‘God Bless Joan Payson’: The Surprising Coverage of the First Woman to Buy a Sports Team

AbstractJoan Whitney Payson developed an extraordinary relationship with the press after becoming the first woman to buy a sports team in North America. As owner of the New York Mets from their inception in 1962 until her death in 1975, Payson made baseball writers feel appreciated, inviting them to help choose the team’s name, hiring a manager they loved, acquiring players they knew, and presenting them with World Series rings. One reporter who treated Payson well ended up on the Whitney payroll, hired by Joan’s brother, the publisher of the New York Herald Tribune. For half a century, Payson’s habit of downplaying her role with the team has produced an inaccurate public image of an uninvolved figurehead. This paper consults the Whitney family papers, period coverage, and original oral history interviews with players and sportswriters to reveal previously uncovered factors that prompted flattering coverage of ‘the mother of the Mets’.Keywords: Baseballsports journalismwomen in sportsteam ownersNew York Mets Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Dick Young, ‘Young Ideas’, New York Daily News, February 2, 1961, 68.2 ‘Commentator’, Time, January 25, 1937, 38; Harry Evans, ‘The Dance Revolution’, Harper’s Bazaar, September 1, 1937, 100, 157–60; Patricia Linden, ‘The Whitneys: A World of the Never-Idle Rich’, Town & Country, February 1981, 99–110; ‘Mrs. Charles Shipman Payson’, Vogue, January 18, 1930, 44; and ‘Society Snap-Shots’, Vogue, June 15, 1927, 70.3 Harold Rosenthal, ‘What’s in a Name? Mets Go from Able to Zorro’, New York Herald Tribune, February 2, 1961, 21.4 Cleveland Amory, ‘Mrs. Payson’s Ball Park’, Vogue, September 15, 1964, 144–5, 183–5.5 Frank Thomas, Ronnie Joyner, and Bill Bozman, ‘Kiss It Goodbye’!: The Frank Thomas Story (Dunkirk, MD: Pepperpot Productions, 2005), 352.6 Marty Appel, Casey Stengel: Baseball’s Greatest Character (New York: Anchor, 2017), 289; ‘How Cold Is New York’?, New York Herald Tribune, June 6, 1962, 26; and Leonard Shecter, Once Upon the Polo Grounds: The Mets That Were (New York: Dial Press, 1970), 45.7 Jimmy Breslin, I Want to Thank My Brain for Remembering Me (New York: Little, Brown, and Company, 1996), 134.8 See, for instance, Maury Allen, Now Wait a Minute, Casey! (New York: Doubleday & Company, 1965); Joseph Durso, Amazing: The Miracle of the Mets (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970); and George Vecsey, Joy in Mudville (New York: McCall Publishing Company, 1970).9 ‘John Hay Whitney and Betsey Cushing Whitney family papers’, https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/12/resources/4901; and Joan W. Payson biographical clipping file, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.10 Amory, ‘Mrs. Payson’s Ball Park’, 183; and Kathryn Livingston, ‘My Favorite Possession’, Town & Country, February 1970, 91–3.11 ‘The Life and Times and Loves of Joan Whitney Payson’, https://www.amazon.com/Life-Times-Loves-Whitney-Payson/dp/0471262935/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=joan+payson+durso&qid=1615336588&sr=8-1; and Judd Tully, ‘Payson’s Eye’, Town & Country, June 1994, 158.12 Richard Kluger, The Paper: The Life and Death of the New York Herald Tribune (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986), 693.13 ‘Come On, You Mets’, New York Herald Tribune, May 10, 1961, 