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Jay Horwitz
Jay Horwitz in 2012 at Citi Field
Born (1945-08-14) August 14, 1945 (age 79)
The Bronx, New York, U.S.
Alma materNew York University
Occupation(s)Sportswriter, sports information director, media relations director
Years active1969–present
EmployerNew York Mets

Jay Edward Horwitz (born August 14, 1945) is an American professional baseball executive for the New York Mets of Major League Baseball. He was their media relations director for nearly four decades, and is the team's current historian and vice president of alumni relations.[1] He was formerly a sportswriter, and a sports information director for New York University and Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Early years and personal life

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Horwitz was born on V-J Day (Victory over Japan Day) in 1945 in the Fordham Road section of the Bronx in New York City, and is Jewish.[2][3][4][5][6] His father Milton Horwitz was a general manager for a coat factory, and his mother Gertrude was a homemaker and subsequently a stenographer and a bookkeeper; both of his parents were children of Russian Jewish immigrants.[7][4][5]

When his mother was pregnant with him, she contracted German measles.[8] Horwitz was as a result born with glaucoma, and consequently was blind in his right eye, which was a different color than his left eye.[6] When he was in the sixth grade, an eye doctor advised him that if he did not have his bad eye taken out, the glaucoma could spread to his good eye, so he had an artificial eye put in.[9][10] Out of embarrassment he never revealed until 2020 that he had one glass eye, but said in an interview "anybody who looked at me knew I wasn't perfect".[6]

As a child Horwitz played second base for a Little League team sponsored by "Epstein's Dept. Store".[2] He had his bar mitzvah in September 1958 at the Clifton Jewish Center.[7] His hometown is Clifton, New Jersey, to which he moved at six years of age, and where he still lives in the small house in which he grew up.[5][7]

Horwitz attended Clifton High School, graduating in 1963. There, he was a student manager of the school's varsity baseball, basketball, track and field, and cross country teams.[6][5] He graduated from New York University (NYU), with a journalism degree (Steinhardt '67).[6][11] Horwitz also obtained a master's degree in political science from NYU's Graduate School of Arts & Science, which he earned in 1969.[1][11]

In June 2023, when baseball player Spencer Horwitz was promoted to the major leagues by the Toronto Blue Jays, Jay Horwitz tweeted a photo of the two of them together, and jokingly captioned it "Congrats to my grandson Spencer Horwitz on his promotion to the Blue Jays. A proud grandpa Jay.", although they are not related.[12][13] Spencer said:

Jay was our public relations guy for Team Israel during the WBC ... And it just kind of blew up. A lot of people still come up to me and say, 'Hey, I know your grandfather really well.' Then everyone is a little disappointed when I tell them that (it's not true). Jay's a great guy and just knowing him during that brief stint that I did was awesome.[13]

Sports information director, and sportswriter

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Horwitz worked as a sports information director at New York University from late 1969 to 1972.[1][14]

He was also a sportswriter for the Herald News of Passaic, New Jersey, where Horwitz covered high school sports and the New York Jets for three years, beginning in the fall of 1969.[6][5]

Horwitz was Fairleigh Dickinson University's sports information director from 1972 to 1980.[6][1] In his first day on the job, working as the official scorer for a basketball game he entered two men's players names incorrectly for the officials, resulting in two technical fouls in an overtime one-point loss.[6][8]

New York Mets

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Horwitz began working for the New York Mets on April 1, 1980, initially with the title of director of public relations.[1] Horwitz was named the Mets vice president of media relations on February 7, 2001.[1][15] His span of time with the Mets as the team's media relations director lasted until 2018.[16]

After the Mets won the 1986 World Series, the team gave $4,000 bonuses to department heads, but the players took the unusual step of voting Horwitz a full share of $93,000 (equivalent to $259,000 today), which was the same amount that its players received.[17] He was hesitant to accept it, though players insisted.[17] He reached out to his mother, Gertrude, for advice; She said: "I didn't raise a schmuck. Take the 93."[17] He did so.[17]

In 2018, he became the team's historian and vice president of alumni relations.[16][18] In 2019, the New York Chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America gave him the "William J. Slocum/Jack Lang Award for 'Long & Meritorious Service'".[19][20]

In May 2020 Horwitz published his memoir, Mr. Met: How a Sports-Mad Kid From Jersey Became Like Family to Generations of Big Leaguers (Triumph Books), with a foreword by pitcher Jacob deGrom.[10][14][17] Reviewing it, New York Times sports columnist George Vecsey wrote: "This sweet book shows the beating heart of a sport ..."[17]

Honors

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In 1998, Horwitz was awarded the Fishel Award for Public Relations Excellence in Major League Baseball.[11] In 2006, he was given the Thurman Munson Award for dedication and excellence in media relations.[11]

