Welcome to UnforMETable, an Amazin’ Avenue Audio show that looks back on less heralded, more obscure Mets players from the past.
Although Joan Whitney Payson was certainly not obscure in her day—whether as a socialite from a prominent New York family, or in her endeavors in the worlds of art, horse racing, and philanthropy.
But Payson’s other love was baseball—she owned a small stake in the New York Giants, and fought to keep them in New York when the team moved to San Francisco. Which made her a natural fit as an owner to help spearhead a drive to bring a new baseball team to New York—first in a proposed new league, but ultimately as a New York entrant in the National League that would soon be christened the Metropolitans.