26; Jerry Izenberg, ‘Our New Ball Club Christened “Mets”’, New York Herald Tribune, May 9, 1961, 32; and Ed Sinclair, ‘Mets Play Pirates in “Opener”’, New York Herald Tribune, April 13, 1962, 20.14 Harry Cronin, ‘Mother of the Mets’, New York Daily News, July 2, 1961, 26.15 Debra Shattuck, ‘Playing a Man’s Game: Women and Baseball in the United States, 1866-1954’, in Baseball History from Outside the Lines: A Reader, ed. John E. Dreifort (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001), 195–7.16 ‘The Female Players’, The Sporting Life, December 5, 1883, 2; and ‘The Female Tramps’, The Sporting Life, December 24, 1884, 5.17 ‘“Lady Champions” at Ball’, New York Herald, September 1, 1890, 6.18 Jennifer Ring, Stolen Bases: Why American Girls Don’t Play Baseball (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009), 23.19 Albert G. Spalding, America’s National Game (New York: American Sports Publishing Company, 1911), 10–11.20 Linden, ‘The Whitneys’.21 Edwin P. Hoyt, The Whitneys (New York: Weybright and Talley, 1976), 212–5, 253.22 M.J. Wilson, ‘Nobody Loves Mets More Than Owner Joan Payson’, Utica (NY) Observer-Dispatch, October 6, 1969, 6.23 Hoyt, The Whitneys, 253–7.24 Arthur Daley, ‘Sports of The Times: The Miracle Workers’, New York Times, September 26, 1969, 74.25 Linden, ‘The Whitneys’, 104.26 Ibid.; ‘Mrs. Payson Says Heartbreak Gave Way to Her Tears of Joy’, New York Times, October 6, 1969, 60; and G.F.T. Ryall, ‘Women and Horses’, Vogue, April 15, 1948, 87.27 Time, March 27, 1933, 1.28 ‘Inflation Calculator’, https://www.usinflationcalculator.com; and Kluger, The Paper, 523–7.29 Kluger, The Paper, 523–7.30 Dwight D. Eisenhower to John Hay Whitney, June 13, 1958, box 137, folder 10, MS 1938, John Hay Whitney and Betsey Cushing Whitney Family Papers, Yale University Library Manuscripts and Archives (hereafter cited as Whitney Papers).31 Hoyt, The Whitneys, 252.32 Toots Shor to John Hay Whitney, September 3, 1958, box 140, folder 1, MS 1938, Whitney Papers.33 ‘“Continental League” is Ready to Do Business’, Newsday, July 28, 1959, 17C.34 ‘A Popular Matron and Ardent Fan Heads N.Y. Group’, Buffalo Evening News, October 18, 1960, Section IV, 39.35 Marguerite Martin, ‘“Baseball Better Mental Exercise for Women Than Bridge”’, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 14, 1912, 1B.36 Russ J. Cowans, ‘Through the Sports Mirror’, Detroit Tribune, November 23, 1940, 7; and Wendell Smith, ‘Smitty’s Sports-Spurts’, Pittsburgh Courier, January 30, 1943, 16.37 Red McQueen, ‘Hoomalimali (Kid ‘Em Along)’, Honolulu Advertiser, June 8, 1946, 12.38 Red Smith, ‘The Prodigal’, New York Herald Tribune, October 18, 1960, 30.39 ‘A Popular Matron’.40 Amory, ‘Mrs. Payson’s Ball Park’, 144; and Tully, ‘Payson’s Eye’, 158.41 Amory, ‘Mrs. Payson’s Ball Park’, 144; and David Dempsey, ‘Says Mrs. Payson of the Mets, “You Can’t Lose Them All”’, New York Times Magazine, June 23, 1968, 28–33.42 Robert Lipsyte, telephone interview by the author, July 28, 2020.43 Dick Young, ‘Our NL Club Christened “Mets”’, New York Daily News, May 9, 1961, C20.44 Stanley Woodward, ‘Yes, Meadowlarks’!, New York Herald Tribune, February 4, 1961, 11.45 Arthur Daley, ‘Sports of the Times: A Name for Baby’, New York Times, February 9, 1961, 40.46 ‘Nybs, Burros, and Avengers on List of Ten’, Sporting News, February 15, 1961, 1–2.47 Eric Thompson and Stephen D. Boren, ‘The Colt .45s and the 1961 Expansion