was broke saying a liquidation sale at his former house was solely to get rid of things he no longer needed, not because he needed the money.

But now the truth comes out. Coleman filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection last month, saying he owes his creditors nearly $4.7 million.

He earned tens of millions during his 15-year career but listed assets of just $1 million in papers filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Coleman’s desire to invest in the Detroit area after his playing career ended contributed to his financial problems, Coleman’s bankruptcy attorney Mark B. Berke said Friday.

Among Coleman’s ventures is a struggling Detroit development called Coleman’s Corner, an attempt to revive one of the city’s most downtrodden neighborhoods. Coleman defaulted on loans related to the mall last year.

“Mr. Coleman was focused on investing in various communities throughout the city of Detroit by developing real estate, creating jobs and revitalizing business opportunities,” Berke said. “Due to the state of the economy, including the decline in the real estate market, Mr. Coleman’s investments could not be sustained.”

Colemen’s other business interests include ownership stakes in the Hilton Garden Suites hotel in downtown Detroit, a Tim Hortons Inc. doughnut shop franchise and Hungry Howie’s Pizza store, according to court papers.

Coleman filed for Chapter 7 protection in March but only recently provided details of his assets and debts. The Chapter 7 filing indicates that the onetime New Jersey Nets forward intends to liquidate his assets in order to pay back creditors.

Among Coleman’s largest debts is $1.3 million owed to Comerica Bank in connection with a lawsuit and a $1 million loan on property in Michigan from Thornburg Mortgage Home Loans.

Coleman also owes Detroit mayor and fellow Syracuse legend Dave Bing $50,000 from a loan granted last year.

Among the assets that could be available for creditors is an eclectic mix of automobiles: a 1957 Buick convertible, worth $20,000; a 1970 Chevrolet Nova, worth $5,000; and a 1997 Bentley convertible, valued at $50,000.

Coleman also listed two Seadoo watercraft, his $90,000 NBA pension and two chinchilla fur coats.

New York's Coming Population Explosion

"I have seven kids that live in five different states. I made some wrong decisions in my first two years in the league. Now I have to take on the responsibility of being a father to my kids. I can separate my personal life and off-the-field issues from football...The mothers [and I] try to work out a schedule where I can see my kids. I talk to them on IChat and Skype. We try to find different ways for me to be in their lives, no matter how it is.''

That quote comes from the newest Jet Antonio Cromartie. Moving to the East Coast may allow him to expand his reach to a few more states. New York and New Jersey should be no problem assuming they're not already on his list.
Cromartie is in the last year of a 5-year, $12 million contract.
He'll be paid $1.7 million this year but he can't wait until the season starts to get his first paycheck. He asked the Jets to front him $500,000 so he can stay current on his child support payments.
How much child support could this poor guy be on the hook for?
$4,000 a month seems outrageous and even that only amounts to about $336,000 for a year.
If he really has his life together the Jets got a good player for a bargain basement price because the Chargers don't want to deal with his issues. If not they only have one year at a reasonable cost.

The Koos is Going to the Hoosegow

Jerry Koosman, a member of the 1969 World Series champion "Miracle Mets," was sentenced to six months in prison for nonpayment of taxes.

Before being sentenced, Koosman who lives on income from Social Security and occasional appearance fees, apologized.

"Like most people in their sixties, I've made some bad decisions in my life. I shouldn't have listened to those people about the tax returns, but I did, and I take full responsibility," he said in court.

Judge Barbara Crabb of the U.S. District Court handed Koosman a six-month prison sentence and one year of supervised probation, calling his crime "a serious blemish on an otherwise outstanding life."

She told him he would have to work out his debts with U.S. tax authorities.

Koosman pleaded guilty in May to a tax evasion charge for failing to file federal tax returns between 2002 and 2004, defrauding the government out of as much as $80,000.

