Bill Shea, ‘Father of Mets,’ Is Honored at Funeral Mass

Faces from the intertwined worlds of big-time sports, big-time law and big-time politics filled the pews of St. Ignatius Loyola Church on Wednesday to recall Bill Shea, the lawyer-power broker who brought the Mets to New York and gave his name to Shea Stadium.

“To those of us who are congenital New Yorkers,” Auxiliary Bishop William McCormack said at the funeral Mass, “he will always be known as the father of the Mets. He was a truly great New Yorker.”

Shea, who died Oct. 2 at the age of 84, pulled off a classic maneuver after the Dodgers and Giants abandoned the city in 1957 and Mayor Robert F. Wagner assigned him to bring back National League baseball.

Failing to lure an existing National League team, he formed a new league.

Maybe it was a bluff. Maybe it would imperil the existing leagues. Whatever it was, baseball owners were alarmed by it and, in 1960, they called him to a meeting and agreed to absorb four of the new league’s teams.

In 1964, the Mets moved into their stadium in Queens and Wagner picked the name. Without Shea, he said, “it would probably still be a parking lot.”

Mets’ managers were among Wednesday’s mourners. There were lawyers from Shea & Gould, the legal and lobbying firm headed by Shea and Milton Gould. Mayor David N. Dinkins led the official contingent, which included state Attorney General Robert Abrams and former state Democratic Chairman Patrick Cunningham.

More than 1,000 strong, they were an old-time New York crowd.