Draft’, https://sabr.org/journal/article/the-colt-45s-and-the-1961-expansion-draft/.48 Dana Mozley, ‘Mets Delay Selection of Manager Till Fall’, New York Daily News, March 25, 1961, 26.49 Roscoe McGowen, ‘Brooklyn Pilot in Street Fight’, New York Times, September 20, 1941, 12.50 ‘Casey Thumbed Out at 70’, New York Times, October 20, 1960, 34.51 ‘A Parade for Casey’, New York Daily News, October 20, 1960, 49.52 Jimmy Cannon, ‘“You Can Keep Casey Where He Belongs…”’, Miami Herald, October 21, 1960, 2C.53 Appel, Casey Stengel, 280.54 Amory, ‘Mrs. Payson’s Ball Park’, 183.55 Stan Isaacs, ‘Stengel Lends His Face to Publicize the Mets’, Newsday, October 3, 1961, 18C; and Dick Young, ‘Casey Hires Cookie, Solly as Mets’ Aids’, New York Daily News, October 3, 1961, C21.56 ‘Six Dodgers Lost in NL Draft’, Los Angeles Mirror, October 10, 1961, 4–1.57 Dick Young, ‘Mets Buy Frank Thomas; Phils Give 2 for Sievers’, New York Daily News, November 29, 1961, C24; and Dick Young, ‘Mets Get Ashburn for 50G; Now Casey Can Platoon’, New York Daily News, December 9, 1961, C16.58 Thomas, Joyner, and Bozman, ‘Kiss It Goodbye!’, 352.59 Steve Jacobson, telephone interview by the author, July 27, 2020.60 ‘Annual Turkey Trot’, New York Daily News, November 24, 1961, 47; and Jim McCulley, ‘BBWA Menu: Beef, Baloney, Ham’, New York Daily News, January 28, 1962, 33C.61 Shecter, Once Upon the Polo Grounds, 45.62 ‘Ooooh, That Casey’!, Newsday, March 24, 1962, 24.63 Dick Young, ‘City Welcomes Mets; Debut at PG Today’, New York Daily News, April 13, 1962, 74.64 ‘What's My Line? - Casey Stengel; Tony Randall [panel] (Apr 15, 1962)’, YouTube video, from What’s My Line? televised by CBS on April 15, 1962, posted by ‘What’s My Line’, September 28, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7tBBlmCgrE.65 ‘1962: The Bumbling Beginning’, New York Times, March 27, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/27/sports/baseball/mets-1962-first-season.html.66 Associated Press, ‘Cub Triple Play Ends Mets, 5-1’, New York Daily News, October 1, 1962, 49.67 Steve Rushin, ‘Bad Beyond Belief’, Sports Illustrated, May 25, 1992, 82–90.68 Bill Madden, telephone interview by the author, July 23, 2020.69 Appel, Casey Stengel, 290; and Jacobson, telephone interview.70 Daryl Moens, ‘Just One Moment, Professor’, Green Bay Press-Gazette, July 11, 1965, 22.71 Craig Anderson, telephone interview by the author, July 22, 2020.72 Amory, ‘Mrs. Payson’s Ball Park’, 145.73 ‘How Cold Is New York’?74 David Seigerman, ‘Misery, Mayhem, and Mets’, Jackson (TN) Sun, June 28, 1992, 1D, 3D.75 Jim Becker, ‘As Throneberry Goes…’, Redwood City (CA) Tribune, July 10, 1962, 6; and ‘Marv Throneberry—Mr. Met’, Tallahassee Democrat, July 10, 1962, 12.76 Jimmy Breslin, Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game? (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1963), 19, 51–3.77 Kluger, The Paper, 674.78 Breslin, I Want to Thank My Brain for Remembering Me, 134.79 Lipsyte, telephone interview.80 Kluger, The Paper, 675; and ‘Inflation Calculator’, https://www.usinflationcalculator.com.81 ‘National League Salaries, 1957-63’, http://roadsidephotos.sabr.org/baseball/1957-63sals.htm.82 Steve Jacobson, ‘What Snider Wants Yanks Have Got’, Newsday, March 15, 1963, 29C.83 Associated Press, ‘Dodgers “Must Trade Snider or Moon”’, San Francisco Examiner, March 12, 1963, 45.84 George Vecsey, ‘Will the Mets Buy Duke? Tune in Again Next Week’, Newsday, March 