4
2011
The Best Owner Ever
An article by Gregg Hopps
Today, I’m going to stray from my usual 3 Up & 3 Down to write an entry that has been kicking around in my head for quite sometime now. This entry is about the first owner of the New York Mets, Mrs. Joan Whitney Payson.
One SNY feature, the only one I consider to be worth watching, is Mets Yearbook. In one particular episode, the year was 1963, they showed the final game at the old Polo Grounds, with Mrs. Payson and Casey Stengel on the field. As I watched, I thought of how remarkable a woman Mrs. Payson was – a woman clearly ahead of her time – and how the Mets will never have another owner as good and as wonderful as she was. Just watching all the video clips of her it was so apparent that Mrs. Payson truly loved her Mets, and it was just as apparent that Met fans loved her back.
When was the last time we saw a Mets owner sitting in the stands with the fans, rooting for our team? Whether eating a hotdog or enjoying a box of Cracker Jacks, there she was sitting with the rest of us and rooting for the team. She wasn’t isolated in an “owners box”, but instead enjoyed being with her people, Mets fans, and enjoying the game with them.
Before taking ownership of the Mets, Mrs. Payson was a shareholder of the New York Giants. In fact, Mrs. Payson tried all she could to talk Horace Stoneham out of moving the Giants to San Francisco. Mrs. Payson, and M. Donald Grant both voted against the Giant’s move. When the National League finally agreed to expansion and awarded a baseball team to New York, Mrs.Payson become the first woman ever to own a baseball team, and they couldn’t have made a better choice.
Mrs. Payson then went about the business of hiring the best baseball people available at the time. She also didn’t meddle and always allowed all of them to do their job. With 50 years of hindsight, the early Mets were a stroke of genius. New York was starving for National League baseball and Mrs. Payson and some other key people brought it back to us.
The Mets also brought back as many former Giants and Dodgers as they could to bring a hometown feel and familiarity to the team. They scooped up the most successful manager in the game in Casey Stengel. They then let the stars of the past play, while beginning the work of assembling an awesome farm system.
The 1969 Mets were amazing for several reasons. First off, before 1969 they never finished in the top of the standings and in fact were perennial cellar dwellars. Second, and even more amazing is that seven years after inception, the Mets were champions. In the pre free agency era, this truly was a miracle.
I became a Met fan in 1973. Sadly Mrs. Payson died in October of 1975, so I have very few memories of her. But to me, the thing that was so striking about her was her genuine, heartfelt love for all the Mets players, coaches and fans. I doubt we’ll ever see anything like it, or anyone like her, ever again. That my friends, is too bad.
Happy Mothers Day to all the remarkable women in your lives.
About the Author: Gregg Hopps
Gregg lives on Long Island, and has been a Mets fan since Bud Harrelson and Pete Rose slugged it out in the 1973 playoffs. "Keith Hernandez is the best defensive first baseman to ever have played baseball."
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I can only think of one owner in sports that still does this:
-Mark Cuban, enough said
She did it with class though, not for attention
business side of it, owner now own the team and got ppl to take care of that, they look at profit and that’s it.. not many owners are as passionate and fan friendly as before, other than cuban you don’t see many owners on the stands interacting with the fans, i mean, can you imagine wilpon at the stands after the comments he made about reyes, beltran and certainly NOT least, the golden child, the infamous one, the chosen one “david wright”…?? it would’ve been mayhen
Mr. Doubleday used to sit in the front row at games.
The last great owner of the Mets…….
Big time. Hired Casey, George weiss, Gil Hodges, Yogi Berra, Whitey Herzog, Johnny Murphy, Bing Devine, the scouts who signed Seaver, Koosman, Ryan, McGraw, Jones, Harrelson, Matlack, Gentry, McAndrew took on salary for Clendennon, milan, Staub.
Doubleday was pretty decent but Payson was the best. I cannot understand why there is no statue of her outside the Rotunda greeting fans as they arrive.
Joan Whitney Payson is someone I admire very greatly in the lexicon of Mets history. I have no memories of her at all since I was born after she passed away, but I love that a) the players who were under her leadership/ownership still call her “Mrs Payson” (that’s some respect right there) and b) that she used her moxie to get Willie Mays to play in NY one last time before he retired. Mrs. Payson is all right in my book – thanks for writing this gregga
Coop,
my memory isn’t wht it used to be, but if you looked at all the names the Mets had working their front office, or in their scouting department during Mrs. Payson’s reign, it would read like a who’s who of baseball. She was 100% a baseball fan.
