By JACK KOMSON, JACK PERSON and SAM TAUBES (JJS)
The Jericho High School Sports Journalism class went on a field trip to Citi Field where they had the rare opportunity to interview Mets legend Jay Horwitz. For forty years, Mr. Horwitz served as head of Media Relations for the Mets. Mr. Horwitz led the organization’s communication with the public and is an expert on everything Mets related. Currently, he is the president of the Mets Alumni relations program.
When Mr. Horwitz was young, he wasn’t a very good athlete but knew he wanted a career in sports. He said, “I was a lousy athlete in high school. My friends were athletes and I couldn’t play ball.”
He added, “I tried to find a way to get involved in sports. PR was my venue.”
During his many years as head of Media Relations, it was important for Mr. Horwitz to build strong relationships with the players. “If I had any success at all with my time here with the Mets is that I never considered myself a suit. I wanted to be one of the guys; that the guys knew when I came into the locker room I had their backs, I wasn’t going to betray them.”
Everyone remembers the Mets World Series win in 1986, but for Mr. Horwitz one of the Mets finest moments was how the organization responded to the events of the World Trade Center attacks in 2001.
Mr. Horwitz said, “If you’re going to put something on my tombstone, it would be what the 2001 team did after 9/11. Guys like Al Leiter, John Franco, Todd Zeile, Robin Ventura, Bobby Valentine made a difference in the community. We went to Ground Zero, went to the fire stations, went to the police stations. We went to hospitals and we really helped New York City heal. I don’t know if you guys saw Mike Piazza’s home run in the first game back. That was great but the stuff this team did, we helped the city heal. That will probably be my favorite moment as a Met more than the ’86 team because rings are great, championships are great, but I think we made a difference in the community.”
After graduating from Temple University with a degree in sports management, Hunter Taubes, Jericho alum, Mets social media associate and brother of JerEcho reporter Sam Taubes, interned for the Mets before being hired by them. He said, “Coming from Jericho myself, a lot of my friends went to these bigger schools. Whether it was Michigan, Ohio State, or Syracuse. I went to a relatively less popular school with not as massive of an athletic department as these other Power Five schools. If you go to a bigger school and you want to work in sports, go work for your athletic department.”
Hunter experienced some exciting sports moments while interning. He explained what it was like working behind the scenes when a big moment happened in the Subway Series. He said, “It was the Subway Series, Mets were hosting. It was a back and forth game. It goes into extra innings and my boss says, ‘Alright. Go down to the field if we walk it off.’ I was like, ‘You want me to go onto the field if the team walks it off?’ My boss then says, ‘Yeah, go for it.’ I grabbed my camera, grabbed my phone, ran down to the camera well for the top of the 10th. Mets get out of it, don’t give up a run. Brandon Nimmo comes up leading the bottom of the 10th with a walk off triple, and there I am filming as the team is celebrating.”
In addition to meeting with Mets media personnel, the JerEcho reporters thoroughly enjoyed their tour of Citi Field. They visited the Piazza club, toured the press boxes where all the beat writers sit, walked on the field, and even got to sit in the Mets dugout.
JerEcho reporter and freshman Anthony H. said, “I loved the stadium. I always used to drive by it as a kid and I am a Yankees fan, but I have to admit that the stadium is definitely better than Yankee stadium. I loved our tour guide and I loved going onto the field even behind home plate and especially into the dugout.”
Reporter and freshman Alex E. added, “This trip was definitely a one of a kind experience. Being able to be in the reporters box and stand on the field was really cool and interesting.”
Jericho English teacher, coach, and trip chaperone Ms. D’Antonio said, “Seeing the behind the scenes made me rethink my profession and made me think I should go into athletics. It was really cool to get the interview either way with someone who is so long standing with the Mets.”
Here are some trip highlights.
Photo credits: Alex Edelman, Achint Kaur, Aleeza Gani, Eva Brown, Jed Lin, Liam Feldman, Anthony Hirtzel, Henry Elkowitz, Aahana Arya, and Joanna Kwak