Father-son duo with Mets connection reflects on 9/11

NEW YORK -- One can hear the admiration in Steve Dillon Jr.’s voice when he talks about his father, Steve Dillon Sr.

It has nothing to do with Dillon Sr. playing four seasons in professional baseball, including two big league seasons with the Mets in 1963 and ‘64. It’s what the father did as a cop for the New York Police Department that impressed the son.

Dillon Jr. admired his father so much so that he followed in his father’s footsteps and worked for NYPD for almost two decades before joining the Mets as the senior director of security in 2018.

“Over the years, I got to meet all of his friends who were cops or at the precinct he was working at,” Dillon Jr. said. “I looked up to that. I was very impressed and proud of him for being a cop. During that time, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I had no direction and I was still in high school. My father said, ‘Take a test and see what happens.’ I took the test and 25 years later, here I am.”

Dillon Jr. was on the police force on 9/11. That day is still fresh in his mind: He was supposed to make a court appearance in the Tri-State area, but it was canceled at the last minute.

Still at home that morning, Dillon Jr. was watching TV and saw two planes hit the World Trade Center in the attack that claimed nearly 3,000 lives.

“Moments later, I received a call from my office that they were calling everyone to work,” Dillon Jr. said. “I went into the office and waited to see what we were going to do.”

Later that day, Dillon Jr. was at Ground Zero searching for survivors. At the time, Dillon Sr. had no idea where his son was or what he was doing, finally receiving the call at midnight that Dillon Jr. was OK.

“It wasn’t until hours later that I was able to reconnect and let him know that I was safe and everything was all right,” Dillon Jr. said. “He was relieved. There was still the unknown.”

Twenty-two years later, the Dillons remain tight. Dillon Sr., now 80, can sometimes be found at Citi Field. He threw the first pitch before a game this year and pitched to two batters at last year’s Old-Timer’s game.

Dillon Jr. is proud to be working for the team that his father played for in the 1960s.

“It’s kind of like a full circle,” Dillon Jr. said. “It’s hard to describe knowing that he played for the Mets and now I am with that organization 60 years later. It affords me the opportunity to get him back into the stadium, on the field for batting practice -- all the things that go along with it.”