Reminiscing on Mets Opening Days in recent years

2012 – It gets worse
Final Score: Braves 0, Mets 1
Attendance: 42,080
The Mets had finally gotten to a point where fans largely accepted the diminished expectations. The trade of Carlos Beltran to San Francisco in exchange for young righty Zack Wheeler brought some (mild) excitement for the upcoming youth movement in Queens.
The Mets wore special patches in 2012 commemorating Gary Carter, who passed away months before the season. Fans enjoyed a moving pregame ceremony before the season was underway.
The Lineup:
- CF Andres Torres
- 2B Daniel Murphy
- 3B David Wright
- 1B Ike Davis
- LF Jason Bay
- RF Lucas Duda
- C Josh Thole
- SS Ruben Tejada
- P Johan Santana
It would be Johan’s last Opening Day with the Mets, and he delivered with 5 shutout innings. The bridge to closer Frank Francisco consisted of Ramon Ramirez, Tim Byrdak and Jon Rauch. Somehow, that was able to hold an opposing major league lineup at bay. The Mets managed only 74 wins in 2012, as fans quickly grew impatient with the rebuilding process. But the 2012 season saw a 37-year old R.A. Dickey capture a Cy Young award, as well as the rise of phenom Matt Harvey. And Alderson was later able to leverage Dickey’s success into acquiring another phenom…