Jay Horwitz

[Ceetar]

I imagine articles like this are what some of you mean when you say Jeff Pearlman used to be worth reading?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703408604576164410202876644.html?mod=googlenews_wsj#articleTabs%3Darticle

Edited March 1, 2011 by Guest

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Yeah, nice story to tell.

I don't doubt any of these ain't-Jay-great stories we see, but they rarely address why/how the Mets almost always appear to be in a state of total chaos.

[metirish]

Yeah nice story but the Mets PR department for years has come across as a bit of a joke , there is probably not a player that has ever worn the jersey that has bad things to say about the guy.

[G-Fafif]

Mets fans think so highly of Jay Horwitz they feel often compelled to give him an extra 'o' for his last name.

[Ceetar]

G-Fafif wrote: Mets fans think so highly of Jay Horwitz they feel often compelled to give him an extra 'o' for his last name.

No, i just suck at spelling. Weren't you reading the Scrabble thread?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Jonathan Weissman had a failed interview with him and hated the guy.

But yeah, a good, loyal, neurotically hardworking company man is a good thing to be. But it didn't stop Omar from getting horribly off-message the day they fired Tony Bernazard.

Yankee brass gets off-message a lot too. It's the sort of thinig that winning glosses, but it sure doesn't serve the organization well, or serve the cause of winning.

[G-Fafif]

Ceetar wrote: G-Fafif wrote: Mets fans think so highly of Jay Horwitz they feel often compelled to give him an extra 'o' for his last name. No, i just suck at spelling. Weren't you reading the Scrabble thread?

Missed that, but thanks for fixing since it's all I can do to keep it straight and not turn Jay Horwitz into a matzoh fortune heir.



Which would really impress that girl from high school.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Edgy DC wrote: Jonathan Weissman had a failed interview with him and hated the guy.

Find. That. Link.

[dgwphotography]

Edgy DC wrote: Jonathan Weissman had a failed interview with him and hated the guy.

Jay probably wasn't fond of celebratory Slurpees...

[Guest Edgy DC]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Edgy DC wrote: Jonathan Weissman had a failed interview with him and hated the guy. Find. That. Link.

Really nothing retrievable from the old MetsOnline.net forum. Willets has tried. The best hope would be Doc G saved the thread.

[G-Fafif]

When things are going badly, you put your best face forward. In the case of the Mets' executive suite, non-baseball wing, that face is haggard and bespectacled and has been around.

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy DC wrote: Jonathan Weissman had a failed interview with him and hated the guy.

Something else that speaks well of Jay.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Edgy DC wrote: Edgy DC wrote: Jonathan Weissman had a failed interview with him and hated the guy. Find. That. Link. Really nothing retrievable from the old MetsOnline.net forum. Willets has tried. The best hope would be Doc G saved the thread.

I have some of Doc's floppy discs but nowhere to unflop them

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

That's a nice story.

I had a nice experience with him. When I was covering Mickey Weston, and he had that short stint with the Mets, I got to sit in the press box during the game in Cincinnati. The press box group, I recall, were a rather cranky bunch. But Jay came and sat with me, went and got me the cool spiral bound Media guide and chatted throughout the game about the uniforms -- that was the year with the stupid tail under the name -- and all sorts of Metly things. The rest of the writers were too busy being honked off because the Reds were charging them $5 to eat press box foods.

[seawolf17]

I still have that jersey with the stupid tail under the name. It's the reason I always wear my grey "NEW YORK" away jersey to games.

[G-Fafif]

TV Land recently reran the Everybody Loves Raymond that features a bunch of 1969 Mets. How frigging odd to see Tug McGraw wearing a 1994 tail jersey. It had the Miracle Mets commemorative patch, but that only served to remind me of 1994, not 1969.

Come to think of it, the Mets in that ep (Jones, Agee, Swoboda, Shamsky, Kranepool, Harrelson, McGraw and Grote) wore a melange of unis they'd apparently collected across various Old Timers Days and reunions -- you'd think Jay could have asked Charlie to send them a matching set for their closeup.

