The Other Baseball

On the 119th anniversary of her birth, The Other Baseball remembers sports enthusiast and pioneer Joan Whitney Payson. After the Giants and Dodgers moved to the west coast in 1957, the influential Payson got to work bringing a new team to New York.

As the initial majority share holder of the Mets, the former Giants fan became one of the first women to purchase and operate a major league professional sports team (rather than inherit it). She was preceded by Effa Manley, who co-owned and presided over the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League through the 1940s.

The Mets first season came in 1962, two years after Payson co-founded the team. She served as president from 1968 until her death in 1975. During that time, the Mets won two National League pennants (1969 and 1973) and a World Series (1969). She was active in player relations and acquisitions, and beloved by her personnel. In 1981, Payson was post-humouisly inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame. (sources: Wikipedia; SABR profile by Joan M. Thomas; SABR article "...A Pioneer for the New York Mets by Leslie Heaphy)

"Lacy would prove as resilient as No. 42 and soon distinguish himself, as well. After the season, Robinson was named Rookie of the Year and Lacy became the first Black sportswriter to join the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. A half-century later, he earned his way into the writers’ wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown."

Writing Wrongs: ‘Afro-American’ Sportswriter Sam Lacy is in the Baseball Hall of Fame Lacy, who covered Jackie Robinson’s rookie year with the Brooklyn Dodgers, would prove as resilient as No. 42 himself.