Guy Conti, whose coaching career spanned Northwestern football and Edinboro University men’s basketball at the local level to Major League Baseball on the national stage, died on Oct. 13 at age 84.
The New York Post was among the media outlets that reported Conti’s death at his Florida home after a lengthy illness.
Jay Horwitz, the New York Mets’ team historian, also confirmed the news on social media.
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Conti, with Willie Randolph as manager, was the Mets’ bullpen coach from 2005-08. The 2005 Erie Sports Hall of Fame inductee then worked as a minor league advisor for the two-time World Series champions.
Conti also worked for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Los Angeles Dodgers before his tenure with the Mets.
“We lost a good one today,” Horwitz said in an X post. “Guy was a friend of Sandy Koufax and beloved by Pedro Martinez. His knowledge reached people for decades.
“Miss you, my friend.”
Fighting Scots’ success
The Tarentum native’s coaching and scouting duties with the Pirates further strengthened his western Pennsylvania association.
Conti graduated from Freeport High School and then attended Clarion University, where he was a multi-sport athlete as a freshman.
Conti left to play one season of minor league baseball with the 1961 Salisbury (North Carolina) Braves of the Western Carolina League, then returned to graduate from Clarion in 1965.
Conti’s coaching career began at Albion, where he was in charge of Northwestern’s football and baseball programs. He did the same with those sports at Edinboro — and them some.
Conti coached men’s basketball for the Fighting Scots from 1975-84. They won 140 games over that span, which was highlighted by a 24-5 record for his first season and multiple PSAC playoff berths.
The most notable player for Conti was Melvin Hooker, a 1997 enshrinee of Edinboro’s athletic hall of fame. Although the forward never played in an official game for the defending world champion Los Angeles Lakers, they selected him during the eighth round of the 1980 NBA draft.
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Praise for Pedro
Conti’s segue to baseball began while he still at Edinboro, where he managed the Scots from 1969-71. The sport became his full-time occupation in 1986 when he joined the Dodgers as a roving minor league instructor.
The Mets were Conti’s employer from 1999 until his retirement. His four seasons as the bullpen coach for the parent club paralleled those of pitcher Pedro Martinez, whose three career Cy Young Awards bolstered his 2015 enshrinement in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Conti was still a Dodgers scout when he first saw Martinez pitch as a youth in the Dominican Republic. He discussed that experience in a Post article that ran on the eve of Martinez’s Hall induction.
“I got there,” Conti said, “and I was presented with 20 pitchers. All of a sudden, when Pedro got on the mound and started throwing the ball, it just exploded.
“And it was history from that point.”
Conti also commented how he helped Martinez speak English when they were with the same minor league team in Great Falls, Montana. Martinez learned with help from Conti’s wife, Jan, who was a high school librarian.
Martinez, in that same article, said he referred to Conti as his “white daddy” in part from such generosity.
Contact Mike Copper at mcopper@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNcopper.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Guy Conti, Edinboro University and Erie sports hall of famer, dies at 84