21, 1963, 17C.85 ‘Duke’s Back—Mets Got Him’, New York Daily News, April 2, 1963, 80; and Dick Young, ‘Surprise! Mets Finally Confess Buying Snider’, New York Daily News, April 2, 1963, 70.86 Joe Donnelly, ‘Mets’ Owner Says It With Roses’, Newsday, April 20, 1963, 41.87 George Vecsey, telephone interview with the author, July 27, 2020.88 Ron Hunt, telephone interview with the author, April 28, 2020.89 Leonard Koppett, ‘Soggy Shea Stadium Bails Out for Dedication Ceremony Today’, New York Times, April 16, 1964, 46; and Gene Ward, ‘Ward to the Wise’, New York Daily News, April 2, 1964, 85.90 Jim Becker, ‘The Shea Stadium Story: Mansion for a Met’, Elmira (NY) Star-Gazette, April 18, 1964, 9.91 Amory, ‘Mrs. Payson’s Ball Park’, 144.92 Jack Fisher, telephone interview with the author, July 27, 2020.93 Bill Wakefield, telephone interview with the author, July 23, 2020.94 Nicholas Evan Sarantakes, Dropping the Torch: Jimmy Carter, the Olympic Boycott, and the Cold War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 20.95 Photographs from Jesse Owens press conference with the New York Mets on February 10, 1965, box 105, folder 4, Jesse Owens Collection, Ohio State University Archives.96 Associated Press, ‘Jesse Owens Faces Sternest Test’, Fort Lauderdale News, February 11, 1965, 1D.97 ‘New York Baseball Writers: A Dashing Group’, Tampa Bay Times, March 8, 1965, 1C.98 ‘1964 New York Mets Statistics’, https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYM/1964.shtml; and ‘1965 New York Mets Statistics’, https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYM/1965.shtml.99 Darrell Sutherland, telephone interview with the author, August 5, 2020.100 Kluger, The Paper, 709, 717, 730–2.101 Jock Whitney to Casey Stengel, September 4, 1963; Jock Whitney to Casey Stengel, September 23, 1963; Tom Meany to Jock Whitney, September 24, 1963; and Casey Stengel to Jock Whitney, October 22, 1963, box 140, folder 10, MS 1938, Whitney Papers.102 Kluger, The Paper, 736.103 Jock Whitney to Merian C. Cooper, September 30, 1966, box 140, folder 6, MS 1938, Whitney Papers.104 Jock Whitney to Ridie J. Guion, September 30, 1966, box 140, folder 6, MS 1938, Whitney Papers.105 ‘City Complex for Mets Payson Field’?, Tampa Bay Times, January 18, 1963, 1C; and Joseph Durso, ‘Mrs. Payson Elected President of the Mets, Succeeding Devine’, New York Times, February 7, 1968, 55.106 ‘Girl Watching’, Cartoons 1960-1969, Oversize 4, F-Hello, Bill Gallo Papers, Syracuse University Libraries Special Collections Research Center. The cartoon appeared in the February 9, 1968, edition of the Daily News, on page 100.107 Dempsey, ‘Says Mrs. Payson of the Mets’, 28–33; Sidney Fields, ‘Meet Mrs. Met’, New York Daily News, May 21, 1968, 42; and ‘“Stormy Weather”—Song Mets’ Prexy Likes Best’, Sporting News, February 24, 1968, 36.108 Dempsey, ‘Says Mrs. Payson of the Mets’, 28–9.109 Ron Swoboda, Here’s the Catch: A Memoir of the Miracle Mets and More (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2019), 94.110 Bobby Pfeil, telephone interview with the author, August 3, 2020.111 Dick Young, ‘Mets Moonstruck, 3-2; Recover, 4-3’, New York Daily News, July 21, 1969, 54.112 ‘Remarks at the Baseball All-Star Reception’, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-baseball-all-star-reception.113 See, for example, Amory, ‘Mrs. Payson’s Ball Park’, 183–4.114 Joseph Durso, ‘Joan Whitney Payson’, Vogue, June 1970, 