When the members of the 1986 Mets reunite before Saturday’s game at Citi Field, Ed Hearn will be with them. The backup catcher to Gary Carter was only a Met for one season, but it was the year they won the World Series. Health problems in retirement caused Hearn to become suicidal, but the former Met bounced back and became an inspirational speaker. “A lot of people say ‘think outside the box’. But I tell people ‘think outside yourself.’ I like to think that I’ve done that. I could’ve crawled in a hole with all the stuff we’ve been through...
Ed Hearn learned how to handle the curves that life throws after his major league career. The reserve catcher on the 1986 world champion Mets encountered multiple health issues that put his life in a downward spiral. It was 1992, five years after the Mets had made him the principal player in a trade to the Royals for Triple-A pitcher David Cone. The Royals had plans to start Hearn, but a shoulder problem discovered in spring training required surgery and essentially scuttled his big-league career. Hearn moved into the financial services industry, working for New York Life in suburban Overland,...
Ed Hearn politely offered a counter to the “Ed Hearn World Series” alternate title for the Mets-Royals showdown. “The Ward World Series,” Hearn said. “My nickname with the Mets.” The second syllable of Edward and a nod to his Ward Cleaver high-moral persona that made the backup catcher the subject of good-natured ribbing in the clubhouse during the Mets’ magical 1986 season is the explanation. Hearn’s spot in Royals history as the primary figure in the trade that brought him to Kansas City for pitcher David Cone — once known as the worst deal in Royals history — gives Hearn...
He first learned of the deal on a Friday night some 20 years ago. Ed Hearn and his wife Tricia were eating dinner in their Clearwater, Fla., apartment when the phone rang. “Ed,” said Joe McIlvaine, the Mets’ assistant general manager, “I have some news for you. You’ve been traded to Kansas City.” At the time, Hearn was New York’s backup catcher — a decent-hit, decent-field career minor leaguer who had ably filled in for Gary Carter on the Mets’ 1986 world championship club. Though hardly one of the boys on the bar-hopping, beer-guzzling, cocaine-snorting Metropolitans, Hearn was respected and...
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