Koosman said he had researched tax laws and concluded that only federal workers, corporate employees and District of Columbia residents were subject to federal taxes, according to court papers.

I felt sorry for the Koos until I read that last paragraph, he used the Wesley Snipes defense? Dude, everyone has to pay taxes. Show me in the tax code where it says you don't have to pay taxes on income earned at card shows? Just because it's cash these guys seem to think they can get away with it. Insane.

And he was just at the '69 Mets celebration two weeks ago.

Reports of Derrick Coleman's Demise Are Greatly Exaggerated

The former Syracuse great was besieged by phone calls after internet rumors reported that Derrick Coleman was broke.

Coleman, who earned nearly $100 million in his NBA career, says he’s doing just fine thank you.

The confusion started when Sherwood Studios announced a liquidation sale of “the entire house of furniture and accessories” from Coleman.

This part was true but Coleman says the items came from a home in Franklin Lakes, NJ that he no longer lives in.

Since his other home is now fully furnished he saw no reason to keep paying to keep the stuff from the New Jersey house in storage.

In fact, Coleman has become quite the entrepreneur in his post-playing days, becoming a Tim Horton’s franchisee.

He recently open a Tim Horton’s in Detroit, the 500th location in the U.S.

Given my combined loves of Timbits and DC, I hope to visit this location if I’m ever in Detroit.

But hopefully I’ll never be in Detroit.

