I used to go to the Mets home opener every year. In 1983, there were some ominous weather forecasts, but on the morning of the game the sky was bright blue over Manhattan. I was very relieved, because this was an Opening Day that I was especially looking forward to. It was the day that Tom Seaver returned to the Mets after 5½ years in Cincinnati.

It was a duel of future Hall of Famers. Steve Carlton was pitching for the Phillies. And Pete Rose was in the starting lineup for the Phils as well. I remember when Seaver came in from the bullpen to start the game, the crowd was going absolutely wild. I had field level seats on the first base side, and Seaver jogged right past me. He didn't acknowledge the crowd. He was focused, as he always was, on the game ahead of him. He didn't give up a run in the game, but he was no longer in the game when the winning run scored, so a then-obscure pitcher named Doug Sisk ended up getting the win. It was a great day at Shea. Too bad Seaver's return only lasted one season.

I remember being a senior in high school and my friend, Eric and I cut class and went to the game. We had to buy general admission tickets and sat in the upper deck. I still remember the huge Welcome Home, Tom! banner. What a great day!

This was Tom Seaver's return to the Mets. I was in the Mezzanine level out in left field. When Seaver walked from the bullpen to the dugout through rightfield after warming up, the stadium erupted like I had never heard before. That moment is in my top three Mets moments. Then.. when he struck out Pete Rose to start the game...you just had to be there.

What a glorious day. The weather was beautiful and it was a chance for all of us to feel like kids again having Tom Seaver start on Opening Day. And no movie could have had a better script than to have Seaver fan Rose (swinging) to start the game.

Just a young teen at the time, I was sitting down the right field line in pretty good seats. Neil Allen threw a batting practice ball to us in the stands, and my friend James caught it. When Seaver walked in from the bullpen, we went wild. Great day for baseball, and a Mets win. What a game to be at for a kid- Seaver's return, Carlton going for the Phils, and numerous 'Rose Sucks' chants from the crowd in the honor of Buddy H.

I was at the game and remember Seaver walking from the pen to the dugout and the crowd going wild and the "Rose Blows" chants. I also recall Mike Schmidt getting hurt running to first that afternoon.

The Franchise came home at last!! I was way out in right in the field boxes. When Seaver walked in from the bullpen it sent chills up my spine. The place went nuts, obviously, and no one felt the cold. The only topper would have been for Seaver to get the W, which went to Dangerous Doug Sisk instead (although, to be fair, Mr. Sisk had not yet earned the wrath of the Shea faithful and pitched well for two years).

Tom Seaver's return to the Mets in this game was a little reminiscent of his first appearance as a rookie. He pitched six innings and got a no-decision in a victory over the Phillies with the pitcher of record being reliever Doug Sisk. In Seaver's debut back in 1967, he also lasted into the sixth inning of a Mets victory with the win going to someone out of the bullpen. Chuck Estrada was the beneficiary as the Mets defeated the Pirates that day. The win for Sisk here was his first one as a major leaguer. For Estrada, it was his final major league win that he got when he took over for Tom in the game from sixteen years earlier. Also, both games were played at Shea Stadium against Pennsylvania-based teams. It was quite a case of deja vu with Seaver reaching the top of the sixth and relief pitchers getting the first and last wins of their own respective careers.

Oh, and let's not forget about Mike Howard! He got the run-scoring single that put the Mets ahead to stay. This turned out to be Howard's final major league game.

Born in Easton, Pa as was Frank Pulli the umpire. Got a call from a friend he had two tickets for opening day at Shea. He said don't worry about money, as long as we get Frank to the game on time we're good. I was like what? I never met Frank before but as I remember the car ride and conversation on the way up to New York and back it was like talking to your uncle. What a great guy. Frank got us parking right next to the stadium and seats behind home plate! I'll never forget that! Thanks to my good friend Dave and Frank.

My friend Darren and I attended this game. We paid general admission, only $2.00 if memory serves me right.

My friend Lenny and I went to John Adams H.S. in Queens, we bought field box tickets from a classmate that couldn't go to the game. Lenny and I cut class and hopped the E and 7 trains to Shea. I remember Danny Heep hitting a home run and thinking this guy may be a steal for the Mets. We dealt them the dime a dozen Mike Scott. Little did we know.

I will never forget this game. I didn't have cable TV back then. I was 13 years old listening on an old crummy radio 1050 WHN New York Mets country. I went to bed at 10 pm because I had school the next day. The Mets were up 9-3 then next day when I snuck out of St. Luke's School on lunch time to buy my onion rings snacks at the corner store I will never forget the back page of the New York Post "Disaster in Philly." I was shocked stunned and in disbelief even at that young age, a sign of things to come.

