Reminiscing on Mets Opening Days in recent years

2009 – A rude greeting at Citi Field
Final Score: Padres 6, Mets 5
Attendance: 41,007
Coming off two devastating (yes Tom, devastating) Game 162’s at Shea Stadium, the Mets opened up a shiny new ballpark in hopes of quickly regaining a slot atop the National League East. Spoiler alert: it didn’t quite work out that way.
The Lineup:
- SS Jose Reyes
- LF Daniel Murphy
- 3B David Wright
- 1B Carlos Delgado
- CF Carlos Beltran
- RF Ryan Church
- C Brian Schneider
- 2B Luis Castillo
- P Mike Pelfrey
This was a memorable one. We saw Jody Gerut christen the ballpark right away…
Even the camera man was shocked at that one. Just a few innings later, though, we saw the face of the franchise conquer the Great Wall of Flushing…
Unfortunately, a Ryan Church error led to an unearned run in the 6th for San Diego and the Mets were unable to recover. While the Mets opened 2009 with a star-studded lineup and high expectations, an insurmountable number of injuries (almost 2016 Mets-level) resulted in a miserable 70-92 season.