The disagreement came to a head when Jeff, seeing a promotional opportunity, wanted Matsui on the field. Bruce pushed back. The argument grew heated and ugly, as Jeff dug in. After that, Bruce rarely, if ever, was involved with the team again.

Such accounts of the family and its decision to sell are based on interviews with more than a dozen people with direct involvement with the Wilpon family and the Mets, nearly all of whom asked not to be identified so as not to damage their relationship with the family. Through a spokesman, Fred and Jeff Wilpon declined to comment.

From real estate to baseball

Before they ventured into baseball, the Wilpons were a blip on the New York real estate scene. Fred Wilpon still rode the train from his home on Long Island to his office in Manhattan. He and his family owned and managed a collection of properties but as empires went, their portfolio was tiny compared with those of New York’s more renowned families — the Lauders, the Tisches, the Newhouses.

Then, in 1980, Wilpon acquired a 1 percent stake in the Mets when Doubleday, the publishing company, bought the team. Six years later, against the wishes of his partner Nelson Doubleday, he exercised a clause in his contract to wrest control of 50 percent of the team. Practically overnight, Wilpon became a major New York figure. His phone started to ring more often with business proposals. There were invitations to serve on the boards of prestigious charities. And his baseball team began to occupy more of his time and interest.

During the years he controlled the team, Nelson Doubleday had insisted that neither his children nor Wilpon’s have a role within the team. Insiders at the time said it was well known that the purpose of the rule to was exclude Jeff Wilpon, who had played baseball at Palm Beach State College and was even drafted twice by major league organizations.

“Doubleday was very hard on Jeff,” one executive said.

But when Fred Wilpon and his relatives bought the remaining 50 percent of the Mets from Doubleday 2002, for about $135 million, he also cleared the way for Jeff to take a more active role in team affairs. Jeff quickly emerged as a dominant figure. Jeff’s siblings, who attended Brown University, never had much interest in sports. For Jeff, though, running the team was a dream job.