george
March 24, 2002
First MLB game I ever attended. Sat in nosebleeds behind the plate and could still hear Nolan Ryan warming up in the bullpen before the game. BANG! Struck out 17. Only hit by Johnny Briggs, a flare in the fourth. No one else even got good wood on a foul ball. After game stopped with wife and signed about 200 autographs including my glove. Duffy Dyer,who caught game also autographed glove. To this day he was the nicest pro athlete I have ever met. His wife who stood and waited smiling patiently was just as nice (and a major hottie!)

Jesse Wassner
January 4, 2003
This was also my first game. I remember walking into the stadium even before the game began, with the whole croud cheering "Lets go Mets." I rember being upset because my father made us leave early to beat the traffic and the Mets scored another run!

Fan 5/31/64 - 8/11/94
March 25, 2005
Hey anyone else remember this? After about 1,500 AB's, Derrell McKinley Harrelson hits his first HR over the fence. He had one in '67, but it was an inside the parker as Al Luplow (just sold by the Mets to the Pirates) argued that the ball was foul. Buddy would use this as springboard to go on and blast 4 more as a Met. His total of 6 lifetime Mets HR's matched Seaver's 6, except Seaver hit 6 more with the Reds and Harrelson hit only one more (forgot with who). Can someone confirm this event?

buddy3
September 6, 2008
Fan, you're off by one day. The home run Buddy hit was the previous day. It was the only one he ever hit at Shea Stadium. His lone non-Mets homer came as a Texas Ranger in 1980.

This day belonged to Nolan Ryan. He struck out 15 batters and pitched a one-hitter for his first major league shutout. It was as a sign of things to come. It's too bad those things didn't come with Nolan in a Mets' uniform.

Robert DeBella-Bharath
December 9, 2021
This was Nolan Ryan's "No-Hitter That Wasn't a No-Hitter". The very first batter of the game (Denny Doyle) hit a little dribbler down toward third base. Joy Foy, playing third, charged it like a bunt, barehanded it, but decided not to make the off balance throw. A good throw would have likely gotten the runner out, but Foy decided that since it was only the start of the game he didn't want to risk throwing the ball away and creating trouble. (He said so himself.) Starting from the next batter, Ryan recorded 27 outs without allowing a hit, for a complete game "No-Hitter That Wasn't a No-Hitter". There were baserunners, because he walked six batters. But he also struck out 15!

Ed V
April 4, 2022
I have this game on audio disk I attended. Sat way upstairs behind home with my godfather and cousin who was a big McCarver fan mostly from his Cards days. Didn't appreciate Ryan's performance since I was only eight until I heard it. I wore a little league outfit with a windbreaker, and it must've been 50 degrees up there. Ah parenting in the 70's lol!

Dave VW
September 19, 2024
I listened to the radio broadcast of this game. This was Ryan's first appearance of the 1970 season, and was pitching for the first time since spring training in late March. By my count, he eclipsed 100 pitches by the 5th inning, and for the latter half of the game the Mets constantly had someone warming in the bullpen in case he tired out and got into trouble. But Ryan had no issues with this weak-hitting Phillies team, earning his first of 61 career shutouts. His 1-hitter was the 4th to this point in Mets history, following Al Jackson, Jack Hamilton and Tom Seaver. His 15 strikeouts also established a new team record for a 9-inning game (Jerry Koosman also struck out 15 in a 10-inning game the previous year). However, Ryan wouldn't hold the record for long, as only 4 days later Seaver would fan 19 against the Padres.

Ryan struck out the side 3 times, including in the first when he stranded the bases loaded. He recorded his 15th K as the 2nd out in the 8th, and had a chance to tie the Major League record of 19 if he fanned the remaining 4 batters. But Tim McCarver grounded out to end the 8th to put the record out of reach. If my count was correct, Ryan finished the 8th at 143 pitches, and it seemed academic his day was done. But he was allowed to bat in the bottom of the inning and hit a single, then scored on Tommy Agee's first homer of the season. He then pitched a clean 9th inning, ending at approximately 154 pitches. You would never ever see a pitcher handled like that in today's age.

This marked the 5th straight game in which the Mets shut out the Phillies. The two teams were on such polar opposite ends of the talent spectrum during this era.

Also, April 18, 1970 marked the birthday of Rico Brogna. Quite appropriate, considering Rico spent the bulk of his career playing for the Mets and Phillies.