Mets' Jay Horwitz and Blue Jays' Spencer Horwitz: Mutual admiration, but no relation
Spencer Horwitz of the Toronto Blue Jays celebrates after hitting a double against the New York Mets at Rogers Centre on Monday. Credit: Getty Images/Vaughn Ridley
TORONTO — Spencer Horwitz is a standout rookie for the Blue Jays, emerging as one of their better hitters while seeing time at first base, designated hitter and second base, finding particular success mashing against righthanded pitchers.
Jay Horwitz is the Mets’ historian and vice president of alumni public relations, a late-career role after he spent decades as the team’s PR head, becoming an organizational icon along the way.
And despite a running social media gag from the latter, no, they are not related.
Turns out, you can’t believe everything you read on the internet (but you can believe this article).
“I say he’s not my actual grandpa, but I refer to him as Grandpa Jay,” Spencer said. “He’s awesome.”
Jay said: “I like to tweet stuff that doesn’t hurt anybody but could it be true? Could it not be true? Spencer has a great sense of humor.”
The Horwitzes met during the 2023 World Baseball Classic, when Spencer played for Israel and Jay was the PR guy.
Jay, who does have a general grandfatherly vibe, approached Spencer in the clubhouse before an exhibition game with an important question. A Horwitz almost never stumbles upon another in baseball.
“In my warped sense of humor, I said, do you want to have some fun?” Jay said.
Spencer said: “He’s like, are we related? I was like, I don’t think so. He’s like, do you want to be my grandson? I said, sure! You’re my grandpa. Then he tweeted it out after we beat Nicaragua and that’s when it took off. He’s been great about it.”
During the WBC, Jay tweeted that he was “proud of my grandson Spencer Horwitz” after he got a big hit, noting that they are among the few who spell their name with just one ‘o’ and not two (Horowitz).
When Spencer made it to the majors in June 2023, Jay tweeted a photo of them with the caption sending “congrats to my grandson Spencer Horwitz.” When he made it back to the majors this June, Jay wrote again: “You can’t keep a good Horwitz down. My grandson Spencer Horwitz made it back to the bigs with the Blue Jays last night. He is the only Horwitz ever to play in the majors. Go get 'em Spence.”
Along the way, people — fans, media, industry folks — absolutely believed him. Their connection made it onto Spencer’s Wikipedia page (since corrected). The Jewish Baseball Museum included it in Spencer’s bio (also since removed). As recently as Monday, as the Blue Jays prepared to host the Mets, Spencer said several people sincerely asked him if he was excited to see his grandfather.
Periodically, Jay said, he checks with Spencer to make sure he’s not offending his actual family or anything. But everybody seems to get a kick out of it. They text now and then and Jay likes to follow Spencer’s progress in the box scores, correctly rattling off his homer (12) and RBI (34) totals off the top of his head.
“Knowing Jay a little bit now — I’ve heard stories from [former Mets infielder] Justin Turner and other guys who have been with him — he’s beloved in baseball,” Spencer said. “It’s right up his alley, this kind of thing.
“You don’t see a lot of Horwitzes, you don’t see many of the last names that were on that team [Israel] in baseball at all. So it’s all good, it’s all fun.”
Blackburn update
Paul Blackburn (back discomfort) wasn’t feeling much better, so he won’t pitch against the Phillies this weekend, manager Carlos Mendoza said.
Tylor Megill, who tossed six one-hit innings against Toronto on Monday, will get at least one more start. He’s in line for Sunday against the Phillies but Mendoza noted that he could get flipped to Monday against the Nationals, a lesser opponent.
“Megill will get another opportunity for sure after what we saw last night,” Mendoza said.
Extra bases
Mendoza stacked the Mets’ outfield alignment with lefthanded hitters — from left: Jesse Winker, Brandon Nimmo, DJ Stewart — to gain a platoon advantage against righthander Chris Bassitt . . . ESPN picked up Phillies-Mets on Sept. 22 — the last Citi Field game of the regular season — as a “Sunday Night Baseball” exclusive.
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
