Bill Maher now minority owner of NY Mets baseball team

Bill Maher can now chant "Let's Go Mets" as a part owner of the New York Major League Baseball team.

The 56-year-old comedian and host of the HBO talk show "Real Time with Bill Maher" grew up in neighboring New Jersey and is a longtime fan. He recently revealed that he bought a minority stake in the team.

The Mets club has struggled financially in recent years and lost millions due to the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. In March, the owners of the Mets agreed to pay $162 million to settle a lawsuit by the trustee seeking money for the victims of the scandal. Shares of the team were put up for sale for $20 million apiece last year.

Maher has not revealed what he paid for his minority stake. He told The New York Times: "I think it's a great investment. I just thought it would be a great place, especially after I've seen some of the ways money can disappear in recent years. I had my money in Lehman Brothers in 2008."

Maher was dubbed a "new Mets partner" in an online video posted on the team's Twitter page on Sunday, June 3, two days after Mets pitcher Johan Santana threw the first no-hitter ever for the team, helping it beat visiting World Series champion St Louis Cardinals 8-0 at Citi Field.

"Well, I'm here to say, 'Let's Go Mets," Maher said in the clip, quoting a popular game chant. "I remember that when I was like six years old, that's when I started being a Mets fan, because that's when they came into existence and I really never wavered in my love for this team."

"We were thrilled in '69, we were thrilled in '86, I think we're going to be thrilled again very soon and what can I say? 'You gotta believe' and I do," he added in the online video, quoting another team motto and referring to the years the team won the World Series and its recent successes.

Maher attended a Sunday Mets game with his sister Kathy to celebrate her 60th birthday. He posted a photo of the two with a Mets cake the team's mascot, Mr. Met, on his Twitter page.

Forbes reported that with his investment, Maher will receive a "huge subsidy from low-income tax payers who helped finance Citi Field," the team's stadium, which is "exempt from New York City's property tax because it sits on public land and is legally owned by a subsidiary of the city's Industrial Development Agency which leases the stadium to the Mets."

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