Bill de Blasio's team has maintained that it is only doing due diligence in the processgetty images
N.Y. Mayor Bill de Blasio has "privately told" MLB that he "will do everything he can to stop Steve Cohen from buying the Mets," according to McEnery, Kosman & Marsh of the N.Y. POST. De Blasio called MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred earlier this month and "told him outright that he opposed the idea of a hedge-fund billionaire buying a local team and would be using his oversight power of the city's control of the Citi Field lease to prevent the sale from being finalized." N.Y. City Hall has maintained that de Blasio and his team are "merely doing 'due diligence' on Cohen's purchase of the Mets." Sources said that de Blasio "has been pushing the city's lawyers to find a way to halt Cohen's sale by using a clause buried in the Citi Field lease." A source said, "He's told (Major League) Baseball he doesn't want Cohen and he's told his Law Department to find a way to stop it." The source also confirmed the Law Department is "looking into provisions of the lease that could affect" the sale of the Mets. Another source said that the Mets "hired two law firms to look into this matter before the deal closed," and after close study, both firms concluded the city "would have no standing to oppose Cohen's purchase and felt more than comfortable moving ahead with the sale" (N.Y. POST, 10/29).
WAIT A MINUTE: Bill Neidhardt, de Blasio's Press Secretary, on Twitter said, "The Mayor did call Commissioner Manfred, but the rest of this isn't true. The NYC Law Dept is doing their due diligence of examining a new lease on incredibly valuable city-owned land. That's what the call was about." On Long Island, Tim Healey writes, "Either way, it is not clear that de Blasio legally can do anything about it" (NEWSDAY, 10/29).
COMPLICATIONS: In N.Y., Mike Vaccaro writes there is "nothing reasonable about this, and it doesn't exactly take an extraordinary leap to connect a few of the dots and see where de Blasio's rooting interest lies." A key Cohen opponent is New York Sen. Jessica Ramos, who "has been in contact with City Hall about the Mets sale." Ramos also "penned an op-ed in July endorsing the sale of the Mets to the group led by Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez." White Sox Owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who is an "avowed opponent of Cohen's bid," has been "furiously attempting to compile a bloc of 'no' votes in advance of Friday." Reinsdorf also is an "acknowledged supporter of the Rodriguez/Lopez bid to buy the Mets" (N.Y. POST, 10/29).
