Last April, the Mets announced NewYork-Presbyterian as their first-ever jersey patch partner. The press release noted that the partnership “will bring together two iconic brands that share a commitment to improving the health of all New Yorkers.”
What many might not know is that another iconic New York organization sits between them through a strange connection that dates back to the 1970s, but has had a lasting impact on the city.
In 1974, an electrician named Joseph McFadden was working his job as a scoreboard operator for the Mets at Shea Stadium. An accident led him to fall 20 feet from the scoreboard perch and fracture his leg. McFadden would lay there “suffering and screaming” for 15 minutes before Mets pitcher Tug McGraw found him. Afterward, it took two hours to rig up a pulley to get him out from under the perch.
McFadden sued the Mets and Rheingold Beer (the donors of the scoreboard) for $2 million.
The name McFadden is familiar to many Mets fans. For years, McFadden’s Saloon, located on the corner of 42nd St and 2nd Ave, served as a headquarters for Mets fans gathering to watch their favorite team. The bar became so popular that a location was opened at Citi Field for fans to gather before and after games. Both locations have since closed.
The McFadden’s and Mets connection is no coincidence. With the settlement from his lawsuit against the Mets, Joey McFadden (along with his brother) opened up McFadden’s Saloon. In addition to McFadden’s, Joey also used the funds to open another Irish saloon: Coogan’s.
Located in Washington Heights, Joey and his business partners opened Coogan’s in 1985 under the influence of key stakeholders at NewYork-Presbyterian (then known as Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center). The hospital owned the property and encouraged the group to open a bar and restaurant there to provide a safe place for hospital workers to hang out. The hospital offered to charge no rent until the place was up and running to incentivize them to take this on.
Long before Coogan’s, Washington Heights became an important area in the history of New York baseball. The neighborhood was once home to two major ballparks: Hilltop Park (home of the New York Highlanders, who became the New York Yankees) and the Polo Grounds, where the New York Giants and the New York Metropolitans played until 1889. The Polo Grounds was uniquely built in the bottomland under a bluff that provided an excellent view of the field from above. The name of that bluff: Coogan’s Bluff.
At the time Coogan’s opened, the Washington Heights neighborhood was deemed unsafe by many due to violent crime and drug use in the area. After a long history of Irish, German, and Jewish influence, the neighborhood (along with many others in New York City) was going through a transformational period that saw a lot of low-income immigrants enter new neighborhoods. Washington Heights specifically saw a huge influx of Dominican migrants coming to New York City for work and a better life. Coogan’s, centrally located on Broadway between some of the “dividing lines” of the neighborhood, served as both a safe escape from the streets and a community center that bridged the gap between the diverse groups of people in the area.
What first started as a convenient place for hospital workers and police officers to grab a meal quickly became a pillar of the community. Coogan’s was influential in shaping the culture and politics of the neighborhood. The bar hosted daily gatherings for city politicians, helped revive the beloved Armory Track & Field arena, provided support for the community during the Riots of 1992, and put on various local events including the Coogan’s Salsa, Blues, and Shamrocks 5K, which Outside Magazine dubbed as “The Race That Tried to Heal a New York Neighborhood.”
Specifically, Coogan’s helped organize a Little League Baseball group in the neighborhood. Named after fallen NYPD Officer Michael Buczek, the league aimed to mend the relationship between police officers and local Dominican citizens. Since 1989, the Michael J. Buczek Little League has been a staple of the community, helping cultivate a healthy relationship between law enforcement and the people they serve.
Although Joey McFadden and his original business partners quickly sold their share in the business (Joey before the bar even opened), Coogan’s continued to thrive under managers Dave Hunt and Peter Walsh. “They are community activists who happen to be bartenders,” a Coogan’s regular told a reporter from the Baltimore Sun in 1998.
NewYork-Presbyterian remained the landlord for the establishment, which nearly ended in 2018 when the hospital raised the rent to a price the bar could not meet. As a result of the gentrification of the area, the once undesirable property had new value in the real estate market. But after near closure, the community rallied around Coogan’s and pressured the hospital to lower its rent to an agreeable price.
Sadly, 2020 marked the end of Coogan’s as the COVID-19 pandemic caused nationwide closures that the large-staffed bar could not sustain. The pandemic brought on challenges that they were not prepared or equipped to adjust to and Coogan’s shut its doors for good in April 2020.
The recently published book “Last Call at Coogan’s: The Life and Death of a Neighborhood Bar” by Jon Michaud takes readers through the entire history of the bar and its vast influence on Washington Heights.
Though the beloved establishment is gone, it’s clear the impact it made during its 25-year history helped shape the neighborhood it served and will continue to make its mark.
Ironically, a semblance of that mark lives today on the sleeves of the New York Mets jerseys in the form of a NewYork-Presbyterian logo. If not for that fateful fall from the Shea Stadium scoreboard perch, Joey McFadden would never have been asked by the hospital to open what would become a legendary NYC establishment.
So whenever you see the New York Mets’ jersey patch, you can think of the accidental influence they had in shaping the neighborhood of Washington Heights.
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