Sofia (4) | (49.06)

[mragland]

2.23.2049 – Brooklyn, New York


“The baseball team? No, I don't think he would have understood it. Tom didn't care for baseball or spectator sports in general. When we met, Steve Cohen was still in the throes of his first couple of seasons as Mets owner. Tom was mystified by it. He felt owning a sports team was a pointless distraction. Would he have approved of my purchasing the Stars? I doubt it. But then, there was a lot I did after he passed that he wouldn't have understood or approved of.

“Yes, AD had a box at New Ebbets, but this was another thing Tom just did because it was expected of him. I was the one who took the kids to games and entertained clients there.

“On the one hand it was amusing, on the other I could never shake the feeling that Cohen belonged in jail. He provided a good blueprint for how not to conduct myself as a team owner.

“We're going a little far afield here, but I would describe my level of involvement as fairly typical. I don't meddle, but my hands aren't exactly off the tiller, either. I stay the hell off of social media, which I pretty much did anyway.

“I always enjoyed baseball. We, that is, my father, my brothers, and me, we were pretty omnivorous when it came to baseball consumption. The Bombers and Bulls of course were long gone by the time I came around, but we still had the Mets and Yankees. I was in college when the BBA finally came back to New York. I caught my share of Robins games when I came home for the summer.

“Oh, no. They stunk on ice, as my dad would say, but Brooklyn had a team again. They were garbage, but they were our garbage.

“Three older brothers. We were all two years apart, so Michael is 58, Anthony is 56, and Vincent is 54. All January babies.

“James Corretti. He was born in '66, so he'll turn 83 in June. He owned Corretti Upholstery in Brooklyn, which he inherited from his father. Tony runs it now.

“Lydia. He maiden name was Filipiak. She passed away a year after Tom did, actually, 2045. She taught physics at Brooklyn Tech until 2033-34, I think, was her last year there.

“Mike had no interest. He went into the navy. Vince went into academia. Dad didn't pressure any of us to go into the upholstery business. He wanted us to go to college and figure out what we wanted later, but Tony liked working with his hands, liked the idea of taking something old and worn out and making it good and useful again. He started at the shop the Monday after graduation.

“He did. He met my mom when they were both going to Hunter. She was a junior and he was a freshman. He graduated with a English degree, but I think he always intended to go back into the family business.”