I Hope Mike Vick Studies Asset Management in Prison

In case you were starting to feel badly for poor Michael Vick who is rotting in federal prison right now on dog-fighting charges, comes this incredible article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution which shows just how stupid and irresponsible Vick really is.
While none of what you are about to read is illegal it goes to show what kind of person Michael Vick is. Instead of trying to repay his debt and rebuild his life he spent his last few days of freedom on a spending spree of "if I can't have it nobody can" proportions.
The day he went to jail, Michael Vick bought a $99,000 Mercedes. On Nov. 19, 2007, Vick went to a car showroom in Hampton, Va. He picked out an andorite-gray 2008 Mercedes-Benz S550 sedan and, using his bank debit card, paid in full: $99,589.71.
Then he drove it to Richmond, surrendered to federal marshals and went to jail.
Altogether on Nov. 19, 2007, Vick spent $201,840.
He cashed four checks that totaled $24,900. He gave $28,000 to the mother of his oldest child. He paid a public relations firm $23,000 and gave a friend $16,000.
But that was just some of it, he spent $18.2 million from 2006 to 2008.
Vick is now seeking bankruptcy protection from his many creditors when he gets out of jail.
From Aug. 27, 2007, the day he pleaded guilty in a Richmond federal courthouse, until Nov. 19, the day he bought the new Mercedes before reporting to jail, Vick shelled out $3,627,291.
And now his creditors (including the Falcons who are seeking to recoup about $3.75 million of bonuses paid to Vick) are furious and accusing Vick of "sheltering assets" in his own decadent way.
In 2007, documents show, he used cashier’s checks to withdraw $908,500 from his bank accounts. During a two-year period, he wrote checks payable to “cash” totaling almost $1.1 million.
But Vick's spending was out of control long before he knew he was going to jail.
Not long after joining the Falcons, Vick bought his first house: a $918,000 mini-mansion behind the gates that guard the Sugarloaf Country Club in Duluth, Georgia. Two years later, in April 2005, he upgraded to a larger house in the same neighborhood, for almost $3.8 million. Among his improvements to that property: a movie screening room and a golf simulator.
But he had the money. In 2004, after two seasons with the Falcons, he signed a new contract that, with potential bonuses, could pay him $130 million by 2013. Endorsement deals — with Nike, AirTran Airways and others — added millions more. In 2006 and 2007 alone, Vick took in almost $22 million.
He bought four more houses, all in Virginia, and began building another.
He bought a condominium in Miami Beach.
He bought interests in two farms — one in Virginia, one in Rockdale County, east of Atlanta.
He bought six Paso Fino horses, worth about $450,000.
He bought two boats, one for $100,000, the other for $125,000.
He bought cars: a Bentley, two Land Rovers, Cadillacs, an Infiniti sport utility vehicle and an Infiniti sedan, two Ford pickup trucks, a Dodge, a Chevrolet, the $99,000 Mercedes.
And he bought as much as $450,000 in jewelry. The pieces included two Swiss watches, a bracelet, a pair of diamond stud earrings, and a charm inscribed, “World is mine.”
In 2006, he bought his sister, Christina, a GMC Yukon. The next year, he gave a Lincoln Navigator to Tameka Taylor, the mother of his first child. The mother of Vick’s other two children, Kijafa Frink, got a Land Rover; her mother, a Cadillac Escalade.
He paid Frink’s mortgage and gave her $1,000 a month for clothes, court records say, and $300 for “beauty-related expenses.” He supported Taylor and their son with $3,500 a month.
For his mother, Brenda Boddie, Vick covered a $4,700-a-month mortgage and $2,100 in payments for her two Cadillacs.
In all, routine monthly bills for the mothers of Vick’s children and for his own mother came to $31,293 — more than $375,000 a year.
To run his complicated financial life, Vick in 2005 created a management and marketing company, MV7 LLC. It provided income for at least two family members, according to public records: Vick’s mother, whose salary approached $100,000 a year, and his sister, who earned about $22,000. The firm even had a retirement fund.
He also set up several other businesses, all using his name or jersey number in their names.
Divine Seven operated a Payless Car Rental franchise at the Atlanta airport. Seven Charms Farm raised horses. Vicktory Corp. oversaw family investments. Siete (Spanish for “seven”) delivered a gift of $317,000 to his mother’s church a week before Vick pleaded guilty.
In 2006, Vick personally guaranteed a $2.1 million bank loan to Divine Seven in exchange for a 60 percent stake in the company. A little over a year later, the bank declared the loan in default. It obtained a civil judgment against Vick and is trying to collect through his bankruptcy case.
In 2007, Vick put up $200,000 for a 60 percent interest in Seven Charms Farm, a 5-acre spread near Conyers. In September of this year, Rockdale County sold the property at auction to satisfy an unpaid property tax bill. The buyer got the property for $40,000.
Vick’s philanthropic efforts didn’t fare especially well, either. In 2006, the Michael Vick Foundation provided 100 backpacks to poor children in Newport News and paid for an after-school program. But the foundation spent only 12 percent of its budget — $20,590 of $171,823 — on charitable programs, according to its 2006 federal tax return. The foundation paid its fund-raiser, Susan Bass Roberts, a former spokeswoman for Vick, $97,000, the tax return shows.
The foundation ceased operations in 2006.

However, when Vick was sentenced he began setting aside money for family members. He put $625,000 into two businesses that would make monthly payments to Frink, who then was pregnant with their second child. He also gave Frink $48,000 and an SUV to keep in Leavenworth, Kan., where he would serve his sentence.
During his last weeks of freedom, though, Vick also spent $85,000 on a fish pond and $48,257 for landscaping. He bought a $31,000 Ford pickup and a $33,100 Chevrolet.
In the weeks before he went to jail, he made 48 cash withdrawals for a total of $325,945.

The Mercedes now is in the hands of a group of creditors; they recently told a bankruptcy judge they have found a buyer willing to pay $65,000. A luxury-car broker is trying to sell the rest of Vick’s vehicles.
Under bankruptcy laws, Vick will be allowed to retain ownership of one house; he chose his mother’s home in Suffolk, Va. He also is keeping $136,500 of home furnishings, $5,000 of clothes and a retirement account with a balance of $96.63.
Vick’s other houses are on the market. The proceeds of any sales would go toward paying off the mortgages.
In addition to his other debts, Vick owes more than $1.2 million in back taxes, the Internal Revenue Service told his bankruptcy judge last month. That figure may increase, the IRS said in court papers; Vick has not yet filed his 2007 return.

