Mets Hall of Fame inductees bleed orange and blue

Howie Rose and Gary Cohen grew up rooting for the Mets, making those pilgrimages to Shea Stadium at the very beginning of the team’s history. Al Leiter, from New Jersey, repped the orange and blue as a kid, too. Jay Horwitz dedicated his life to the team, and one of Howard Johnson’s regrets is that he didn’t end his career playing with the franchise that made him a household name.

So when all five are honored in a pregame ceremony on June 3, it won’t only be for their Mets Hall of Fame contributions, but also for the way franchise history has woven its way through their lives.

“The Mets are in my heart and they’re in my body,” Johnson said in a video conference call with reporters Thursday. “It’s part of who they are — our DNA.”

Johnson, Leiter, Rose and Cohen were announced as inductees Wednesday. Horwitz, who served as director of public relations for 38 years, will be honored with the Hall of Fame Achievement Award.

Johnson, a member of the 1986 world championship team and a two-time All-Star, was the first switch hitter in the 30-30 (home runs-stolen bases) club. Leiter was the fiery ace — demonstrative and durable — and was a stalwart of the late ’90s and early 2000 teams that helped reinvigorate a lackluster franchise. Rose and Cohen are the longtime voices of the team.

That puts the total number in the Mets Hall of Fame at 34, with eight of those inductions happening in the past three years. The list is made up of 21 players, five front-office officials, three managers and five broadcasters, including Ralph Kiner, Bob Murphy and Lindsey Nelson.

“It’s rather flabbergasting,” said Cohen, who began calling games on the radio with Murphy in 1989 and joined SNY in 2006. “We’ve been representatives of the millions of people who care deeply about the Mets and have followed them for over 60-odd years. We’re fans who got lucky and got a chance to bring our favorite team home to people . . . It’s an honor I could have never anticipated and honestly, it’s so otherworldly and so surreal to me.”

Johnson lauded the Mets’ newfound appreciation for legacy, something owner Steve Cohen has stressed since buying the team.

“I love history and the Mets’ history is a rich one and it hasn’t been mined yet like it should,” Johnson said. The fans “love the history of the Mets and that’s something that needs to be tapped into and I’m glad and grateful that [Steve and Alex Cohen] are.”

As a player, Leiter said he’d often pay attention to the pregame ceremonies but didn’t quite think he’d be part of one in the future.

“It just makes it that much more special — to think that 1,200 players wore the Mets uniform,” Leiter said. “It’s a great honor. It’s a great recognition.”

Leiter was a Marlin during their infamous 1997 fire sale, and when then-general manager Dave Dombrowski told Leiter that he was being offered similar trade packages by the Cardinals and the Mets, the pitcher knew exactly where he wanted to go. His dream was to finish his career in Flushing, though that was dashed in 2005, when the Mets declined his $10 million option.

“I was very upset,” Leiter said. “I needed five more [franchise] wins to be behind Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman and Dwight Gooden and got seven years to play with the team I rooted for . . . I was mad at [GM] Omar Minaya for many years. We’re now good friends.”

Leiter, who was 95-67 with the Mets, and Johnson expressed their appreciation for Horwitz, insisting that the man who managed to protect players while not alienating the media deserved a statue in his honor.

Meanwhile, Rose, who’s usually the one emceeing all these ceremonies, for once (mostly) didn’t know what to say.

“It’s very hard for me to fully articulate my feelings here,” he said. “To try to put into words what this means to me today is practically impossible.”

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.