In honor of locked-up fan Bernie Madoff, the Mets are attempting to suck every cent out of Johan Santana's no-hitter. The ball club is literally putting everything they can up for bid from the night.
That's not surprising, but the bidding on one item in particular is.
A jersey worn by Mets bullpen catcher Dave Racaniello to warm up Santana has received higher bids than some of the actual players. As of Thursday morning, five people had bid on Racaniello's white alternative jersey, with the current bid at $280.00.
That's a higher figure than 32 percent of the Mets' 25-man roster. Eight players had lower bids on their jerseys than the Mets bullpen catcher.
The eight men out, if you will, are pitcher Elvin Ramirez ($270), pitcher Ramon Ramirez ($250), pitcher Tim Byrdak ($250), backup catcher Mike Nickeas ($270), pitcher Bobby Parnell ($270), OF Vinny Rottino ($270.00), pitcher Jeremy Hefner ($270), pitcher Frank Francisco ($250).
Nickeas in particular was bothered by the early auction results. "That's crap," Nickeas told the Wall Street Journal. "But we'll see. It's not over until it's over."
But there's an argument that Racaniello's jersey played a bigger part in the history made, so it's not completely crazy.
Santana quickly agreed to a special exclusive memorabilia partnership with the Mets following the no-hitter. Under terms of the deal, Johan gets a percentage of profits on all the things items owned by the team.
In addition, the Mets have earned about $150,000 from selling "around 3,000" unused tickets from Santana's big game at $50 each.
Although all of the game-used jerseys and other memorabilia have been autographed by Santana, even a Mets executive has been dumbfounded by the results.
"Some of the prices for some of those items surprise even me," Dave Howard, the Mets' executive vice president for business operations told WSJ.com. "But maybe we shouldn't be surprised, because there's a 50-year-plus pent-up demand for the Mets' first no-hitter."
-- Follow Ben Maller on Twitter @BenMaller.
