Kollector’s Korner Met-o-ra-bil-ia Hall of Fame Inductee #13 : Steve Gruber, The Man Who Won’t Let a Single Met Be Forgotten

If the Kollector’s Korner Hall of Fame handed out scouting reports, this month’s inductee would come with something like this: position, relentless; tools, patience, research, memory, and phone numbers nobody else has; weakness, none detected; ceiling, every Met who ever appeared in a game.

This month’s inductee is not just a collector. He is a tracker, a historian, a networking department, and occasionally a private investigator who just happens to wear Mets blue.

Meet Steve Gruber.

Steve was born on Long Island, went to college in Connecticut, returned to Long Island for his MBA, and then did what many sensible people do after one too many winters: he packed up and moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, where he lived for 19 years. Somewhere along the way, he went from thinking he would be a lawyer in New York City to owning a FedEx trucking business in Phoenix, which is proof that life enjoys rerouting your GPS without notice.

Eventually, Steve and his wife moved back east, choosing a location that put them within two hours of both sets of parents in different states, which is adulthood in its purest form.

Steve’s Mets connection, however, was never complicated.

Growing up, he spent a great deal of time with his grandparents, who lived on the Queens–Long Island border. His grandfather loved the Mets and loved baseball, and more importantly, loved teaching the game. They watched Mets games together throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and his grandfather spent countless hours teaching Steve baseball from Little League through high school. He missed maybe one game Steve ever played, sitting faithfully in his lawn chair at the park, encouraging him and quietly shaping a lifelong bond with the game.

When Steve was nine years old, he opened a monthly issue of Inside Pitch and saw an advertisement for something called Mets Dream Week, now known as Fantasy Camp. He remembers saying out loud, “I am going to do that one day.” Not many kids dream that specifically. Even fewer follow through.

More than 30 years later, Steve and one of his closest friends signed up, an early 40th birthday gift for Steve and a 60th birthday gift for his friend. Steve trained for over a year and finally arrived in January 2020. It was worth every minute of the wait. He played, got hits, and won the championship in his rookie year, living a dream most fans never touch.

Only a few weeks later, the world shut down.

But having just lived a week as a Mets player, laughing, competing, and wearing the uniform, made the shutdown easier to bear. Steve cannot wait to return.

A random but very on-brand detail: every dog Steve has ever owned has had a baseball name. His first was Ty, named for Ty Cobb. His second was a Golden Retriever named Shea. In September 2025, he added another Golden Retriever named Rookie, which feels both accurate and hopeful.

One thing that surprises people about Steve as a Mets collector is that he is not a walking trivia encyclopedia. What he is instead is relentless. He tracks down former Mets players most people assume have disappeared off the baseball map. Former players, obscure players, one-game Mets. If you appeared even for a single at-bat, Steve wants you on the list.

Balancing work, family, and collecting comes down to minutes, not hours. Steve checks collecting updates daily, looks for signings, works contacts, and negotiates deals. Negotiating itself is fun for him. This is how he unwinds.

Outside of collecting, Steve enjoys visiting new ballparks. He has been to 17 of the 30 current Major League stadiums and tries to knock off one or two new parks each season. Last year, he finally made it to Pittsburgh, which he describes as a very cool spot. He is also a season ticket holder for Quinnipiac ice hockey, his alma mater and the 2023 national champions. He and his wife enjoy traveling, trying new recipes, sushi nights, and spending time training Rookie.

Steve’s collecting journey began early. His first piece of Mets memorabilia was a Dwight “Doc” Gooden sticker he received at his first game in 1984, when he was four years old. Years later, he had Gooden sign it, because sometimes patience really does pay off.

The emotional heart of Steve’s collection is the ticket stub from that very first game at Shea Stadium. Thanks to the internet, Steve later learned the pitching matchup that day was Dwight Gooden versus Nolan Ryan. He attended the game with his mom, sitting in field-level orange seats, numbers 5 and 6.

He eventually had both Gooden and Ryan sign the ticket stub.

And when Shea Stadium was being torn down, Steve purchased actual field-level orange seats, making sure they were seats 5 and 6.