93, 188–9.115 Press box notes from July 13, 1969, box 7, folder 1, Richard Schaap Papers, Cornell University Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections.116 Wilson, ‘Nobody Loves Mets More Than Owner Joan Payson’.117 Jim McCulley, ‘Mrs. Payson’s DP: U 1st, Too’, New York Daily News, October 7, 1969, 95.118 Al Cohn, ‘“Murder by the Mets” Has a Star Fan’, Newsday, October 15, 1969, 1A; Associated Press, ‘Mrs. Payson Fails to See Final Out’, New York Times, October 13, 1969, 60; and Gene Ward, ‘Joan Payson: “What a Beautiful Bunt, and That Beautiful Run”’, New York Daily News, October 16, 1969, 109.119 Bob Micklin, ‘The Singing Mets Don’t Amaze’, Newsday, October 15, 1969, 72A.120 ‘You Gotta Have Heart’, Bradenton (FL) Herald, October 20, 1969, 1.121 ‘Extra! Featurette “The Amazin’ Mets”’, Montclair (NJ) Times, July 30, 1970, 12; ‘Special Added Featurette “The Amazin’ Mets”’, San Francisco Examiner, October 6, 1970, 34; and ‘Special Sports Featurette “The Amazin’ Mets”’, Columbus (NE) Telegram, September 9, 1970, 8.122 Appel, Casey Stengel, 289.123 Nancy Osgood, ‘Miss Mets’ Opener? No, Siree’, St. Petersburg Times, March 12, 1965, 3D.124 Fields, ‘Meet Mrs. Met’.125 Amory, ‘Mrs. Payson’s Ball Park’, 183.126 Mary C. Brennan, ‘Pat Nixon: Caught Between the Housewives and the Feminists’, http://hnn.us/articles/137010.html.127 Mark Mooney, ‘Jacqueline Kennedy “Would’ve Winced” at Her Anti-Feminist Comments’, September 14, 2011, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jacqueline-kennedys-victorian-views-shocked-grandchildren/story?id=14519045; and Associated Press, ‘Jackie, Onassis Living Proof Series Is “In” with Jet Set’, Detroit Free Press, October 15, 1969, 12D.128 ‘“Stormy Weather”—Song Mets’ Prexy Likes Best’.129 Jerry Koosman, telephone interview with the author, July 27, 2020.130 Art Shamsky, telephone interview with the author, August 4, 2020.131 Frederick K. Trask to Robert L. Braddock, November 10, 1969, Frederick Trask file, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.132 ‘Ecstasy Over the “Mets”’, Schweizer Illustrierte (Swiss Illustrated), October 13, 1969, Frederick Trask file, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.133 ‘Beyond the Miracle: The Mets of the Early 1970s’, https://sabr.org/journal/article/beyond-the-miracle-the-mets-of-the-early-1970s/.134 Jon Matlack, telephone interview with the author, April 7, 2020.135 ‘Jim Fregosi’, https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/fregoji01.shtml; and ‘Nolan Ryan’, https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/ryanno01.shtml.136 Red Foley, ‘Fregosi—Short on Long Ball’?, New York Daily News, December 30, 1971, 59.137 Dick Young, ‘Young Ideas’, New York Daily News, May 12, 1972, C26.138 Red Smith, ‘Saga of the Lady and the Star’, New York Times, May 10, 1972, 57.139 ‘Mets’ Guardian Angel’, Binghamton (NY) Press and Sun-Bulletin, October 20, 1973, 5.140 ‘1973 World Series Oakland Athletics over New York Mets (4-3)’, https://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/1973_WS.shtml.141 Chauncey Durden, ‘Sportview’, Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch, October 9, 1975, F1; Jane Gross, ‘“She Was the Lady Who Owned the Mets”’, Newsday, October 8, 1975, 98; and Linden, ‘The Whitneys’, 103.142 Richard Baker, ‘The Ten Richest Women in the World’, Cosmopolitan, December 1975, 160–5, 211, 217.143 Joseph Durso, ‘Lady Linda Takes a