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Vic Ziegel, with his usual deft historical bemusement, linking the PG to CF [url=http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2009/04/14/2009-04-14_when_it_was_a_different_citi_the_mets_lost_their_openers.html?print=1&page=all]here[/url]. Includes mention of that bitter Roger Craig character, presumably still seething over his omission Monday night.
| ]When it was a different Citi, the Mets lost their openers
The Mets lost the first game in franchise history, 1962, on the road and then at home, the Polo Grounds. And lost their first game at Shea Stadium, 1964. Lost the first game at Citi Field, you probably remember, Monday. This doesn't bode well for Opening Day for the Mets' next stadium, the fourth one, April, oh, say, can you see, 2050, if the arctic ice caps haven't reduced the Flushing trains into rubber duckies.
Listening to all-squawk radio the other day, I heard somebody identify the only significant moments in Shea's 45-year history as 1) Bill Buckner's error and 2) the Beatles' concert. You could argue the catches by Ron Swoboda and Tommie Agee, in the '69 Series, belong in the same category. But you couldn't dance to them.
When the Mets were born, they stumbled into the available space at 157th St. and 8th Ave., the Polo Grounds, abandoned by the New York Giants at the end of the 1957 season. (The Dodgers left Brooklyn at the same time but not many remember that.)
The Mets were awful that first year, and that's being kind. They lost 120 games. Lost 231 games those first two years. The next two years at Shea they added 221 more groans. If the Mets, these Mets, win 100 games from this point on, they'll become a .500 team sometime in 2016.
Their earliest seasons were so dreadful they inspired this cartoon: ballplayer holding a telegram, a gun in his other hand pointing at his forehead. His wife explains to a friend, "He just got traded to the Mets."
The last three years at Shea weren't nearly as ugly, but weren't much fun either. The Mets came up short when they had a chance to reach the World Series in 2006, and cost themselves a spot in the postseason the last day of the season the last two years.
Ancient history. They fixed the shabby bullpen that cost them so dearly last year. Sports Illustrated is picking the Mets to win the Series. Mentioned them on the cover, which is never a good sign.
Citi Field Day 1, against San Diego, the Mets resembled nothing more than their grandpappies. Baseball stadiums have been opening for better than a hundred years but history was made when Mike Pelfrey threw his third pitch of that first game. Jody Gerut of the Padres slammed the ball into the right-field stands, the only time a leadoff hitter christened a new park with a home run.
An inning later, Pelfrey, delivering his best imitation of the 1962 Mets, threw a pitch to Walter Silva. The ball had just left his hand when Pelfrey caught his cleat on the mound and lost his balance. He was next seen, smiling, picking himself off the ground. Silva and the next three Padres were smiling, too, after they put together four hits and scored three runs.
The last run of the game, the winning run, came in the sixth inning, when Ryan Church reached for a fly ball and had it bounce off his glove. The runner, Luis Rodriguez, reached third. And came home - 1962, all over again - when Pedro Feliciano balked.
Those 1962 Metsies lost their first nine games. The run that beat them in No.9 came on a bunt that Don Zimmer had trouble locating. He wasn't fielding well but he was perfect at the plate, 0-for-24. Roger Craig, who lost 41 games in his first two seasons, was the losing pitcher.
"I felt strong, had good control," Craig said later. "If we were hot and they were cold, instead of the other way around, I probably would have shut them out."
The first time I met Dick Young, the Daily News' great baseball writer, was after Craig broke a personal 19-game losing streak. Young called his office and suggested a backpage headline for that night's game. For some reason, his suggestion - "Craig Wins Another" - was rejected.
A day after Craig's loss, April 23, 1962, Jay Hook racked up the Mets' first win, beating the Pirates, 9-1.
"Ninety-nine more and we got the pennant," said manager Casey Stengel.
"One and nine isn't a lot better than 0-and-10," Richie Ashburn said, "but it sure feels a lot better."
The Mets closed the Polo Grounds in 1963, 72 years after it opened for business. And if somebody had asked what the significant moments were in that grand old park - the pigeons under the roof, notwithstanding - the easy answers would have been Bobby Thomson's home run in the 1951 playoffs and Willie Mays' catch in the 1954 World Series. Good luck topping that, Citi Field. |
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