In 2022 the New York Mets named the Citi Field press box in honor of Horwitz.[16] In 2023 he was honored with the New York Mets Hall of Fame Achievement Award.[21][11]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Bill Shannon. "Public relations; Jay Horwitz", Dictionary of New York Sports. New York Historical Society
  2. ^ a b Esposito, Andy (June 8, 2020). "Esposito: Mr. Met A Must Read For Every Mets Fan". NY Sports Day. Archived from the original on June 18, 2023. Retrieved June 18, 2023.
  3. ^ "Reports: Isringhausen uses ethnic slur in jest". AP News. Archived from the original on June 18, 2023. Retrieved June 18, 2023.
  4. ^ a b Jay Horwitz, Jacob deGrom (2020). Mr. Met: How a Sports-Mad Kid from Jersey Became Like Family to Generations of Big Leaguers Archived July 11, 2024, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ a b c d e "From Clifton to the Show". Clifton Merchant Magazine. October 2006. Archived from the original on June 18, 2023. Retrieved June 18, 2023.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Pete Caldera (May 28, 2020). "North Jersey's Jay Horwitz recounts his legendary career as NY Mets' PR man in a new book". NorthJersey.com. Archived from the original on June 18, 2023. Retrieved June 18, 2023.
  7. ^ a b c Horwitz, Jay; deGrom, Jacob (May 19, 2020). Mr. Met: How a Sports-Mad Kid from Jersey Became Like Family to Generations of Big Leaguers. Triumph Books. ISBN 978-1-64125-400-7. Archived from the original on July 11, 2024. Retrieved July 4, 2023 – via Google Books.
  8. ^ a b Ian Pickus (July 21, 2020). "Shea Hey: Jay Horwitz On Four Decades As "Mr. Met"". WAMC. Archived from the original on June 18, 2023. Retrieved June 18, 2023.
  9. ^ Mathew Brownstein (August 14, 2020). "MMO Exclusive: Jay Horwitz Discusses Four Decades With Mets". Metsmerized Online. Archived from the original on July 11, 2024. Retrieved June 18, 2023.
  10. ^ a b Anthony DiComo. "Catching up with Mets' Horwitz about new book". MLB.com. Archived from the original on June 18, 2023. Retrieved June 18, 2023.
  11. ^ a b c d e Jason Hollander and Jonathan King (September 27, 2023). "Alumni at Work: Jay Horwitz, New York Mets Vice President of Alumni Relations and Club Historian; The press box at Citi Field was recently renamed in honor of the team's beloved head of public relations, who has been with the club for more than 40 years," NYU.
  12. ^ "Horwitz, Morris Named High-A West Postseason All-Stars". MiLB.com. October 7, 2021. Archived from the original on March 12, 2023. Retrieved June 18, 2023.
  13. ^ a b Brian Frank "Conversations with the Herd: Spencer Horwitz," The Herd Chronicles.
  14. ^ a b Diamond, Zachary (August 7, 2020). "Nobody Has More Stories To Tell Than Former New York Mets PR Man Jay Horwitz". Backsports Page. Archived from the original on June 18, 2023. Retrieved June 18, 2023.
  15. ^ Don Laible (June 6, 2020). "Beloved Baseball Executive Pens Memoir". Utica Observer-Dispatch. Archived from the original on July 11, 2024. Retrieved June 18, 2023.
  16. ^ a b c "New York Mets naming Citi Field press box in honor of former media relations director Jay Horwitz". ABC7 New York. April 14, 2022. Archived from the original on June 18, 2023. Retrieved June 18, 2023.
  17. ^ a b c d e f George Vecsey (June 9, 2020). "This Met Was Usually "In the Room"". georgevecsey.com. Archived from the original on July 11, 2024. Retrieved June 18, 2023.
  18. ^ Rich Mancuso (September 12, 2018). "Mets Jay Horwitz The PR Guru". The Bronx Chronicle. Archived from the original on June 18, 2023. Retrieved June 18, 2023.
  19. ^ "Annual Awards". New York Chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA). Archived from the original on February 17, 2024. Retrieved February 17, 2024.
  20. ^ Anthony DiComo (November 2, 2018). "Wright to be honored by New York's BBWAA; deGrom, Nimmo among others to receive awards in January". MLB.com. Archived from the original on June 18, 2023. Retrieved June 18, 2023.
  21. ^ "Mets induct Al Leiter, Howard Johnson, Gary Cohen, Howie Rose into team Hall of Fame, honor Jay Horwitz". amNewYork. June 4, 2023. Archived from the original on June 18, 2023. Retrieved June 18, 2023.
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