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How a pitcher born in Ireland may be Mets’ next rising star

PORT ST. LUCIE — Erin go bragh.

Following a magnificent minor league season, left-handed pitcher P.J. Conlon, who was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1993, was invited to major league camp by the Mets and will arrive here next weekend.

This will be a spring training of learning, but if Conlon someday achieves his major league dream, he will be accomplishing something historic.

In all, there have been 47 Irish-born major leaguers, according to Baseball-Reference.com, but just one in the modern era, and that was in 1945, when Joe Cleary pitched one-third of an inning for the Washington Senators and gave up seven runs, good for a 189.