Kollector’s Korner Met-o-ra-bil-ia Hall of Fame Inductee #14 : From the Grand Concourse to the Amazin’s: Paul Friedlander’s Lifetime of Mets Memories

If you spend enough time around collectors, you start to notice that the best collections rarely begin with money. They begin with moments. A handshake. A story. A childhood connection that somehow follows you for the rest of your life.

This month’s Kollector’s Korner Met-o-ra-bil-ia Hall of Fame inductee has built a lifetime of those moments, often without even chasing them.

Meet Paul Friedlander.

Paul is 71 years old and has spent more than 45 years working as a tax accountant, which means he has lived through enough April 15ths to qualify for hazard pay. Despite a career that keeps him busy during the most stressful months of the year, Paul has somehow managed to build not just a memorable Mets collection, but also a very full life.

He is remarried, part of a blended family with five children and six grandchildren, and proudly notes that the next generation is doing pretty well for itself. Two of his children became accountants, two became teachers, and one is a doctor of physical therapy. His wife is a retired teacher, and Paul himself has absolutely no plans of slowing down.

Retirement is not on the radar.

In fact, when Paul is not working or spending time with family, he is usually moving. He still plays baseball, along with pickleball and golf, and even water skis. According to his family, the clearest place his mind ever gets is on a baseball field.

Paul’s Mets story begins with family as well.

He grew up in the Bronx, living on 156th Street and the Grand Concourse, just three blocks from Yankee Stadium. Naturally, that made him a Yankees fan as a kid. Geography will do that to you.

But family history intervened.

According to Paul’s mother and grandmother, former Mets outfielder Art Shamsky was a distant cousin. When Shamsky was traded to the Mets, Paul’s baseball loyalties changed immediately. The connection became even more real in 1969 when Paul and his mother attended a Mets meet-the-players day. When his mother explained the family connection, Shamsky invited them to ride the elevator down to the field with him.

For a young fan, that moment was more than enough to seal a lifetime of orange and blue loyalty.

From that point forward, Paul was a Mets fan for life.

Unlike many collectors, Paul does not chase memorabilia aggressively. His philosophy is almost the opposite. He lets collecting come to him. If an opportunity presents itself for an autograph or an interesting piece of history, he takes it. Otherwise, he focuses on work, family, and living life.

That philosophy has worked out pretty well.

Paul’s more serious collecting began in 1992 when he attended his first Mets Fantasy Camp, then called Ulti-Met Week, run by Steve Zabriskie and Mets legend Bud Harrelson. Around that same time he also helped a friend with the 25th anniversary celebration of the 1969 Mets.

One of the first cornerstone pieces of his collection was a *Sports Illustrated* cover signed by Tom Seaver, a fitting start considering the era that first captured his imagination.

But Paul’s autograph adventures began even earlier than that.

His family owned a hardware store on Manhattan’s West Side, and it turned out to be the kind of neighborhood place where famous faces occasionally wandered through the door. Over the years Paul collected signatures and photos from a variety of well-known visitors. Among them were legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman, Oakland Raiders defensive star Ben Davidson, and actor Jerry Orbach, who lived nearby and became a family friend.

Those experiences helped shape the way Paul approaches collecting today.

For him, the value of a piece is never about money. It is about how he got it and the people he met along the way. Friendships and stories matter more than auction prices.

That philosophy carries through his Mets collection as well. His emotional connection to the team always goes back to the 1969 Mets, the team he grew up with and the one tied to his family connection with Shamsky.

If there is one autograph Paul still dreams about adding, it belongs to the manager who made that 1969 season possible. Paul would love to have a Mets autograph from Gil Hodges, a piece of history that has somehow eluded him all these years.

Like many collectors, Paul has accumulated a number of great stories along the way.

One of his favorites involves Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra. Paul met Berra at a B.A.T. charity golf outing through former Mets coach Joe Pignatano. After helping Pignatano during the outing, Paul spotted Berra in the locker room and asked if he would sign a few items.

Berra politely declined to sign a bat because he had a contract with a bat company, but agreed to sign several magazines if Paul promised not to resell them. Paul explained that one was for himself and the others would be Christmas gifts. Berra smiled and happily signed them.

Paul still remembers how gracious he was.

One of the most unique pieces in Paul’s collection actually connects two New York baseball worlds.

His family’s hardware store once operated next to the famous restaurant owned by Toots Shor, a legendary gathering place for Yankees players in the 1950s. After Don Larsen threw his perfect game in the 1956 World Series, Shor commissioned commemorative plates to celebrate the moment.

Paul’s family received several of those plates, and Paul later had many of the players from that game sign them, including Larsen and Berra. One of those plates was even displayed in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, making Paul’s version a close cousin to a museum piece.

Through Mets Fantasy Camp Paul also developed a friendship with former player and manager Clint Hurdle. After playing on Hurdle’s team several times in the 1990s, the two stayed in touch. Paul once sent Hurdle a *Sports Illustrated* cover featuring him. Hurdle signed it and mailed it back along with a few of his favorite cigars.

Later, when Hurdle’s Colorado Rockies visited New York, Paul brought his kids to meet him.

Moments like that are the real treasures.

When Paul reflects on collecting, his advice is simple. Be respectful. If you ask someone for an autograph, respect their personal space. And if they decline, do not take it personally. These are people doing their jobs and living their lives.

Let the collection come to you.

Paul also believes that the memorabilia world has changed. In earlier years, collecting felt more personal. Today it is often more business-driven, which can make players wary about signing items they believe will be sold immediately.

Still, great moments happen when people show courtesy. Paul remembers being in Hawaii at a restaurant when Magic Johnson walked in. A young fan approached him for an autograph. Johnson politely asked him to come back after he had settled in. When Johnson noticed the boy’s family preparing to leave, he called the child over, signed a napkin for him, and posed for a photo.

That, Paul says, is how collecting should work.

Respect first. Memories second.

When asked who his personal heroes are, Paul does not hesitate. His parents and grandparents, the people who shaped the person he became.

If he had to describe himself in three words, Paul chooses grounded and level-headed. He believes life has a way of working itself out if you stay balanced and avoid emotional decisions.

His children might one day view his collection as an investment. Paul does not.

For him it is simply a lifetime of stories.

Interestingly, Paul is not the first member of the Friedlander family to earn recognition in a rather unique Hall of Fame. His aunt, Barbara Friedlander, carved out her own place in pop culture history decades earlier in the world of comic books.

Friedlander was one of the creators and writers behind the DC Comics series Swing with Scooter, published by DC Comics for 36 issues from July 1966 through November 1972. The series was designed to tap into the youth culture of the era, borrowing inspiration from the explosion of British music acts such as The Beatles while also appealing to the teen humor audience that had made Archie Comics so popular. Scooter was created by Friedlander along with writer Jack Miller and artist Joe Orlando, and the comic became a colorful snapshot of the swinging 1960s music scene.

Last year, Barbara Friedlander’s contributions to the comic book world were recognized when she was inducted into the Comic Book Writers Hall of Fame. Apparently, Hall of Fame recognition is something that runs in the Friedlander family.

If you enjoy stories like this one and want more looks back at Mets history, unique personalities, and the forgotten characters who helped shape the game, come hang with us on the Korner. Join the conversation and thousands of fellow Mets fans in the Kiner’s Korner Facebook group. The discussion is always better when more fans are part of it.