AMAZIN’ TRIBUTE
Mets past and present turn out as Horwitz takes new role
Every day during the season for most of the last 16 years, David Wright would walk into the clubhouse here at Citi Field, in Port St. Lucie during the spring or wherever the Mets were on the road and he would find Jay Horwitz sitting in front of his locker.
The Mets’ public relations man, now 73, and a kid from Virginia who grew up to be the face of the franchise would begin their days talking.
“We’d talk about baseball, we’d talk about family and friends,” Wright said. “We’d talk about football, the Giants of course, and everything. I could talk to Jay about anything. He wore a lot of hats for me. He was a teacher, he has been a counselor and a PR guy.
“I will miss that about seeing him every day.”
The man who has pushed Mets stories for nearly four decades was officially named the new Vice President, Alumni Public Relations and Team Historian on Wednesday.
“I’m ready for this new chapter in my life,” said Horwitz. “I’m looking forward to working with players, managers and coaches that I’ve known for close to four dec- ades. My goal is to expand the Mets alumni family.”
The team had been shifting his day-to-day duties on the public relations front to others over the last few years, but Horwitz never lost his connection with the players in the clubhouse or the people with whom he worked closest.
That’s why Wright, Mookie Wilson and John Franco stood in front of a room Wednesday full of luminaries from Mets and baseball history to tell stories. Wright confessed to being the player who annually put eye black on Horwitz’s binoculars as a gag, which Horwitz always knew and never minded.
There were legends sitting in the seats to listen to Horwitz tell his trademark self-deprecating stories about spilling orange juice on Frank Cashen during his interview for the job and how he missed picking up Keith Hernandez at the airport gate when the first baseman was first traded to the Mets.
“I went to the ballpark in a giant white limo,” Horwitz recalled, “Keith took a taxi.”
Sitting in the third row, Wednesday, Hernandez laughed and nodded his head at that memory.
He was joined by Darryl Strawberry, Bobby Ojeda, Ed Kranepool, Tim Teufel and Edgar Alfonzo among the former players. Current players Jacob deGrom, Michael Conforto, Todd Frazier and Steven Matz made the trek from the clubhouse to the press room to honor Horwitz. Current coaches Dave Eiland, Pat Roessler and Ricky Bones — notably absent was current manager Mickey Callaway — joined them standing in the back of the room, laughing at the stories to honor Horwitz.
Horwitz worked with 14 Mets managers.
Terry Collins and Bobby Valentine made the trip to the announcement. MLB dean of discipline and former Mets manager Joe Torre was there and three Mets general managers: Sandy Alderson, Steve Phillips and Omar Minaya. “Jay was always present,” Valentine said. “He had a way of explaining things and making you understand. It was unusual, it was his way. He was always there for you, he always picked up the phone and when you asked him for something he always said ‘Yes,’ so we’re here for him.”
Horwitz sat next to Mets COO Jeff Wilpon, who praised him for his love and dedication to the Mets since joining the organzation in April 1980. He also singled out Horwitz’s dedication to the players and the people who worked for him. That included Horwitz’s devotion to former assistant Shannon Dalton Forde, as she battled breast cancer. After her death in 2016, Horwitz spearheaded the efforts to get her name on a Little League field in her New Jersey hometown of Little Ferry.
Horwitz, who could be relentless pushing Mets story ideas on reporters and editors alike, looked uncomfortable as players talked how much he has meant to him over the years.
“The guys always told me if they didn’t care about you they would leave you alone,” Horwitz said. “So I knew they cared.”
They cared so much that Franco said they once taped Horwitz to a training table, covered him in bird seed and bread crumbs, took him out on the field and turned on the sprinklers.
“Birds were swooping down on him taking the bread,” Franco said with a laugh.
But then Franco pointed out the room full of players and writers who came back just for the press conference. He called it a room “full of love,” and started to get emotional. “I love you man,” Franco said fighting back tears.