'The Players These Days Don't Seem to Know the Basics of the Game'

Finally, help is on the way for the beleaguered New York Mets.

Jerry Manuel's coaching staff just got a lot bigger.

Boasting more than a millennium's worth of experience, a feisty group of elderly Long Island softball players filmed an instructional video yesterday that they hope will re-introduce the not-so-Amazin' Mets to the game's fundamentals.

"I may not be able to get around like I used to, but I know the basics," said Ed Ottinger, 74, of Seaford. "And I think the Mets need a little help with that."

The rangy outfielder with deceptive speed said that he and his crew of septuagenarian swatters had grown tired of the Mets' bumbling ways and hoped that the Tom Emanski-style video might wake them up.

Things came to a head when the group convened for one of their three weekly doubleheaders after Luis Castillo's infamous flub of a pop-up against the Yankees in June.

"They griped that we're 70 and we're better than these guys," said Howard Cannon, a spokesman for the Bristal assisted living company that sponsors their league.

Sonny Richards, 71, said that the Mets season had come to resemble a blooper reel of dropped pop-ups, baserunning atrocities, and inexplicable balks.

"The players these days don't seem to know the basics of the game," he said. "It's all in fun, but we wanted to show them how to do the simple things."

Yes, the simple things. Like catching popups and busting it to first base, the latter of which they've been allergic to for several seasons. The basics that most of us learned in Little League.

Slick gloveman Sal Frosina, 71, lamented the loss of fundamental baseball knowledge that ruled the summertime pickup games of his youth.

The former Brooklyn Dodgers-turned-Mets fan said that the kids who didn't know the basics of tagging up, putting the body in front of grounders, and backing up plays at the plate were left to watch their buddies have all the fun.

"When I was growing up, if you didn't know the game, you didn't play," he said. "It was that simple."

Speaking of the Mets, if you're waiting for real help on the field rather than fielding abuse from retirees, be prepared to wait a long time.

If you're wondering why the Wilpons won't open their wallets, according to this fish-faced freak, it's because Bernie Madoff cleaned them out to the tune of $700 million.

NO wonder the injury-plagued Mets can't hire some hitters, it turns out team owner Fred Wilpon lost $700 million in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. Estimates put his loss at below $500 million, but Wilpon's pal Larry King told GQ it was $700 million. "Freddie says he's not angry, he's betrayed," said King, who lost $2.8 million.

Don't expect to see Madoff pal Chuckie Schumer throwing out the first pitch any time soon.

NJ Senator Lautenberg Scammed By Wall Street Pal

Honestly, I'm going to have to work overtime conjuring up any sympathy for Frank Lautenberg. One of the most detestable, partisan hacks in Washington is among those who've been affected by the burgeoning Bernard Madoff scam, which already dwarfs the Enron scandal in magnitude. Lautenberg won't even admit how much he was bilked for. C'mon, Frank, man up. It's all about transparency these days, isn't it?

The fallout from a stunning $50 billion swindle - allegedly engineered by Bernard Madoff - is turning into a global pandemic.

International banks, hedge funds and small-time investors from Japan to Switzerland emerged yesterday as potential victims in what's being called history's largest Ponzi scheme.

The international losses alone could be more than $8 billion.

Just in Geneva, banks reportedly may be out of $4 billion invested with Madoff.

Tokyo's Nomura Holdings, which reportedly recently began marketing Madoff's fund abroad, also is swept up in the financial wipeout.

And Bermuda's Kingate Management had invested part of its $2.8 billion fund with Madoff.

"It's overwhelming. We have been interviewing people from as far away as Argentina, London - of course, Palm Beach and the New York area - up and down the Eastern seaboard, and out West," said attorney Mark Mulholland, who has filed a class-action suit against Madoff in federal court in Long Island.

Meanwhile, it was revealed yesterday that Madoff's investment business hasn't been inspected by the Securities and Exchange Commission since he registered with the agency in September 2006, according to Bloomberg News.

Generally, the SEC scrutinizes a newly registered firm's books in the first year and then checks them at least every five years.

Why is this? Who was covering for Madoff? Could his political connections have something to do with that?

Madoff's brokerage firm - which is separate from the investment business - was found to have three violations in a 2005 inspection for violating rules on trade prices. But the company was inspected last year without a claim.

While the effects of the alleged scam were felt worldwide, the brunt of its effect is being felt among wealthy country-club investors Madoff cultivated on Long Island and in South Florida.

Some of the Big Apple's wealthiest individuals and institutions may have been duped, including Yeshiva University - on whose board Madoff sat - Mets owner Fred Wilpon and the former owners of the Stop & Shop supermarket chain.