Not a Bad Place To Be When Under House Arrest

Pacman Jones is moving to Dallas so he's selling his home in Tennessee.
For $1.8 million you can buy the house which is on 30 acres and has its own lake stocked with fish.
It really is an awesome house.
And unlike many other athletes' homes it doesn't have a stripper pole.
It probably would have saved him a lot of trouble it if it did.

Vin Baker Never Found the Answers He Was Looking For at the Bottom a of Bottle

Vin Baker blew a promising NBA career by drinking and eating himself out of the league.
Now, he's apparently drank and eaten himself (and his parents) deep into debt.
Baker's restaurant, Vinnie's Saybrook Fish House in Old Saybrook, Connecticut closed recently and the bank that financed it claims it is owed close to $900,000 in unpaid loans. Also named in the suit are Baker's parents, who apparently put $400,000 into the failed venture last spring.
Baker signed a $35 million contract with the Celtics but when he started drinking the Celtics got out of that contract for a lot less than $35 million.
Last summer he was pulled over on a charge of drunk driving, after leaving Foxwoods, but eventually pleaded guilty to reckless driving.

The Mortgage Crisis Claims Another Victim

Latrell Sprewell's home is up for foreclosure and his yacht sold at auction to help pay off the $1.3 million he owes on the boat.
Sprewell, who once turned down a three-year, $21 million contract extension saying, "I've got my family to feed," has apparently fallen on tough times.
Citizens Bank, filed a foreclosure suit last week in Milwaukee County for the $405,000 home Sprewell bought in the Milwaukee suburb of River Hills in 1994.
The bank said Sprewell owed $295,138 in outstanding payments plus interest.
Sprewell failed to make his mortgage payments of $2,593 per month from September 2007 to January 2008.
Sprewell hasn't played since he turned down that extension after the 2005-05 season, when he earned $14.6 million.
Last month, Sprewell's 70-foot yacht, named "Milwaukee's Best," was sold at auction for $856,000 to a man from Milwaukee.
It was originally worth about $1.5 million. The bank holding that mortgage, North Fork Bank, asked that it be seized to pay off $1.3 million in debt, meaning Spree still owes $444,000 on a yacht he no longer owns.
Sprewell hadn't made its $10,322 monthly payments on time or maintained the necessary insurance on the boat.
A federal marshal seized the boat last summer in Manitowoc, about 80 miles north of Milwaukee, where it was in storage.
The sale price means the bank is still owed about $500,000, and it said in court filings it plans to go after the rest.

I'm sure Sprewell misses the yacht greatly, and now all he has is the memories of the time he had rough sex with a 21 year old woman on the yacht. Or the time he got into a fight on the yacht and broke his hand.

Memories!

Who Are You Voting For?

DC Sports Bog (yes, Bog, not blog) compiles a list of campaign contributions by athletes and other sports professionals.

Stephon Marbury gave $2300 to Barack Obama
David Stern gave $2300 to Hillary Clinton
Syracuse AD Daryl Gross gave $500 to Hillary Clinton
Rutgers Women's basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer gave $2300 to Chris Dodd
Martina Navratilova gave $1000 to John Edwards
Peyton Manning gave $2300 to Fred Thompson
George Steinbrenner gave $2300 to Rudy Giuliani
Brian Cashman gave $2300 to Rudy Giuliani
Keith Hernandez gave $1000 to Rudy Giuliani

Quickly Learning the Tricks of the Trade

Mike Conley Sr. hasn't been an agent for very long, but it seems he is already behaving like a seasoned pro.
Conley the former Olympic athlete had two clients (his only two clients) taken in the first 5 picks of last season's NBA Draft. His son Mike and Mike's best friend, Greg Oden.
Now it is being reported that Conley wanted a top 5 NFL pick as well, and was courting Arkansas running back Darren McFadden.
Arkansas officials are investigating reports that Conley bought McFadden a new Cadillac Escalade.
This may turn out to be false as the station that reported the story has since retracted it.
But the fact remains the somehow McFadden got a new Escalade a few months before the draft.
Whether it was given to him by Conley or someone else it could cost McFadden the last game of his career, the Cotton Bowl against Missouri.

