Mets2Moon
September 24, 2001
Nobody remembers the 95 season? Surely it wasn't the best of times for the Mets, although they improved markedly in the second half. On this day, however, I sojurned to Queens for the Major League Debut of Mr. Bill Pulsipher. I remember him warming up to Nirvana's "Come as you are," and I thought it fitting for this fellow who was viewed as a savior. Then he sailed his first pitch to the backstop. He gave up 5 runs in the first, but he certainly was not helped by Brett Butler, who bungled two fly balls, which prolonged the inning longer than it needed to be. To add insult, he wasn't charged with an error either time. Ended up a blowout loss for the Mets, and the start of a rocky road for Pulse.

Joe From Jersey
November 29, 2005
It was the first Mets game I went to since the end of the 1994 cancellation strike. I remember Pulse pitching and the lineup consisted of Bobby Crybaby, Jeff "The Cable Guy" Kent; Brett Butler and Ryan Thompson, who at times showed 5-tool skills and at other no-tool skills. It was a Saturday Afternoon and Shea was NOT exactly packed to the rafters.

billy
October 23, 2008
The highlight of the day was the softball game before the Mets game, Phil Niekro's silver bullets I think was the name of them. I should mention, I thought Pulse reminded me of Jon Matlack. Too bad he didn't have the stuff to make it.

Michael
April 3, 2020
The first of Generation K to make it to the big leagues, Bill Pulsipher made his debut in this one. He was pretty terrible (though was also the victim of terrible defense, to be fair). Although the hype for the Puls, Izzy and Paul Wilson was huge at the time, the crowd for this one was pretty empty, especially for a Saturday afternoon.

Pulsipher would have better days (though not many of them), but he also had the worst career of the trio known as Generation K.

Dave VW
May 15, 2023
Ya really gotta feel for Pulsipher. Just 21 years old, pegged with turning a slumping team around, told to cut your hair and ditch your earrings by your manager if you wanted to play on his team, and his first game is against the team with the reigning NL MVP (Jeff Bagwell). Clearly letting the butterflies get the better of him, he walked 3 in the first inning, including the first batter he faced, and didn't escape until expending 44 pitches and until all 9 batters reached the plate -- and only did so after he allowed an RBI single to opposing pitcher Doug Drabek and LF Bobby Bonilla bailed him out by throwing out a second runner trying to score. On a Mets team that struggled for offense, a 5-run first inning was all but a guaranteed loss.

But credit Pulse for going 6 more innings and allowing just 2 additional runs -- even though he wound up walking a career-high 6. I thought he probably would have been best served getting pinch-hit for when he led off the bottom of the 5th, as he had already racked up 99 pitches at that point. But perhaps because the Mets and Astros had just played 16 innings the previous night, Dallas Green stuck with his rookie for two more frames, allowing him to tally 133 pitches. Oh, and his first career strikeout was against that aforementioned reigning MVP (who he actually wound up striking out twice), which must have been a nice feather in his cap.

Regardless, frustrations were reaching a boiling point with yet another disheartening performance. When the usually mild-mannered Brett Butler struck out in the 3rd, he heard a spattering of boos on his way back to the dugout. He responded by removing his helmet and tipping it to the crowd, and when the boos got louder, he tipped it again. Not exactly the sort of behavior you'd want from one of your veterans. When Butler made a nice diving catch to rob Drabek of another hit in the 4th, the crowd cheered, but he waved his glove at them as if to say, "I don't want your applause. Screw you." I got the impression the California transplant was not acclimating well to the New York culture. In the 8th inning, Bonilla came up with 2 on and 1 out with a chance to get the Mets back in the game. First-pitch swinging against reliever Dave Veres, who had just entered the game, Bobby just got under one and flew out to RF. On his way back to the bench, he fired his helmet against the side wall by the photo box, then got in the dugout and threw all the Gatorade coolers down the clubhouse steps. This loss definitely made it feel like it was becoming 1993 all over again.