Lenny Cona recalls his first day on the job with the U.S. Postal Service as if it were yesterday. In fact, it was a pretty good year for baseball fans in and around the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn, N.Y.

“I started the same year the Mets won their last World Series,” said Cona, who at the end of 2023 retired from the Postal Service after spending nearly half his career in the Manahawkin post office, along with two other colleagues.