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The last time, the skies above New York City were littered with storm clouds that served as both a threat for the festivities at hand and a metaphor for the darkness that would follow. The last time it was April 18, 1957, the day before Good Friday, the Giants hosting the Phillies at the Polo Grounds, the Dodgers playing the Pirates at Ebbets Field.
It’s been 56 years since that simultaneous home opener, when at 1:30 p.m., give or take a few seconds, Sal Maglie dealt to Lee Walls in Brooklyn and Ruben Gomez threw one to Richie Ashburn in Manhattan. It was a lousy day: Only 8,585 made the pilgrimage to watch the Giants and only 11,202 passed through the gates to watch the Dodgers.
There were reasons for that, of course.
In the morning newspapers, there were ominous signs it might be the last time the Giants and Dodgers would ever play home openers inside the city’s borders. It still seemed crazy enough to move Gil Hodges to say, “I can’t believe that’s the way this is going to work out. It doesn’t seem possible.”
Fifty-six years later, it’s not exactly supposed to feel like South Beach in New York City today, but it just might reach 60 degrees, even if there’s a 10 percent chance of rain.
The Yankees and the Mets both face different sets of difficult questions, and the Mets probably will scramble right up to the very start to sell — or at least occupy — every seat.
Their seasons will start five minutes apart and 10 miles apart, the first time that’s ever happened, the first time both planets that occupy the universe of baseball New York will collide. CC Sabathia will go first, and it’s certainly likely he will groove a 92 mph fastball toward Jacoby Ellsbury right around 1:05 or so just off River Avenue in The Bronx. At 1:10, Jon Niese will throw a fastball or maybe a get-me-over curve at San Diego’s Chris Denorfia.
And we will be off.
For the first 51 years that they shared the city, the Mets and the Yankees never have seen the schedule makers hand them something like this — not just coinciding opening homestands, not just dovetailing Opening Days, but games that begin at essentially the same time. There have been years when they both have opened on the road together, a couple of times on the West Coast.
There’s a reason why it’s unprecedented, of course: On the list of good ideas that baseball comes up with, this isn’t all that high. It’s going to be an adventurous day on the roadways and bridges and subways, and the Mets can’t possibly be delighted they were assigned the Padres while the Yankees get the Red Sox.
One of the great things about being a baseball fan in New York is you usually get three local holidays to celebrate: the two home openers and whoever starts the season on the road on Opening Day. It’s been that way so long, it’s hard to believe anyone’s ever really thought about it.
But the Mets have the All-Star Game this year, and the leagues have 15 teams apiece now so the schedules are more balanced than ever, and … well, here we are. Twin openers. Twin lid-lifters. Dueling Opening Days on either side of the Triboro, something we haven’t had since Dwight D. Eisenhower was in the White House and Mayor Robert Wagner was inside the Polo Grounds, throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at the same time the Dodgers were raising the 1956 NL pennant at Ebbets.
No politicians will make the scene today, just a couple of right-fielders out of the 1970s: In The Bronx, it will be Lou Piniella throwing out the first pitch. Rusty Staub will do the honors in Queens. Broadway star Constantine Maroulis will sing the national anthem before the Yankees-Red Sox game; TV star Emmy Rossum will perform that task before Mets-Padres.
And we will be off.
Fifty-six years ago, the Giants beat the Phillies 6-2 and the Dodgers topped the Pirates 6-1, and both teams were off on one final sad journey across their final 154 games as New York baseball clubs. The bad news — if you believe in harbingers — is neither team made the playoffs, same as what seems to be the consensus opinion for the Yankees and Mets in 2013.
The good news?
Those teams will both be back next year, for their 2014 city openers.
Hopefully a healthy week apart.
michael.vaccaro@nypost.com