Thursday, November 25, 2010

On the Beat with Pete Flynn (A Lost Interview)

I have written about Pete Flynn a couple times.  We never planned on interviewing Flynn.  Honestly, we never had even heard of Flynn until after we talked to him.  Looking back over all of the interviews we have done, Flynn could possibly have seen and done the most interesting things of all.
Flynn has been a groundskeeper for the New York Mets for over 40 years.  For a long stretch, he was Head Groundskeeper, but since "retiring" he rejoined the crew.
Flynn has seen all of the great players over the years.  He saw the awful Mets of the early 60's, the Amazin' Mets of 1969 and the World Series champs of 1986.  He has seen the Polo Grounds, Shea and the new Citi Field.
His adventures aren't limited to baseball though.  He drove the Beatles from the stage to their lino for their Shea concert.  Years later, he drove Paul McCartney to the stage to surprise Billy Joel at the last concert at Shea (as seen on "The Last Play at Shea").
Flynn is soft-spoken and modest.  He's a fascinating guy, but getting him to talk was a bit tough.  If it hadn't been for a rain delay, we wouldn't have been in the dugout and we wouldn't have smooth-talked the security guard and he wouldn't have called over Flynn to talk to us.
Sometimes you just never know what you will find.  In Flynn, we found a gem!

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