Busy Lucchi leads Mets' ballpark operations

NEW YORK -- Women's History Month is nearing its end and it’s important to recognize Sue Lucchi, who is in her 30th season with the Mets.

This past January, she was promoted to senior vice president of ballpark operations. What does the role entail? Lucchi is responsible for almost everything at Citi Field, from the landscaping outside the stadium to the condition of the playing field. Everything has to be ready for the home opener on April 6 against the Marlins.

According to the New York Post, the Mets are bringing the right-center-field fences in slightly to help build a fan attraction. If fans thought the center-field scoreboard was big in the last few years, it’s going to be humongous -- 17,400 square feet, according to the Post.

In fact, principal owner Steve Cohen went on Twitter this past Thursday and said, “The scoreboard is incredibly large and crystal clear. I believe [Francisco] Lindor and [Pete] Alonso will watch it instead of the pitcher to hit.”

Without a doubt, Luchi has been one busy person this offseason.

“My role is to oversee the entire building and landscape. So I always like to say the plumbing, cleaning, electrical [and] engineering. We do the landscape outside,” Lucchi said. “The grounds crew becomes the snow crew during the winter. We are pretty much responsible for everything [in the most recent projects]. Now that we have a new owner, we have new projects in the offseason, so we have a new department now. We are building it and it’s exciting.”

Mets in her blood

Lucchi grew up in Whitestone, Queens, about 10 miles from Shea Stadium. Her favorite player growing up was Dave Kingman and then Keith Hernandez. During her entire softball career as a shortstop, Lucchi wore 17 in honor of Hernandez.

Every time Lucchi went to her father’s pile and marble shop in Astoria with her grandmother on Saturdays, they would ride past Shea. Almost every time, a teenaged Lucchi would say to her grandma, “I want to work there.”

Who would have guessed that Lucchi would have the career of a lifetime with the Mets? By the sound of her voice, she is still having fun working for the Mets.

“It’s the next best thing to playing baseball. Not many people can say they go to the ballpark every day for work,” Lucchi said. “I love what I do, I love the people that I work with. Everything kind of went according to the plan. I say that, but I’m not sure what the plan was. Somehow, there was one.”

It all started at Shea Stadium

Lucchi was attending St. John’s University when she was supposed to start as an intern in the Mets’ media relations department in 1994, but she contracted bronchitis and couldn’t work.

By the time she was 100 percent healthy, the position was filled. But she was able to get an internship in the team’s scoreboard department. She would sit next to the electricians who would put the information into the computer that fans would see on the scoreboard. Lucchi’s job was to proofread the information and keep score. If a pitcher was taken out or there was a change in the lineup, it was her job to notify the public-address announcer.

By 1997, Lucchi then started interviewing Mets players for TV shows and she learned how to edit videos. Two years later, Lucchi was the stadium operations office manager and was quickly moved up to stadium manager after her boss was promoted to another position.

“I’m not a sit-down type of person. I just kept going,” Lucchi said. “I was very fortunate.”

Lucchi made her mark in 2001 after 9/11, a tragic event that claimed nearly 3,000 lives -- 2,753 at the World Trade Center alone. Lucchi was the one who organized the supply center right in the Shea Stadium parking lot. There were truckloads of food and equipment for Ground Zero.

Before anyone knew it, members of the '01 Mets, including manager Bobby Valentine, and volunteers were helping out to make sure that all the food and supplies were in the trucks ready to go to Ground Zero.

“We had people hitchhiking from Pennsylvania, volunteers coming in and we were a 24/7 operation,” Lucchi said. “We had people sleeping in the old Jets locker room. They would come to the ballpark and Aramark [a food service] would serve food so they could eat and then [the volunteers] would take a shower.

“The Red Cross was there. They set up cots in the Jets locker room. They had all the things you needed -- toothbrushes. It was like going into a hotel. Then in the parking lot, it just turned into people coming everywhere. Everybody wanted to help. Even the local restaurants started dropping food off for the volunteers that were there. It was quite the accomplishment. We did it for 10 days.”

Almost 22 years later, Valentine has nothing but praise for Lucchi and her hard work during 9/11. He said she was superhuman during the effort to help people at Ground Zero.

“She is an incredible organizer with more energy and stamina than anybody I've ever been around,” Valentine said. “We had an indescribable situation in that we had boxes and crates of things -- clothing, eye wash, hand wipes, towels, goggles. You name it. It was being brought to the parking lot by every means known to man. Sue and Kevin McCarthy, who was her right-hand man, turned the parking lot into a Home Depot-looking setup. … She knew where everything was.”

Lucchi has 30 years of experience with the Mets and she knows there are a lot of young women and men who would like to work for the Mets at Citi Field. What advice would she give them?

“I get asked this question a lot. It’s making yourself available. I highly recommend getting an internship if you can,” Lucchi said. “Keep your eyes out. Internships pay now compared to when I was an intern, so I had a job and an internship.

“But now internships are now like part-time jobs. So go and find something in the field that you are looking for, whether it’s baseball or anything else. Even if you are an accountant, if [that job] has internships to learn, do it. It will get your foot in the door.”