West Palm Beach — Shannon Forde passed away 10 years ago this month after a three-and-a-half-year battle with Breast Cancer. Although she is gone, her impact continues to resonate throughout New York Mets fans and the wider baseball community.
Forde spent 22 years with the organization, rising from an intern to senior director of public relations. Her dedication to the team was honored at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night when St. John’s University, her alma mater, presented her family with a basketball jersey during its game against Georgetown University. Former Mets reliever John Franco, also an SJU graduate, attended the event and presented the jersey to Forde’s family, including her mother, Debbe Dalton.
“It’s very wonderful of them to do,” Dalton said of the university’s gesture. “She loved going there. She always had some kind of connection with the university. … She was an overachiever.”
Forde’s ties to baseball will always be closely associated with the Mets. According to her former boss, Jay Horwitz — the team’s current historian and vice president of alumni relations — her dedication and work ethic were unmatched. Even while battling cancer in her final years, Forde remained committed to the job and the team she loved. ⚾
“People talked about how she worked four years with cancer, but she also raised two kids, commuting back and forth from New Jersey by car, working long hours and doing a tough job [in media relations],” Horwitz said. “She was basically the editor of the team’s yearbook and the press guide. She was great at her job.”
Horwitz noted that Forde was a pioneer in her field. When she began working in baseball in 1994, very few women were involved in media relations. Over time, however, she established herself as a true professional. She developed strong working relationships with Mets players like Franco, Mike Piazza, and David Wright.
Wright explained that Forde naturally connected with him because she genuinely cared about helping him become the best player he could be. She did this by making him feel comfortable both in the clubhouse and when dealing with the media. He recalled that she understood he needed guidance in organizing his daily routine.
Their relationship eventually grew beyond just professional interactions. Wright said she would send him suggestions about where to live and dine, and after difficult games, she often texted encouraging messages like, “Keep your head up. Get them tomorrow.” He remembered many moments during his time in New York when Forde supported him, saying she was incredibly helpful from the very beginning.
According to Horwitz, Forde was also not afraid to hold players accountable when they failed to meet their media responsibilities. In one instance during the 1990s, former Mets catcher Todd Hundley was scheduled for a live interview with New York sportscaster Scott Clark but didn’t show up. Forde went to the locker room and found him playing cards with teammates. She stopped the game and pulled him out to the field to complete the interview.
“Shannon wasn’t afraid,” Horwitz said. “In public relations, you have to manage relationships with owners, the media, players, and the front office. She handled all of them well and got along with everyone.”
While she took her job seriously, Forde was known to have a great sense of humor. Wright saw her at her best when he arrived early to the ballpark.
“Some of my best memories that I have of Shannon is that we would be cracking jokes for 20 or 30 minutes before everyone [arrived] in the locker room,” he remembered. “She was incredibly funny and witty. You have been in a locker room where locker-room talk is not for the faint of heart, and she could keep up with all of us. She could take it but give it back.
It’s been a decade since Forde passed away, but Mets broadcaster Ron Darling will never forget the energy she brought to the Mets.
“As I get older, my life is going really fast right now. I know intellectually, it’s been 10 years, but, emotionally, it seems like 10 days,” he said. “It’s always a sad thing when special people are taken away from you prematurely, but her legacy lives on in so many different ways, whether it’s St. John’s or the ball field at Citi Field.”