Kobe vs. The Magician

Kobe Bryant and his wife, Vanessa, were at Friday night's grand opening of BLUSH Boutique Nightclub at the Wynn in Las Vegas, when he saw poker player Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari buy two bottles of $1,400 Cristal champagne. According to sources inside the club, Kobe wasn't about to be shown up by some puny little card player -- and kicked in for five bottles. Antonio, who's used to upping the ante, then switched his order to ten! Go big or go home!

Kobe ended the competition when he purchased an astounding 15 bottles -- and then left the club!

Esfandiari himself offers a different version.

You Can't Escape Your Past

In 1994, Darryl Strawberry was indicted on tax evasion charges for not paying taxes on income he earned from card shows. He was sentenced to six months home confinement and ordered to repay $350,000 in taxes.

Now the government is suing him to get that money. I have no idea why this took so long but the feds claim he now owes $481,000.

The Wright Investment

According to published reports instead of a standard fee for his endorsement of Vitamin Water, David Wright took a stake in the company, a 0.5% stake. Now that Coke is buying Glaceau, the parent of Vitamin Water for $4.1 billion, if accurate, that means write will get $20.5 million and presumably sign a new endorsement deal.

LeBron's House

LeBron James' 35,440-square-foot house under construction is shaping up as a castle fit for a king -- with a theater, bowling alley, casino and barber shop.

(NOTE: he cannot have a real, legal casino in his home. It's just a casino room, a fancy, all-inclusive game room, probably.)



The house is in Bath Township, a suburban location 20 miles south of Cleveland is due to be finished next year. It is being built on 5.6 acres of land purchased, along with an 11-bedroom house, in 2003 for $2.1 million. He razed that house to clear the way for the new one.

A first-floor master suite, which includes a two-story walk-in closet, will be about 40 feet wide and 56 feet long -- bigger than half the houses in Bath Township.

The house has a dining hall, roughly 27 feet by 27 feet, a "great room" at 34 feet by 37 feet and a bigger, two-story "grand room."

The "family foyer" off the six-car garage near the elevator will be dwarfed by a "grand foyer" inside the front entrance with a sweeping, divided staircase leading to four second-story bedrooms. An outer wall will feature a limestone sculpture -- a bas-relief of LeBron's head, wearing his trademark headband.





The property is an oddly shaped tract wedged among lots that average 2.3 acres and houses that average 3,209 square feet. His property is 300 feet wide at the street and 677 feet deep.

"People who come to photograph it are disrespectful," said Tom Bader, one of nine immediate next-door neighbors. "They park their car in the middle of the street -- with their doors open! And you're sitting behind them! All I wanna do is go home after a hard day's work."

Sometimes Bader must wait to turn into his driveway because gawkers have driven up, hoping for a better view of James' place.

"As far as LeBron the man goes, I think he's an outstanding individual," said Bader, a graduate of James' alma mater, St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron.

"He's great for Cleveland. I'm proud to have him. I have no issues with LeBron James at all. The problem is the baggage that he unintentionally carries with him."

Bader has discouraged his children's dream that James might have them over to shoot hoops.

"I said, 'Honey, I don't think that's going to happen. Besides that, don't ever, ever invite LeBron over to our house to play ball because he's going to twist his ankle and I will have my house eternally egged."'

While waiting for the home to be finished, James splits his time between a huge apartment in downtown Cleveland and a relatively modest four-bedroom house in Medina County west of Akron. He paid $580,000 for the house in 2005.