Guy Conti, former Mets bullpen coach, dies at 84

Longtime Mets PR man Jay Horwitz broke the news. Joel Sherman of the Post put Conti's reputation in a single line that nobody who knew him would argue with.

Joel Sherman

@Joelsherman1

There are so many positives to say about Guy, but one thing stands out -- he flat out was the nicest person in uniform that I ever covered. Warm. Earnest. Generous. #RIP

Jay Horwitz@Jay_HorwitzPR

We lost a good one today. Guy Conti our former bullpen coach and special adviser passed away after a lengthy illness. Guy was a friend of Sandy Koufax and beloved by Pedro Martínez. No one had more stories than Guy. His knowledge reached people for decades. Miss you my friend. t.co/4Sji32jogi

Coming from a guy who has covered New York baseball for decades, that is about as high as praise gets. Sherman has been around a lot of clubhouses and a lot of uniforms. Nicest one he ever covered is a real title, not a throwaway.

Mets fans know Conti best from the bullpen. He joined the staff when Willie Randolph took over and ran the pen from 2005 through 2008, which covers the 2006 team, the best Mets season of the last 20 years. After that he stayed in the organization in a bunch of roles, including pitching rehabilitation coordinator and special adviser. His time with the club actually started back in 1999 as a minor-league manager and field coordinator, so this was a lifer in orange and blue.

Before Queens, Conti was a Dodgers guy. He signed on with Los Angeles in 1986 and worked as a roving pitching coach and minor league pitching coordinator. That's where he got close with Sandy Koufax, and it's also where he crossed paths with a skinny kid from the Dominican Republic named Pedro Martínez.

Conti helped Pedro sharpen the changeup that ended up being one of the nastiest pitches of its era, and he pushed him to learn English. Pedro never forgot it. He called Conti his "white daddy," which tells you everything about the kind of bond the guy built with young players.

Baseball was only part of it. Conti grew up in Freeport, Pennsylvania, went to Clarion State, and coached high school baseball and football before landing at Edinboro State. He was Edinboro's head basketball coach for 9 years and went 140-98, then went into the school's Hall of Fame in 1997. He also put in time with the Pirates as a part-time coach and scout in the 1980s.

Most coaches leave behind a record. Conti leaves behind a Hall of Famer who calls him family, a friendship with Koufax, and a beat writer saying he was the nicest person in uniform he ever covered. That's a hell of a way to be remembered. RIP Guy.