Jonathon Joseph Niese was born to Jeffery and Annette Niese in Lima, Ohio, on October 27, 1986, the same day that the Mets won their second World Series. He was brought up in Defiance, Ohio where he attended Defiance High School. In 2004 and 2005, he was named the state's baseball Player of the Year, becoming the first athlete to win the award in consecutive seasons. In the 2005 Major League Baseball Draft, the Mets chose him 209th overall (ninth pick of the seventh round).

The 2010 campaign was Niese's first full season as major league starter. He finished at 9–10, with a 4.20 ERA in 173.2 innings pitched. He was named one of the five starting pitchers on Baseball America's 2010 All-Rookie Team.

The underrated Niese was a solid pitcher from 2010-2015, averaging over 6 innings per start with a 3.86 ERA - leading Met's fans to appreciate him as a back of the rotation starter after the fact.

Interestingly, on March 26, 2012 Cardinals center fielder and ex-teammate Carlos Beltran paid $10,000 for Jon to get a nose job. His motivation for the nose job originally was cosmetic, but he said he has been breathing better since the elective procedure. Said Jon: "He wanted me to have a new nose. So he offered to pay for it. I was just like, 'All right.' Then it turned into seeing doctors and to getting it fixed."

(excerpted from Wikipedia, BR Bullpen & Baseball Almanac)