It's hard being a New York Mets fan. The team often seems promising at the beginning of the year, and even sometimes throughout the year, but ultimately blows it before too long. Meanwhile, across the bay in the Bronx, Yankees fans have had more to celebrate over the past decade, with four World Series appearances and two wins -- including one over the Mets in 2000. Unfortunately, Mets fans get some more bad news today. It turns out infamous fraudster Bernie Madoff was involved in the team's finances. Serge Kovaleski and David Waldstein from the New York Times report:

When the Mets negotiated their larger contracts with star players -- complex deals with signing bonuses and performance incentives -- they sometimes adopted the strategy of placing deferred money owed the players with Mr. Madoff's investment firm. They would have to pay the player, but the owners of the club would be able to make money for themselves in the meantime. There never seemed to be much doubt about that, according to several people with knowledge of the arrangements.

"Bernie was part of the business plan for the Mets," a former employee of the club said.

The details are ugly. The Times reports that the Mets principal owner Fred Wilpon, who was close to Madoff, is accused of having knowledge of the fraud scheme in a sealed, pending lawsuit.

Those Mets fans just can't catch any breaks. Of course, it's never too late to change jerseys and cheer for the Bronx Bombers instead.

Read the full story at the New York Times.