A closer look

In a legendary display of short-sighted sports management, a major baseball team decided to defer a massive contract buyout rather than pay it upfront. They agreed to pay a retired player an annual sum of over a million dollars every single July for decades, banking on a promised return from an infamous Ponzi scheme operator. The scheme collapsed, but the contract remained ironclad. Now, the team writes a massive check every summer to a man who hasn't swung a bat in decades.