Looking back over the months, reading about the Mets organization from the beginning until today, I realized that I had omitted writing about the most charming employee of them all. No one has a biography like he does – he’s been everywhere, done everything and still has that charm to share with everyone.
After returning to Brooklyn, from Venezuela, MLB discovered that Omar was back and loosely connected to the NY Mets, Bud Selig called and asked Omar to go to Montreal where they needed staff after Loria had stripped the franchise and hauled off the parts — humans, computers, scouting reports, radar guns — to Miami.
This was the beginning of Omar’s great adventure into the world of Major League Baseball leaning on his greatest assets – the willingness to do any job and the inability to bypass anyone without a smile and a good word.
In the corporate world that baseball in America has become, Omar’s role on the Mets staff would change a bit. Not one to address crowds of businessmen in a dark suit, Omar would take one or two people aside and speak to them as though they were family.
Make no mistake – although Omar is short on business procedures, he’s long on baseball knowledge. From Venezuela to Montreal there are those who still speak of him with a smile and awe at what he knows – and does.
When Omar travels with the team, everyone wants to visit with him. It seems as though there is no one in baseball who doesn’t know Omar and is in awe of his knowledge on the field, and of his players.
If you want to read more about Omar – and almost everybody does – here’s the link to the famous Sports Illustrated interview – The Story of O.
