The Post’s Steve Serby spent some time with the Mets GM after the Pedro Martinez press conference on Thursday.
Q: How do you deal with the spectre of the Yankees hanging over your head in this town?
A: Look, I’m not a Yankee hater. I think I’m a New Yorker first, and I think it’s great that hopefully you’ve got two good baseball teams in New York, not one.
Q: Can Pedro win 20 games?
A: Yes he could.
Q: Describe an Omar Minaya ballplayer.
A: Willie Mays (laughs).
Q: The qualities?
A: The qualities of an Omar Minaya baseball player is a player who’s athletic but has baseball intelligence.
Q: What has Jackie Robinson meant to you?
A: Jackie impacted our society like probably no other athlete ever has. His work is not done; we are still trying to continue that work now through the front office.
Q: Roberto Clemente?
A: Similar to Jackie. He was a pioneer of identity for a region of the world, which is Latin America.
Q: Describe George W. Bush.
A: George is a good friend. I don’t see him as the president; I can’t call him George, he’s the president, I will never do that. He’s a great guy to talk baseball and argue with.
Q: Describe Bobby Valentine.
A: One of the best baseball minds I’ve ever been around.
Q: What do you want for Christmas?
A: The best thing about Christmas for me is waking up in the morning, having my first cup of coffee, putting in a Nat King Cole CD and reading the paper.
Q: What drives you?
A: Trying to be the best, not for myself, but knowing that if I do good, others will have opportunities behind me.
Q: How did you used to sneak into Shea?
A: (Laughs) I used to sneak into Shea by the right-field corner. We used to put a police barrier, lift it up against the wall, slowly climb up the barrier to the wall, cling on and then push ourselves in.
Q: You and who else?
A: All my buddies. We did it all the time for the fun of it.
Q: Was that for Jet or Met games?
A: That was for both.
Q: And you never got caught?
A: Yeah, we got caught sometimes, but they knew us and they kinda just let us go back.
Q: How old were you?
A: Between 10 to 15, 16 years old.
Q: Did you root for the Mets?
A: I used to root more for the Giants and the Pirates, but I didn’t dislike the Mets.
Q: Why the Giants and Pirates?
A: Because of Clemente and Mays.
Q: Did you root for the Jets?
A: I used to root for the Jets, but I was really a Raider fan growing up. I liked their image.
Q: What kind of a stickball player were you?
A: I thought I was a good stickball player. I loved to play the outfield, and I loved to play fast-pitch stickball. I was a fielder more than I was a pitcher.
Q: Did you use broomsticks?
A: We always had those other sticks.
Q: With the black tape that you bought in the candy store?
A: Exactly, yeah. I was a Pennsy Pinky guy.
Q: Favorite Corona childhood memory?
A: No doubt about it, it had to be playing in P.S. 19 all day long; starting in the morning playing stickball, to the afternoon playing basketball, to playing handball, to playing softball on a concrete field. I lived there most of my time.
Q: Best piece of advice your mother gave you?
A: Never talk bad about nobody.
Q: Best piece of advice your father gave you?
A: Don’t be afraid to fail.
Q: What would people be surprised to learn about you?
A: How much of an influence Europe has on me, from its senses, the food and flavors, to its political thinking.
Q: Your favorite city in Europe?
A: Without a doubt, Florence.
Q: Because?
A: It’s one of the art capitals of the world.
Q: Most embarrassing moment?
A: My pants ripping during prom night at the Copacabana (laughs).
Q: How did that happen?
A: I don’t know, they just ripped (laughs).
Q: In the front or back?
A: In the back.
Q: So how’d you squirm out of that one?
A: I just kept on dancing (laughs).
Q: Hobbies?
A: Drinking good wine.
Q: Favorite wine?
A: French white wine.
Q: When you had lunch in the Dominican with Pedro, he picked up the tab?
A: I offered to pick up the tab, he wouldn’t allow me.
Q: What did you two eat?
A: Different types of appetizers, cheeses and pastas and salamis and those type of things.
Q: One person in history you would like to meet and why?
A: Martin Luther King. Because his words were prophetic and they grow in inspiration.
Q: Two dinner guests?
A: That are alive or dead?
Q: Either.
A: Dr. King; Jackie Robinson.
Q: Three wishes?
A: No more war; no more hunger; no more racism.
Q: If I were president, I would. . .
A: I would pray to God that he would give me the wisdom to judge fairly.
Q: Biggest lesson you learned in Montreal?
A: You have to work with your players and players have to trust you.
Q: If you could pick the brain of one baseball person in history, who would you pick?
A: Branch Rickey.
Q: Because?
A: Because his ideas were outside the box.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “A Bronx Tale.”
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Robert DeNiro.
Q: Favorite actress?
A: Jamie Lee Curtis.
Q: Favorite singer?
A: Bob Dylan.
Q: Favorite book?
A: The Bible.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: My wife’s steamed clams.
Q: What would you want Met fans to say about you?
A: That he cares about winning and that he’s not afraid to fail.