It was 50 years ago today that a gaggle of mostly veteran ballplayers took the field in St. Louis for the New York Metropolitan Baseball Club’s first regular-season game.
They lost, 11-4 — the first of a record 120 games they dropped that inaugural season.
No matter: Five years after the Dodgers and Giants left the city for California, National League baseball was back.
And it didn’t even matter that the team stunk — or, as manager Casey Stengel famously moaned, “Can’t anybody here play this game?”
New Yorkers loved their Mets.
Not until 1969 did the team finally have a winning season — but that was the year of the Miracle: They won 100 games and the World Series, and the city went wild.
Since then, the Mets have won another Series and two other pennants.
They’ve given their fans such immortal players: Tom Seaver, Doc Gooden, Nolan Ryan, Gary Carter, Darryl Strawberry, Mike Piazza, Keith Hernandez and John Franco.
The team’s history also is replete with some of baseball’s most memorable moments, like Mookie Wilson’s ground ball scooting through Bill Buckner’s legs in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.
Sadly, it’s been a dozen years since the Mets were in the Series and more than a quarter-century since they brought home the title.
But true fans know the glory days will not remain a distant memory forever.
So here’s to the New York Mets and their first 50 years. May the next 50 be just as memorable.