Today at THT

Some final things to read to take your mind off the fact that your yacht is being seized:

  • First, some THT news in the form of new downloadable subscriptions now being offered for HEATER Magazine, the Batted Ball Report, the Bill James Daily Matchups and the THT Annual. Many details in the post, so please click through to read about it. Operators are standing by.
  • Jim McLennan has five questions for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Question number six: why does a team named after a snake have a freakin’ bobcat for a mascot anyway?
  • We’ve been having a lot of fun with Matt Weiters lately, what with him being the PECOTA God and all. Well, Colin Wyers isn’t having any of it, and explains why we should all hold our horses on this kid for a little while.
  • Finally, a comic from Tuck! No, that was not a Ziggy.
  • Maybe I’m all talk when it comes to this sort of thing, but going on the lam is highly underrated, so if I had a yacht and the kind of cash Madoff had, I’m pretty sure I would have taken both of them to Belize or something the day after the first call came from the government last year.


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    Jon Daly
    14 years ago

    Bobby Vesco had an exit strategy.  That was the big case that I recall from my childhood.

    Chris H.
    14 years ago

    Fair enough.  I guess that makes sense.  That’s just a mindset I have trouble wrapping my brain around.  I mean, first and foremost I’d’ve stashed a safety-net of cash in some place like Luxembourg.  Then I’d have multiple escape plans, etc.

    And you’re probably right: that sort of thinking probably helps prevent me from committing massive embezzlement anyway.

    Wooden U. Lykteneau
    14 years ago

    It’s spelled z-i-p-p-y, Craig, and it’s just as uninspired and pathetic.

    YankeesfanLen
    14 years ago

    Now Craig you could have easily had a Godfather reference here for our daily amusement.  “Take it on the lam”?
    “Bernie, you need to go away for a while. I’ll square it with mom and we’ll give that girl of yours a call when the time is right”

    Chris H.
    14 years ago

    Seriously, though.  Did he just not do any planning?

    If it’s me, I have a well-thought-out, well-organized plan for fleeing well in advance of any trouble.  Long before I get any kind of call I would’ve already researched various extradition treaties and so on.

    Not that I’d, y’know, engage in a massive case of fraud wiping out tons of people.  I’m just sayin’.

    Craig Calcaterra
    14 years ago

    Chris—I’ve had the, um, fortune of representing a couple of guys who got busted for massive frauds and embezzlement schemes.  The whole exit strategy thing was the biggest question on my mind.  I came to realize, however, that the kinds of guys who get involved in these sorts of things tend not to think that they’re really doing anything wrong or, at the very least, have as their “exit plan” some method of paying back the money before they’re ever caught.  It simply never occurs to them that the music will ever stop or at least that it won’t stop before they’ve made the pot right, as it were.

    I think the cautious impulse you and I have—why wouldn’t you have a plan in place in case things go sideways—is borne of a mindset that never would have allowed us to take the kinds of criminal risks that the Madoffs of the world take.  They’re crooks, sure, but before they’re crooks, they’re ego-driven sociopaths.

    Alex Poterack
    14 years ago

    In case anyone’s still interested, the D-backs mascot is a bobcat because their stadium was originally named Bank One Ballpark, nicknamed the BOB.  So BOB-cat…clever…yeah.

    Now that it’s Chase Field, they stuck with it, ‘cause there’s no such thing as a Chasecat, except maybe in George Clinton songs.

    Alex Poterack
    14 years ago

    …yeeeeaaaahhh, I didn’t actually click on the link and find out my post was superfluous till after I hit “submit”.  Whatever, I imagine no one cares by now.

    Wooden U. Lykteneau
    14 years ago

    What is “You are correct, sir” Alex?