That is not collecting. That is destiny management.

Steve’s collection continues to grow every season because every season brings new Mets. His goal is simple and slightly insane: to own something signed by every single player who has ever appeared in a Mets game. He is currently complete from 1962 through 2018 and is missing only four players from the 2019 roster.

He is also chasing one of the great white whales of memorabilia: a signed 1986 Topps Luis Sanchez card. The 1986 Topps set was the first set Steve ever collected. It contains 792 cards. He has 791 signed. Sanchez passed away in 2005, making the final card heartbreakingly elusive. Completing it would mark the third fully signed set Steve has assembled.

Favorite pieces? There are many.

Steve owns a binder filled with signed cards from as many all-time Mets as possible. He has nearly completed the 1991 black-and-white WIZ card set featuring players from 1962 through 1991, collecting 384 signed cards out of 439 possible. Several players passed away before the set was released, making those signatures impossible. He currently sits at an impressive 87.5 percent completion.

His collection also includes multiple game-used David Wright bats, including one from Wright’s rookie season, along with one of Wright’s game-used batting gloves from the Futures Game, a piece Steve believes may be one of a kind. He owns multiple Casey Stengel signed items and two from Gil Hodges, including one on a team-signed ball.

Some of the most meaningful moments are deeply personal. Steve chatted with Brian Cole outside the minor league clubhouse in Port St. Lucie and received signed items. Less than a week later, Cole tragically passed away in a car accident, a sobering reminder of how fragile these connections can be.

Steve has met countless players through signings, Spring Training, and Fantasy Camp. Many have become people he now texts, calls, or meets for lunch. Some former players genuinely enjoy seeing photos or memorabilia from their careers that they themselves no longer have. Showing one former Met his own game-used bat and uniform was especially satisfying, as the player did not even own one himself.

Tracking players has become its own reward. It took Steve three years to locate former infielder Brian Giles, who was driving a truck on the West Coast. They became friends, and Giles even threw batting practice to help Steve prepare for Fantasy Camp. Bruce Boisclair was tracked down in a small Arizona town using only a flip phone and no computer. Al Schmelz, who pitched in just two games for the Mets in 1967, was thrilled simply to be remembered.

Not every encounter is positive. Bob Rauch wants nothing to do with baseball or collecting. That happens. But the positive encounters far outweigh the negative, and often the stories are better than the memorabilia itself.

Steve is deeply connected to the collector community. Friendly texts arrive daily asking questions, checking authenticity, or offering help. Deals are built on trust, bills settled later, and favors returned when possible. Integrity matters.

What can people learn from Steve’s collecting journey? Research, reading, and learning. He started before email, before online groups, before instant opinions. He absorbed Beckett, Sports Collectors Digest, Autograph Collector, and anything else he could find. Knowledge protects you. Stickers do not. Even authentication companies make mistakes.

Steve’s personal hero is his grandfather, a World War II Army veteran who never spoke about the war but spent every day with his wife in a nursing home until his sudden passing. Humble, quiet, patient, and endlessly present, he shaped the man Steve became.

Is memorabilia an investment? For Steve, it is both. It has financial value, but the stories matter more. Steve has collected autographs from Mets players, the New York Islanders, U.S. presidents, world leaders, and even Apollo astronauts. Every item comes with a story, and the stories are the point.

The memorabilia market has changed. eBay has helped research, while COVID drove prices and volume higher than ever. Players now receive stacks of mail, often without a thank you. Courtesy has slipped. A small gesture and genuine appreciation go a long way.

Steve’s collection has been displayed publicly. His 1986 Mets collection was featured at a local library in 1987, when he was in second grade. The local newspaper interviewed him and ran his photo. Not a bad early career highlight.

Steve Gruber represents everything the Kollector’s Korner Met-o-ra-bil-ia Hall of Fame stands for: obsessive curiosity, collecting with integrity, and a deep respect for every player who ever wore the uniform, even if only once.

Because every Met matters.

And Steve Gruber makes sure none of them are forgotten.