This was an unforgettable game for me as well. I too, was 13 and listening on the radio, except I stayed up until the bitter end.

For some reason my favorite Mets have always been the unsung utility players. Imagine my delirium when Bob Bailor hit a rare home run, followed by Kingman going deep! Of course Neil Allen blew it, giving up a grand slam to Bo Diaz in the ninth.

Eight years later I was an aspiring sportscaster at Syracuse University and the manager of the Syracuse Chiefs (Toronto AAA) was none other than Bob Bailor. I was doing a feature on the team, but at the end couldn't resist asking him about the game. I brought it up by saying something like "I don't know if you remember this game against the Phillies, you and Kingman--" when he blurted out "BO DIAZ!" Guess a lot of folks remember this one.

This game will probably be remembered by many New York Mets fans as the worst loss in Mets history. It could easily be compared to the 1978 Philadelphia Eagles-New York Giants football game , a.k.a. "THE FUMBLE". But Neil Allen, blowing a 3 run lead in the 9th, set the stage for one of the greatest trades in Mets history. Can you guess?

That's right! Keith Hernandez was acquired a two months later for Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey. Just think, if Neil Allen never gave up that grand slam to Bo Diaz, who knows! Thanks Neil!

I remember this game like it was only yesterday. I was there that day in Philly, sitting in the right field area where the bullpen is. Almost caught Kingman's home run ball; it fell only inches short of my outstreched arms. Bob Bailor hit one right before Kingman's in the same area. Mike Schmidt hammered one way over my head into the lower deck.

I myself take blame for this loss and I'll tell you why: it was about the 7th inning and Neil Allen starts to throw in the Mets bullpen. So I am sitting right over the area where the bullpen is. I start yelling to Neil to throw the ball up. "Hey Neil, throw the ball up!" I kept yelling this at him for like twenty minutes; I wanted him to look up and throw the ball to me. "Hey Neil, throw the ball up! Throw it up!

Then he gets in the game and gives up grand slam to Bo Diaz. A Philly fan runs up to me and says, "Yeah, dude, he threw the ball up as in grand-slam!"

I will never forget this game as long as I live.

A footnote in this game is that future Met first base coach and hitting instructor, Bill Robinson walked in a run against Jesse Orosco, before they brought in Neil Allen to face Diaz.

Great to see him come back to shea, and get the win.

After this game Seaver was leading (tied) the NL in triples. I cut the league leaders out of the paper the next morning because I figured that'd never happen again. I still have that clipping!

Hey Met fans -- I'm looking for a scorecard of this game, or any Mets game between April 16 and May 4 of 1983. Specifically, I need the uni number of Mike Bishop. He started this game, and two others, during this stretch and was never heard from again. Thanks!

Mike Bishop had a big day this game... his only career hit (a double!), his only career runner CS (Mazzilli) and his only career error!

My friends and I went to this game. We were 16 years old. It was either helmet or jersey day. What I remember most was my friends hitting on the ballgirl manning the right field line. Where have you gone, Mary Jane Koester?

This was my first Mets game I went to. I was 7 years old. It was bat day, where us kiddies got a blue full-size wooden bat. I remember it being very heavy. Got to see two Hall of Famers, Niekro and Seaver pitch.

This was the first game my brother and I went to. I was 7 he was 5. That's when bat day was bat day (full size). I had that thing for years. My mother took us because Tom Seaver was pitching. I remember the program had a lot of stuff about Dale Murphy in it. There were people from Atlanta sitting in front of us, they kept looking at us when we booed the Braves. I still boo the Braves.

I was at Shea for this game, and I remember a skinny kid I had never heard of pinch-hitting for Mike Torrez. Such a clear memory as I watch him (on SNY) coaching for the Cardinals at Citi Field tonight, a mere 39 years later!

Who could forget this one? Strawberry makes his major league debut on a Friday night at Shea against Mario Soto. That would be today's equivalent of calling up a highly touted prospect like Escobar on a night Randy Johnson is pitching. Who knew Strawberry would blame the Mets for applying this kind of pressure on him a million times over the next 15 years.

I watched this game at home on TV while I was supposed to be doing last-minute studying for my SATs, which were the next morning (got into college anyway, kids). What a game. Dramatic homers by Brooks and Foster (I think) to tie it up late and win it from behind in extra frames. Straw Man goes 0-4 or 0-5 with a buncha whiffs, but his foul ball into the right field seats titillates.

I remember this one well. Straw's first game. He struck out 4 times,and in the 11th inning, he hit a foul ball into the mezzanine. Bob Murphy remarked that Mets fans should get used to seeing that immense power.

