Ultimate Mets Database: Game of April 5, 1993

flushing flash
April 25, 2003
The ninth of ten consecutive Opening Days that I personally attended from 1985-1994. Dwight Gooden pitched a gem besting the immortal #1 expansion draft pick David Nied.

This was the first game in Rockies' history. Eric Young was the first batter in their history. But no one claimed the first RBI in Rockies' history that day. Later that season the Mets shut out the Marlins in their first game against Florida. In 1997, the Mets shut out the Yankees and Blue Jays in their first matchups. And in 1998 the Mets blanked Tampa Bay the first time those two teams played.

That's five teams who were shut out by the Mets the first time they played them. I'll bet no other team can top that record.

MikeM
April 25, 2003
Dante Bichette hits the 1st homer in Rockies history

Bob P
May 2, 2003
I was at this game with my then five-year-old son.

Mike, it's hard to hit a homer when your team gets shut out! Bichette's home run actually came in the next game, April 7, in the 7th inning off Bret Saberhagen.

Shickhaus Franks
September 6, 2006
Sat in the upper deck for this one, the first regular season game for the Rockies. They had a moment of silence for Steve Olin & Tim Crews of the Indians who had been killed in the boating accident that injured Bobby Ojeda; I think ex- Jets DE Dennis Byrd threw out the first pitch. (He was injured the previous November with a neck injury that ended his career.) I also remember that there were no programs on sale at all because they were gone, although I did request one by mail which I got a month later! And who was the starting catcher for the Rockies? Current Marlins manager Joe Geraldi.

Dan H.
October 1, 2006
On the this bright and sunny Rockie innaugural game day, Doc Gooden was truly outstanding. We were there early enough to get programs, as well as pendants welcoming the Rockies to the NL.

Karaoke Joe
September 28, 2010
I was at the game in the Upper Reserves behind home plate, Section 2, Row M. I had gotten there early to get two programs- one to keep score and one to save. Remember a fan sitting next to me saying I wasn't going to be leaving Shea with both programs if there was a Mets no-hitter. With the Mets history, thank God that never happened as Andres Galarraga got the first Rockie hit in their history! The Rockies needed 4 more days to get their first regular season victory!

Phil C
August 11, 2015
My only opening day in 55 years of watching baseball. Dwight is lights out, shut out. Went with my buddy Rick. Had a blast - except - NO ROCKIES METS FIRST GAME SCORECARDS. They "fell off the truck!" Right! Then went to NYC and watched the Whalers beat the Rangers 5-4!

Dave VW
December 14, 2022
Watching this game back, I caught a glimpse of the flags flying at half staff and wondered why, so thanks for clearing that up, Shickhaus Franks. And thanks for flushing flash for that great trivia, and everyone else for your memories. I watched a weird version where the game was broadcast on ESPN, but was dubbed over by the Rockies announcers and replayed for the Colorado audience that night. Duane Kuiper was a founding member of the club's broadcast team -- he's the Giants announcer who has that patented "it..is..OUTTA HERE" home run call. He broadcast for SF from 1986-92, joined Colorado for their inaugural season, then went back to SF in 1994 and has been there ever since.

They said this game was a sellout but I still saw lots of empty seats on TV. I also don't think Dennis Byrd threw out the first pitch, the broadcast I watched had former MLB commissioner Fay Vincent and NYC mayor David Dinkins do the honor, and both were greeted with a round of boos. Coleman also got booed when he struck out in his first AB, as did Bonilla when he popped out behind the plate with 2 runners on in the first. But I didn't hear much more boos as the defense looked strong (Bonilla, Kent and Orsulak all made nice plays) and Gooden had little trouble, save for loading the bases with 2 outs in the third and letting a runner advance to third with 2 outs in the ninth. Of his 8 career Opening Day starts, this was likely his best.

Bonilla hit a home run that was just fair and just barely over the fence. That followed his 2-homer performance from the previous year's Opening Day win. In his 4 Opening Day starts for the Mets from 1992-95, he hit .381 (8-for-21) with 6 RBI. He was also allegedly down 30 pounds from the previous year, and he looked quite lean and fit. Eddie Murray also stole a base, which I thought was quite rare. He'd only steal 2 bases all year, his second not coming until September 25!

Good to see the Mets pin the L on David Nied. He was the same guy who made his ML debut vs. the Mets the previous year by tossing 7 innings of 1-run ball while still with Atlanta. That was the same game Coleman decided to get into a shoving match with Jeff Torborg while on the field. The Rockies' lineup actually didn't look half bad (for an expansion team), but their pitching would be horrid, finishing the season with a 5.41 team ERA -- almost a full run worse than the second-worst team, Pittsburgh (4.77).

Overall, a nice way to start what was an otherwise crappy season.

Grand Slammer
December 30, 2022
I was at this season opener and, besides Gooden's shutout, remembered two things about it. Just four months after his horrifying injury on the football field, the Jets' Dennis Byrd was on hand with his wife Angela for a pre-game ceremony. Byrd didn't throw out the first pitch, but he was presented with a picture frame of a special Mets jersey with his name and number 90 on it.

My other memory was the crazy situation with program sales. This was the first game in Colorado Rockies history and the sports collectibles business was booming. People were buying up the game day magazines in huge bunches for the purpose of selling them as limited-edition souvenirs. I saw one guy who purchased one hundred of them and a few others who bought at least fifty or more! Meanwhile, there were many among the Shea Stadium faithful who complained about not being able to get a scorecard because there were none left. This was a case of actual baseball fans being victimized by a certain kind of corporate greed. I found it very sad.

Please note:
We're looking for your comments about this specific game. We've had people use this space to share their thoughts on how the current season is going, or on ways that the Mets can improve the team. Such comments, unless in the context of this particular game, will be considered off-topic and will be removed.

Example One
The Mets suck! They need to trade Smith and get somebody like Jones.
This comment is off-topic and will be removed. It has nothing to do with any specific game. But here's an acceptable alternative:

Example Two
The Mets suck! Smith made three errors in this game, and hit into a double play, and the Mets blew a 5-0 lead. They need to get rid of Smith and get somebody like Jones.
See the difference? Here you're getting the same point across, but it's in the proper context. We wouldn't consider this message to be off-topic, and we would let it remain.

We do appreciate anybody who takes the time to share their thoughts on our site, and we hate to remove anybody's postings. But if we didn't take steps to ensure that only on-topic messages were retained, The Ultimate Mets Database would become a confusing jumble of unrelated comments, and would thus be less enjoyable to visitors like you.

Thank you!

Your name:
E-Mail address: OPTIONAL
Comments about the game: