Lorinda de Roulet, a trailblazer in baseball and former president of the Mets, has passed away at 95.

Lorinda de Roulette, Trailblazer in Major League Baseball, Passes Away

Lorinda de Roulette, who made history as the first woman to manage the day-to-day operations of a major league baseball team when she served as the Mets’ board chair in the 1970s, has passed away at the age of 95, as noted by club historian Jay Horwitz.

De Roulette took over the daily operations of the Mets in November 1978, following Donald Grant. However, her stint lasted just a single season before the team’s ownership changed hands.

Her connection to the Mets began back in 1975 when she assumed the role of team president after the passing of her mother, Joan Whitney Payson, who was the franchise’s original owner.

Payson was a pioneer in her own right, becoming the first woman to buy majority control of a North American sports team, holding the position of president since the Mets’ inception in 1962.

Reflecting on her unexpected role, de Roulette said in a 1978 interview with The New York Times, “I never thought I’d be running a team. My mother probably thought she would continue to run the business, and my husband was also interested.”

Payson played a key role in bringing Willie Mays back to New York in 1972, a move that marked the conclusion of Mays’ illustrious career. She stipulated that the Mets retire Mays’ No. 24 jersey as part of the trade agreement, a promise that was finally fulfilled in 2022 under the ownership of Steve Cohen.

De Roulette stepped into the Mets’ leadership at a challenging time after Grant, a prominent figure in the previous year’s trade for Tom Seaver, was pressured to resign after 17 years as chairman. When she took over, the team was struggling without any standout players. Managed by Joe Torre, the Mets experienced a tough 1979 season, finishing in sixth place in the National League East after losing 99 games for the third year in a row.

“Money was tight, but she did everything she could,” said de Roulette’s daughter, Whitney Bullock, on Friday.

Her tenure ended before the 1980 season when the team was sold to Doubleday & Company. After the sale, minority stakeholder Fred Wilpon took over the daily operations.

Despite the changes, de Roulette remained a devoted supporter of the Mets, maintaining her season tickets and watching games at Citi Field from the very beginning. According to her son Brock, she expressed a wish earlier this year, telling him that if the Mets reached the World Series, he should definitely go to the game.