Tight Grip on Mets’ Reins’, Sporting News, March 17, 1979, 34; and Steve Marcus, ‘No Big Changes Seen for Mets’, Newsday, November 5, 1978, 4S.144 Associated Press, ‘Mets Sold for Record Price’, Benton Harbor (MI) Herald-Palladium, January 25, 1980, 16.145 James Overmyer, Queen of the Negro Leagues: Effa Manley and the Newark Eagles (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2020); Joan M. Thomas, Baseball’s First Lady: Helene Hathaway Robison Britton and the St. Louis Cardinals (St. Louis: Reedy Press, 2010); and Andrea Williams, Baseball's Leading Lady: Effa Manley and the Rise and Fall of the Negro Leagues (New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2021).146 ‘Mets Hall of Fame & Museum’, https://www.mlb.com/mets/ballpark/hall-of-fame.147 ‘Joan Whitney Payson Mets HOF Plaque’, https://www.metsheritage.com/item/the-bosss-mets-hall-of-fame-plaque/.148 Leila Cobo, ‘J-Lo & A-Rod Bid Again for The Mets: Here’s What’s Been Reported’, July 14, 2020, https://www.billboard.com/music/latin/j-lo-a-rod-bid-again-for-the-mets-9418355/.149 First Take (@FirstTake), ‘Jennifer Lopez possibly being a minority owner of the New York Mets is important. Here’s why’, Twitter, October 22, 2020, 4:03 p.m., https://twitter.com/FirstTake/status/1319368869765668867.150 Associated Press, ‘Whitmore: Her-Story on the Basepaths’, Newsday, April 23, 2022, A33; and Bill Ladson, ‘Joan Payson: Mets’ unheralded “matriarch”’, March 31, 2021, https://www.mlb.com/news/joan-payson-made-history-as-mets-principal-owner.151 Margo Riser, ‘During Women’s History Month, Assembly Pushes for Induction of Former Mets Owner into Baseball Hall of Fame’, March 25, 2021, https://www.njassemblygop.com/during-womens-history-month-assembly-pushes-for-induction-of-former-mets-owner-into-baseball-hall-of-fame/.152 ‘Mets Unveil The Cadillac Club at Payson’s; Cadillac to Join New York Mets as a Partner in 2023’, March 21, 2023, https://www.mlb.com/press-release/press-release-mets-unveil-the-cadillac-club-at-payson-s-cadillac-to-join-new-yor.153 Mike Vaccaro, ‘1962 Mets Go Hollywood! Series Would Depict Lovable Losers’, New York Post, May 20, 2023, https://nypost.com/2023/05/20/1962-mets-go-hollywood-series-would-depict-lovable-losers/.154 Once Upon a Time in Queens, directed by Nick Davis, aired September 14, 2021, on ESPN; and Greg W. Prince, foreword to Mount Rushmore of the New York Mets, by Brett Topel (New York: Sports Publishing, 2021).155 Charles Bartlett, ‘Comiskeys Win in Court; Keep White Sox’, Chicago Daily Tribune, March 1, 1940, 29; ‘Effa Manley Private Business Papers’, https://newarkpubliclibrary.libraryhost.com/repositories/3/resources/82; Martin, ‘“Baseball Better Mental Exercise for Women Than Bridge”’; ‘Newark Eagles Papers’, https://archive.org/details/npleagles; and ‘Woman Heads Major League’, Wichita Eagle, November 22, 1916, 7.156 Jean Hastings Ardell, Breaking into Baseball: Women and the National Pastime (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2005), 173, 176.Additional informationFundingThis project was supported in part by a grant from William Paterson University.Notes on contributorsNicholas HirshonNicholas Hirshon is an associate professor in the Communication Department at William Paterson University in New Jersey. He specializes in the history of sports media in New York. https://twitter.com/nickhirshon, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickhirshon/.