Bobby Jones started against Curt Schilling, and the zeros piled up against each other on the scoreboard. Nine scoreless. Ten. Twelve. Fourteen. The Mets used six pitchers, including getting scoreless relief from Greg McMichael and Mel Rojas.

Finally, in the bottom of the fourteenth inning, light-hitting backup catcher Alberto "Bambino" Castillo singles home Brian McRae with the game winner off Ricky Bottalico to send everyone home happy, 4:35 and 428 pitches later.

Piazza wouldn't arrive until late May -- the Mets' Opening Day catcher was Tim Spehr, and Todd Pratt was in Norfolk.

This one ranks as one of my favorites ever. I went in to school the next day with a big ol' red sunburn, and everyone knew I hadn't really been sick the day before.

With Pedro Martinez now in Boston, the case could be made that Curt Schilling was now the most dominant pitcher in the NL. And he came roaring out of the gate in 1998, posting 8 shutout innings with 9 Ks, with the only 2 hits allowed being singles to journeyman catcher Tim Spehr. Thankfully, Bobby Jones and a very deep Mets bullpen matched zeroes, but operated under a much different "bend-but-don't-break" philosophy, stranding 13 Phillies runners on base, helped largely by holding Philly hitless in 9 ABs with RISP, along with some stellar Mets defense, particularly from usual webgemmers Rey Ordonez and Edgardo Alfonzo.

After getting the first 2 batters to reach in the 14th, the Mets looked ready to squander the opportunity when Alfonzo bunted too hard on a sacrifice attempt, resulting in the lead runner getting thrown out at 3rd. Bernard Gilkey followed with a single to LF but Brian McRae fell down rounding 3rd and had to retreat back to the base. It looked like he would have scored, too, because the throw to the plate from the leftfielder was up the first-base line. Luis Lopez then popped out after an 8-pitch AB, leaving it up to Castillo. After going down in the count 1-2, Alberto took some very close pitches for balls, then lashed a single to RF to send everyone home happy. It was actually his 2nd walk-off hit in the Mets' last 3 games, as he also had a walk-off RBI double in the Mets' 2nd to last game of the 1997 season vs. Atlanta!

All in all, there were 16 hits in the game, and all of them were singles. This was Jones' third and final Opening Day start for the Mets, and it was the first time the Mets ever won a game 1-0 on Opening Day; they've done it twice since, in 2012 and 2020, both times against the Braves. Also, this was the first regular season game broadcast on FSNY, formerly known as Sportschannel. During the broadcast, they periodically checked in on NY mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was in attendance, and wondered how long he'd stick around for, knowing he was delivering a speech in DC that evening. He actually didn't leave until midway through the 10th inning, which is better than what Howie and Fran had predicted in the booth.