I call bullsh*t on Cole Hamels and his donating his mansion in Branson to charity. He said it was because they moved from Philly to Dallas & decided they didn’t want the home anymore.

This makes no sense from a logistical standpoint — I’m sure it was a financial decision & a bunch of bullsh*t to cover up a bad investment & make them look good & compassionate, and here’s my case . . .

First off, look at the US map — Dallas is about a day’s drive from Branson, whereas Philly is 3 times as far.  Your own lyin’ eyes tell you their statement makes no sense.

Secondly, I believe what really happened is that they decided they didn’t like the 32,000/SF home they built (or the area, who knows) and realized they’d never sell it for what they have in it, as the 3 largest home sales near Branson that year were between $1.4 mil to $2.0 mil, so they instead donated it to charity and can take a charitable donation on the entire $10 mil purchase price vs a possible $8 mil non-deductible personal loss.

We also don’t know if the home has any problems, and considering that whoever built it (assuming they’re from that area) has surely never built a home even a quarter of that size, it’s possible they underbid it & started cutting corners or there are some existing or latent problems due to the size of the job being more than the builder & his subs could handle.  Wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened.  Keep in mind I’m only speculating as I don’t know who the builder was.

Now what happens? They’ll probably get back over $4 million in tax savings on the $10 million investment given to charity, so they’ll only lose $6 mil vs $8 mil if they had sold it AND now they look like heroes.  This decision makes them look like heroes & saves them $2 million.

And you thought only politicians, lawyers, car salesmen & mechanics were the only ones full of sh*t.