Other notables who have reportedly been stung by the collapse of Madoff's fund are Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and members of New York's Loeb family.

Considering Madoff was a very generous contributor to Lautenberg, Charles Schumer and Charles Rangel, among others, it's no wonder the media is avoiding any connection between Madoff and Democrats.

I recall Schumer milking Enron and Ken Lay for years. He seems unusually silent that one of his big bucks contributors has just pulled off a global scam of epic proportions.

Chuckie always has a Sunday press conference. What will it be about today? Being he's touted as a champion of consumers, what about all those bilked by his big bucks donor? Will he be urging a bailout of all those swindled by Madoff?

He's a member of the Banking and Finance Committees and this happened on his watch. Stay tuned.

(Image via NY Post).

Fatcat Democrat Contributor Busted in World's Largest Ponzi Scheme

He forked over a lot of money to Democrats, and a sporadic Republican here and there, but he seemed to be particularly enamored with the unctuous Chuckie Schumer, who mysteriously was unavailable for comment. I count at least nine donations to Chuckie, as well as several to the cadaver in formaldehyde, Frank Lautenberg, and everyone's favorite shyster, Charlie Rangel.

Yet you can be sure when you read the fallout of this scumbag Bernard Madoff, you'll hear very little about him being a bigtime Democrat fundraiser.

Bernard L. Madoff, a former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market and a force in Wall Street trading for nearly 50 years, was arrested by federal agents Thursday, a day after his sons turned him in for running what they said their father called "a giant Ponzi scheme."

The Securities and Exchange Commission, in a civil complaint, said it was an ongoing $50 billion swindle, and asked a judge to seize the firm and its assets. "Our complaint alleges a stunning fraud that appears to be of epic proportions," said Andrew M. Calamari, associate director of enforcement in the SEC's New York office.

In a separate criminal complaint, Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Theodore Cacioppi said Mr. Madoff's investment advisory business had "deceived investors by operating a securities business in which he traded and lost investor money, and then paid certain investors purported returns on investment with the principal received from other, different investors, which resulted in losses of approximately billions of dollars."

Can you say investor bailout, boys and girls? I know you can.

Some of America’s wealthiest socialites were facing ruin last night after the arrest of a Wall Street big hitter accused of the largest investor swindle perpetrated by one man.

Shock and panic spread through the country clubs of Palm Beach and Long Island after Bernard Madoff, a trading powerbroker for more than four decades, allegedly confessed to a fraud that will cost his wealthy investors at least $50 billion – perhaps the largest swindle in Wall Street history.

Mr Madoff, 70, a former Nasdaq stock chairman, was apparently turned in by his two sons and arrested on Thursday morning at his Manhattan apartment by the FBI. Andrew Calamari, a senior enforcement official at the US Securities and Exchange Commission, described the scheme as “a stunning fraud that appears to be of epic proportions”.

Update: More on the carnage.

Panicked investors scrambled desperately yesterday to determine whether their life savings had been wiped out after a Wall Street legend allegedly admitted blowing as much as $50 billion in what is emerging as the largest Ponzi scheme in history.

Among several big-name investors who trusted former Nasdaq Chairman Bernard L. Madoff with their cash were New York Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, who may have lost as much as $500 million in the scheme, sources said.

New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg also confirmed he had invested money from his charitable organization through the 70-year-old Madoff's company, though he did not say how much.

Around 20 angry investors stormed the lobby of Madoff's offices yesterday to find out what happened to their life savings - only to be ordered to leave by police.

"When I found about it, I felt lousy, I held my head," said one elderly man, who was too distraught to say how much money he may have lost. "We've got problems."

While the scope of countless other investors' losses remains unclear, it appears that most of the victims reside in New York and South Florida and were among Madoff's closest friends and business associates.

Madoff allegedly told authorities that he estimated he blew through $50 billion in the scheme he called "one big lie."

"This is a major disaster for a lot of people," said investor Lawrence Velvel, 69, dean of the Massachusetts School of Law who said he and friends had lost millions among them.

Just imagine the attention Madoff would be getting if he were a major donor to the GOP.

The Post wonders where Eliot Spitzer was while all this was going on?

The scope of the alleged fraud runs to $50 billion - nearly $20 billion more than was lost in the Enron collapse.

Our question: Where was Eliot Spitzer when Wall Street really needed him?

After all, the former New York attorney general (and now disgraced ex-governor) styled himself the "Sheriff of Wall Street" - using dubious powers to bully executives, even when the evidence against them was scant.

And on those rare occasions when browbeaten company heads refused to cave in, Spitzer almost never won in court.

Meanwhile, real fraud on a massive scale was apparently going on right under his nose.

Warnings as far back as 1999 were ignored. Who was protecting this guy?