You make a great point about players still reffering to her as Mrs. Payson. Some of the old Mets still call Gil Hodges, Mr. Hodges. When Seaver talks about both Gil Hodges and Mrs. Payson, you can certainly hear the respct in his voice.
Oh totally, you can start with johnny Murphy, who was probably singularly responsible for the 1969 Mets construction (but it was Gil who got the most out of the players), and George M Weiss. Whitey Herzog, I actually forget his exact title,but he was in the Mets system for years as well and we all know how that all turned out (although we can credit him for the Keith Hernandez trade to NY in ’83 ha ha)
Farm Director Coop. Left when Yogi got the managers job. Makes you wonder huh?
The thing that fascinates me to this day about Payson is the way she forced the rest of the owners to see her as an equal. she didn’t inherit the team. She was a shrewd business woman whose force of will made it so you had to acknowledge her. That had to irk at least some of her contemporaries.
That would be impressive today in the country club that is MLB ownership. Never mind 50 years ago.
Not to mention she KNEW her stuff about baseball. I could only imagine her putting some of the posters here on MMO in their place LOL
How I’d love to have seen that!
That’s hilarious. Would have loved to have seen that myself.
I love to come to this site and stumble upon these types of gems. Mrs. Payson was a woman way ahead of her time and absolutely priceless. She was such a huge fan of the Mets and she treated all of the players and coaches like family. Thanks for remnding us of her!
If Mrs. Payson was still alive, I don’t think Tom Seaver would have been traded.
He even stated on several occasions that the Mets FO lost their focus after Mrs Payson died (when her family ran the franchise into the ground) and if they had the same/similar leadership when she was still alive, he would have been happier staying with the Mets. Gil Hodges’ passing away had a lot to do with the culture change with the Mets too in the ’70s (going w/ Yogi Berra instead of Whitey Herzog, as an example)
Ya have to love Yogi, but if Whitey was around we might have won 73. Which of course biggest error was not having George Stone pitch a game and then had Seaver and Matlack.
Thus starting the trend of post-traumatic Mets disorder…
To this day I grind my teeth every time I see Yogi’s face.
What a wonderful piece you’ve written and you are getting some gracious responses. Joan Payson was a lady, but she was also a baseball fan and she played both roles wonderfully. I often wonder these days, where the women are? They come to the games – sometimes, but are rarely in baseball ownership. Joan was a great woman and should be remembered somewhere/somehow in Citifield – is she?
Annie she is in the Mets HOF and museum but I feel like there should be more recognition there for her. She was a visionary and knew the sport better than anyone in the old boys club. Sadly, no one has taken the reigns of it.
And where is Doubleday in the building?
Who? (that was a joke – according to Wilpon, you’d think he never existed)
I became a Mets fan in 1967. That was the year I went to my first game at Shea, got my first yearbook, etc. I was 9. I remember Mrs. Payson and used to see her in her field box along the railing all the time. I remember Pearl Bailey down there too in her derby hat and pearl necklace. When I would look at Mrs. Payson back then, I remember my 9 year old heart swelling with pride, and I would think how lucky the Mets were to have the best owner in baseball. It was almost as if your grandmother owned your favorite baseball team.
Very well said. i felt exactly the same way. We were going to Grandma’s house and you just knew you were going to have a great time.
Pearl Bailey!!! Now you’re talking Pete. How about Mrs. Payson and Casey hamming it up at Old Timer’s Day? No doubt Mrs. Payson loved her Mets, and we loved her for loving them!
One of my fondest memories in life was going to Shea Stadium while on my in between combat tours from Vietnam. I remember a Memorial Day game sitting behind first base with mt sister and other members of my family and remember “Kong” Kingman almost killing me with a foul ball and then the next pitch he blasted it over the right field fence. I remember listening to Armed Forces Radio broadcasting the ’69 World Series and then when I got back my buddy who was in ‘Nam with me went to Shea and saw Willie Mays hit a home run. There were about 59,000 folks that day and the only seats we could get was the top row , left outfield but it was great. It was a real special day because about two months later my firend committed suicide like a lot of other ‘Nam vets did and it is sad it is still happening today. THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES, MRS. PAYSON!
Well I would point out that if the Wilpons had ever read some of the things sadi about them on this site alone no way would they ever go into the stands with the fans for fear of their lives!
They would need to stay behind a bulletproof screen!