[Valadius]

Charlie couldn't be bothered to send a matching set of jerseys - he was too busy stealing some of each.

[Gwreck]

The impression that I get is that Horwitz is very well thought of in his job of media relations -- dealing with the beat writers, the local and national press -- in the context of baseball issues.

I find the Mets to generally be lacking in the area of public relations, and particularly with respect to non-player and non-baseball issues.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I would agree with that.

[bmfc1]

My one encounter with Jay makes me agree with Gwreck: spring training '86, I go into the trailer next to the practice field to buy a media guide, I see him and say hi and he looks the other way. Another day I'm watching practice, say hi and he ignores me. Maybe it was me or maybe he thinks that relating to the fans is not part of his job description.

[Guest themetfairy]

bmfc1 wrote: My one encounter with Jay makes me agree with Gwreck: spring training '86, I go into the trailer next to the practice field to buy a media guide, I see him and say hi and he looks the other way. Another day I'm watching practice, say hi and he ignores me. Maybe it was me or maybe he thinks that relating to the fans is not part of his job description.

My experience with him is consistent with that. When I was writing for Mets Inside Pitch I needed a quote for an article from Tom Seaver. Horwitz wouldn't put me in touch with The Franchise directly, although he did get a quote for me and passed it on. But dealing with him was not pleasant - I got the impression that he considered dealing with me like gum on the bottom of his shoe.

A month or two later I saw him before a Mets/Reds game that I was attending in Cincy, and I attempted to thank him for getting the quote for me. I received the bmfc cold shoulder treatment.

He may be great with the credentialed media, but I'm guessing that he's a big part of the reason why the Mets had been so slow in relating to the blogosphere culture - Jay just isn't a people person.

[Willets Point]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Edgy DC wrote: Jonathan Weissman had a failed interview with him and hated the guy. Find. That. Link.

Scroll down to METS INTERNSHIP.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Classic stuff.

[metirish]

who is Jonathan Weissman?

very cool to read online stuff from way back in 1997.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I brought my resume, and a copy of the article that was written about me in Baseball Hobby News showing what an extreme Mets fan I was. Jay said, "Our interns come in seven days a week, twelve hours a day, eight months a year, and do not get any form of payment."

Are all internships that sucky?

I told Jay that my religion would not allow me to come in on Friday nights and Saturdays, and what my college professor in charge of internships for a long time said was the most classless act by an interviewer she's heard of, Jay got up, said goodbye and refused to talk to me anymore.

Jay does sound charming in this account.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

metirish wrote: who is Jonathan Weissman? very cool to read online stuff from way back in 1997.

He was like, the original Mets blogger. He wrote about going to Mets games at the website whose message board offsprung the CPF.

Friend of Yacov Farbowits.His stuff was oddly compelling because it was at once very inwardly focused and at the same time, completely devoid of any self-awareness.

[TransMonk]

I remember being his friend on AOL or some-such back in the late 90's and we would chat sometimes. Seemed like he went to every home game.

[metirish]

Is he floating around these days?

[TransMonk]

I don't know.

He's got his own youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/Weissman52#p/u

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I brought my resume, and a copy of the article that was written about me in Baseball Hobby News showing what an extreme Mets fan I was. Jay said, "Our interns come in seven days a week, twelve hours a day, eight months a year, and do not get any form of payment."

Are all internships that sucky?

Usually, when the interviewer is that upfront about it, he's trying to make it seem daunting, as a bit of a wheat-from-chaff ploy. One gets the feeling that Jay meant every word.

I get the feeling from the Pearlman piece-- and virtually everything I've ever read about the guy-- that he decided long ago that his job was his life; people like that just don't get people who don't think that way.

Of course the other guys on the job "love" him (or, probably more accurately, regard him with a bemused affection).