Pauline Hribok, true baseball fan and Mets devotee, dies at 93

Farmingdale resident Daniel Paul Hribok fondly recalls bonding with his mother by catching the Mets on the family’s black-and-white TV during the late 1960s.

Pauline Hribok was not your average baseball fan, her son noted. Not only did she intently take in the action on the diamond from the comforts of her Seaford home, she also meticulously recorded game statistics, a personal ritual that endured for decades.

"You have to be a true baseball fan to actually like the Mets," Hribok, 61, said of his mom’s devotion. "We would sit and watch the Mets. She would have these big books, to keep the boxscore. And when we went to the games — she kept the boxscore of all the games."

Pauline Hribok, a 64-year resident of Seaford, died from complications of COVID-19 on April 10, 2020, her family said.

She was 93.

Loved ones remember Hribok as a devoted wife for more than six decades to Daniel Hribok before his death in 2012.

She was also an immaculate dresser whose hair was always perfectly coifed, relatives said. They also recalled her fierce independence.

Hribok drove her Mercury Grand Marquis throughout her neighborhood, completing tasks like grocery shopping or medical appointments.

That’s why it was so difficult to see — over video calls because of social distancing rules — how the coronavirus gripped her so quickly, loved ones said.

"We had to pass the phone around and tell her ‘we’re here for you — we love you,’" said Mary Ellen Hribok, 61, Daniel Paul’s wife. "One minute she’s OK. And the next she’s on oxygen. It was very, very tough."

As much as Pauline Hribok loved the team with the orange-and-blue pinstripes, an even bigger passion was her devotion to her church, St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Farmingdale.

There, Hribok sang alto in a choir. She belonged to a social club called the Prime Timers, for older parishioners, relatives said. She also volunteered to count the church offerings after services.

St. Luke’s pastor, the Rev. Robert Weber, said Hribok was a staple in his congregation.

"She was a faithful member and had a lot of friends here at St. Luke’s. It was her second home, her second family," he said.

Daniel Paul Hribok said because of the pandemic, he struggled to cope with how his mother never got proper religious funeral services.

"A woman who was so devout, and deserved to have a burial from church, never got it," he said.

The Hriboks are hoping to hold a memorial service for Pauline at St. Luke’s on the one-year anniversary of her death.

Pauline Hribok was a big fan of the game show "Jeopardy!" She also was a voracious reader who had a taste for mysteries, family members said.

Daniel Paul Hribok said his mother kept learning well into her latter years.

"In her 90s, she got proficient using the tablet," he said. "So she read books on the tablet. She also read … Newsday on the tablet."

Pauline Hribok is survived by her son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter, Laura Hribok, all of Farmingdale.