QBC 2023 Gil Hodges Award Announcement

 

Every year at the QBC, the Executive Committee puts their heads together and decide who exudes the qualities of Gil Hodges. They also decide on the person who was exemplary to the community. The Executive Committee thinks long and hard to figure out should be the next recipient. I am here to tall you who that person is.

Joan Whitney Payson

Joan was a sports enthusiast who was a minority shareholder in the New York Giants Major League Baseballclub. She and her husband opposed moving the team to San Francisco in 1957. After the majority of the shareholders approved the move, Mrs. Payson sold her stock and began working to get a replacement team for New York City. They teamed up with M. Donald Grant, who had represented the Paysons on the Giants board and had been the only board member to oppose the Giants' move, to win a New York franchise in the Continental League, a proposed third major league. The National League responded by awarding an expansion team to Payson's group, which became the New York Mets.

Payson served as the team's president from 1962 to 1975. Active in the affairs of the baseball club, she was much admired by the team's personnel and players. She was inducted posthumously into the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 1981. She was also the first woman to buy majority control of a team in a major North American sports league, rather than inheriting it.^[2]

Payson was instrumental in the return of Willie Mays to New York City baseball in May 1972 by way of trade and cash from the Giants.^[3]

From Wikipedia Award.

We are proud to be able present the Gil Hodges Unforgettable Fire Award to a pioneer in Mets Baseball.

For tickets and info go to QueensBaseballConvention.com