Anthony
April 20, 2005
I attended this game with my dad, mom, and my late greatgrandmother (died in spring of '98) who was a big Mets' fan. I was 12. There were over 44,000 people at the game; my dad made a joke that during the seventh inning stretch everyone was standing for my greatgrandmother. Pete Harnisch made his Mets' debut and threw six good innings. Jerry Dipoto came in and blew a 4-1 lead in the seventh. However, the Mets would go on to win 5-4 in the eleventh. I remember there was a front office person from the Cardinals sitting next to us; when the Mets won, I said "HAHA" to him.

Dave VW
April 18, 2023
I have nothing but negative memories of Pete Harnisch as a Met, but all things considered he began his time in the uniform with a really nice start here. After giving up back-to-back doubles in the first to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead, Pete allowed only 1 more hit through 6 innings while striking out 6. He left after just 73 pitches, more than likely attributed to there being no spring training for pitchers to build up their arm strength, and because he was coming back from an injury to his pitching arm in 1994. If this were a game in June instead of April, no doubt he would have gone longer.

He left with the Mets leading 4-1 but, in an odd choice, Dallas Green opted to bring in Jerry DiPoto in the 7th. It was odd not only because DiPoto had worked the previous night, but also because the Cardinals had 3 left-hand hitters due up. It seemed like a more logical move to have brought in the southpaw Eric Gunderson instead, who could then bridge the gap to Josias Manzanillo in the 8th and John Franco in the 9th. Unsurprisingly, DiPoto coughed up 3 runs and Harnisch's chances for a win in his Mets debut disappeared. I put the blame more on Dallas than DiPoto, to be honest.

From there, both bullpens pitched very well -- with lots of help from home plate umpire Sy Ryberg. If you don't recognize the name, it's because he was a replacement ump, as the official umps had been locked out due to a pay dispute and wouldn't be back until early May. Ryberg's strike zone was all over the place, and it seemed like as long as the pitcher threw the ball to the catcher's mitt -- even if it was 6 inches off the plate -- he'd call it a strike. The teams combined for 23 strikeouts -- 11 times looking, mainly on pitches well off the plate. The Mets didn't manage a baserunner after Rico Brogna's 1-out double in the 6th until Bobby Bonilla walked with 1 out in the 11th. Tim Bogar then singled to put runners on 1st and 3rd, and, after an intentional walk to Brogna, Joe Orsulak hit an 0-2 pitch to deep center for the walkoff victory. Dave Mlicki, who made his Mets debut pitching a scoreless top of the 11th, got the win.

After the previous night's game was interrupted nearly half a dozen times because of fans getting on the field, this game wasn't interrupted at all -- which is really saying something considering it was $1 day at Shea, meaning tickets were available for $1. Perhaps that was only for the upper deck (kinda hard to sneak onto the field from up there). Still, either security stepped up its presence, or the fans got it all out of their system in the home opener.

Carl Everett continued to really settle in as the new everyday RF, picking up another OF assist, hitting another home run and coming within a triple of hitting for the cycle. Some tough luck for Todd Hundley, though, who missed a home run that went foul by a few feet in the 6th, and then just got under one in the 9th that was caught shy of the warning track. I thought for sure that one was going out. It wouldn't be long, however, before Todd started hitting everything out of the park.