Guy Conti

Guy Clyde Conti was born on 9 March 1942 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Freeport and the Tarentum area of western Pennsylvania. At Freeport High School he played multiple sports and was a teammate of Gene Sobolewski, later a Clarion Hall of Fame football coach.

He chose Clarion State College because friends were going and because he wanted to play both football and baseball. Clarion coaches already knew him from high school. As a freshman he saw varsity football after an injury forced him into the lineup, but baseball under Ernie "Turk" Johnson was his stronger path. After that freshman season, four or five professional clubs showed interest, and Houston's offer won out.

Conti attended Freeport High School and Clarion State College (now Clarion University of Pennsylvania). He signed with Houston after his freshman year, then returned after a shoulder injury ended his playing career and completed his degree in 1965.

While finishing school he was ineligible for varsity sports because of the professional contract, so he worked as a student coach in baseball and football. Clarion coaches Turk Johnson, Al Jacks, and Frank Lignelli kept him involved and later wrote recommendation letters that helped him land teaching and coaching jobs.

Conti's only professional playing season was 1961 with the Salisbury Braves in the Houston Colt .45s organization. A shoulder injury ended that chapter. He taught and coached baseball and football at Albion (Northwestern) High School near Erie, then built a three-sport coaching résumé at Edinboro State College. As head men's basketball coach he compiled a 140-98 record over nine seasons, won two PSAC West titles, reached NCAA Division II play, and entered Edinboro's Hall of Fame in 1997.

From 1983 to 1986 he worked summers for the Pittsburgh Pirates as a scout and part-time coach. He joined the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1986 as a roving minor-league pitching coach and later coached at Great Falls, Bakersfield, Vero Beach, and San Antonio before serving as minor-league pitching coordinator in 1998. In that system he scouted and developed Pedro Martínez, refining Martínez's changeup and supporting his English learning.

Conti moved to the Mets in 1999 (Kingsport manager), coached Binghamton in 2000, coordinated Mets minor-league instruction from 2001 to 2004, and was major-league bullpen coach under Willie Randolph from 2005 to 2008. He later worked as pitching rehabilitation coordinator and special adviser. One career highlight he loved to recount was filling in as Mets first-base coach at Yankee Stadium on national television opposite Randy Johnson.

Conti was married to Janet (also referred to as Jan), a high-school librarian. When young Dominican pitchers needed English, Conti sent Pedro Martínez to Janet. Martínez would take a word in the morning and by late afternoon could spell, use, and write it, then ask for another. Conti later said he gave Martínez's gift of a Denali SUV to Janet in appreciation of her support through his coaching career.

In interviews Conti mentioned having children when he returned to college after his playing days; their names were not made public in the major obituaries. In 2008, after Willie Randolph was dismissed, Conti asked Mets general manager Omar Minaya to reassign him from the major-league bullpen to pitching rehabilitation work so he could help care for his mother, who lived in Florida.

Conti remained close to Martínez and to Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax. His friendship with Koufax helped bring the left-hander to Mets spring training on several occasions.

Conti valued work ethic and intelligence in players as much as raw stuff. He ranked Pedro Martínez with Kirk Gibson and Orel Hershiser among the hardest workers he had seen. He believed young Latin American players who learned English early had a clearer path, and he practiced that belief by connecting Martínez with Janet's daily vocabulary lessons.

As a coach he stressed fundamentals and storytelling. Colleagues remembered him as first into camp and last to leave. He never claimed sole credit for Martínez's changeup, saying Martínez perfected and commanded the pitch on both sides of the plate.

Conti's public legacy is inseparable from Pedro Martínez's Hall of Fame career: the Dominican scouting trip, the Great Falls mentoring, the circle changeup, and the lifelong "white daddy" bond. He also left a deep mark at Edinboro as a three-sport coach and Hall of Famer, and in Mets history as Randolph's bullpen coach and a spring-training fixture tied to Sandy Koufax's visits.

Jay Horwitz's farewell called him a man whose knowledge reached people for decades and who told more stories than anyone. Mark Rosenman and Mets-centered media marked his death with tributes that returned to Conti's own voice. For generations of minor leaguers and fantasy-camp players, he was the coach who stayed late and made the game feel personal.

• Edinboro Athletics Hall of Fame, Class of 1997
• Edinboro Coach of the Year, 1982
• Erie Sports Hall of Fame, Class of 2005 (baseball, basketball, football)
• Two PSAC West basketball titles as Edinboro head coach (1975-76, 1981-82)
• NCAA Division II tournament appearance with Edinboro (1981-82)

Conti was profiled repeatedly around Pedro Martínez's Hall of Fame election in 2015 by the New York Post, NJ.com, and the Boston Herald. Clarion Athletics published a long alumni feature in 2009 recalling his Yankee Stadium first-base assignment and Clarion roots. He appeared in radio and video interviews, including a TC Palm conversation about Martínez and a WLIE SportstalkNY appearance with Mark Rosenman, and he worked Mets fantasy camps where campers filmed him on the field.

After his death in October 2026, Yahoo Sports, the New York Post, and Mets voices including Jay Horwitz circulated tributes that leaned on those same stories.

Guy Conti died on Tuesday, 13 October 2026, at the age of 84 after a lengthy illness. Early reports did not make the specific medical cause or the place of death public.

The day before the announcement, Jay Horwitz had asked for prayers as Conti faced health issues. On 13 October Horwitz wrote on X that Conti, the Mets' former bullpen coach and special adviser, had passed away, noting Conti's friendship with Sandy Koufax and the love of Pedro Martínez. "No one had more stories than Guy. His knowledge reached people for decades. Miss you my friend."