Kingman hit a blast to tie the game at 4 in the ninth, and Foster won it in the 13th against his old team. What a night.

An amazing game. I was there, watching the Mets match up against one of the top pitchers, Soto. They made a great comeback, scoring 1 in the eighth on a 2 out pinch hr by Heep, and 2 in the ninth on a 2 out hr by Kingman, then tying it in the tenth on a 2 out pinch hr by Brooks.

Finally, in the thirteenth, Foster won it on a 3 run shot, with Straw scoring the winning run after getting on via a bb and getting to 2nd on his first career steal.

If this had been a post-season game, it would be remembered as one of the great Met wins ever.

Just watched this one again

WOW. Reguardless of Straw's debut or not, this was one of the more memorable wins in Shea's history. The previous fan was right; if this was a postseason game, it would have been one of the best ever.

Mets were down to their last STRIKE in two different innings (9th and 10th), and both times hit homers to tie to game. Then Foster wins it in the 13th inning.

I was in the Upper Deck. I enjoyed this one so much, I still have my ticket stub. I wonder how many teams homered twice when down to their last strike to tie games and then win it later. Straw did hit that foul home run. The best foul home run Straw hit was in Game 6 in 1986 vs. Astros.

A great comeback for the Mets! Four home runs led to victory in extra innings at Shea Stadium. The game was Darryl Strawberry’s first in the major leagues, but that fact seemed to have gotten lost in the late slugging show that produced an amazing win.

Danny Heep, Dave Kingman, Hubie Brooks and George Foster provided the dramatic slugging. It was Foster’s blast that won it, but I remember Kingman’s and Brooks’ homers in the 9th and 10th innings a little more because they both tied the game as I was ready to head off to bed with the Mets down to their last out. Dave and Hubie kept me awake a little longer that I expected. Thankfully, it was a Friday night!

There’s an interesting fact I discovered about Kingman’s home run. It was the 2,000th in Mets history.

I'll never forget that bitterly cold night. I was 12 years old and my dad wanted to leave early because it was just to cold for him to be out. But we stood long enoughto see Darryl Strawberry got his first basehit, a single up the middle off of Mario Soto. I think that was after Darryl got off to a 0 for 25 start. It was also seat cushion night sponsored by some sangria company...I still have the cushions.

A few corrections to an earlier post: I don't know what the weather was like, but it was an afternoon game on Mother's Day, not a night game.

Strawberry's first single was not off Mario Soto; Soto was thje starter two nights earlier in Straw's major league debut. And Darryl was not 0- for-25, he was 0-for 11 with eight strikeouts before his first hit, which came off RHP Ben Hayes.

Scott Holman started this game for the Mets and gave up five runs in the top of the first. But the Mets got two back in the second and then took the lead with a six-run seventh inning. The key hits were a three-run homer by George Foster and a two-run double by Mookie Wilson.

Four Mets relievers held the Reds to three hits over the last 8.2 innings.

I remember this as the first Mets' game to which I drove after getting my license. The Mets beat the Reds, 10-5. After Scott Holman got knocked out in the first inning, the bullpen shut down Cincinnati. The comeback was highlighted by Foster's 3-run homer that put them ahead to stay. He made a "curtain call" after returning to the dugout.

One of the relievers that did so well this day was Neil Allen. A few weeks earlier, Allen had stated publicly that he had a drinking problem. I recall a loudmouth fan sitting behind me in the field level seats along the left field line constantly screaming "Put in the alcoholic!" After Neil pitched four shutout innings, that guy, thankfully, disappeared!

Foster's homer, Darryl Strawberry's first major league hit and Neil Allen's silencing that guy behind me made it a great day after it started out poorly.

I went to this game, sat in the mezzanine behind home plate with my mother and my girlfriend (now wife). I was 19 years old. I remember that the starting pitcher Holman was only able to get one out before being pulled after allowing five runs. George Foster hitting a 3-run homer and taking a curtain call. Neil Allen pitching very well in relief. Darryl Strawberry collecting his first major league hit, an opposite field single to left center field. I remember reading in the paper that morning the manager telling him to relax, you're my everyday right fielder no matter how many oh-fers you take. I found the game program today, which brought me to this web page. I wrote down both starting lineups in it that day, but stopped keeping score out of frustration after Oester's homer made in 5-0. Great outcome in the end.

Darryl Strawberry hit his first career home run in this game--right over Pirate center fielder Lee Mazzilli's head.

Special moments for both Tom Seaver and Darryl Strawberry came about in this game. For Seaver, he got his 20th win over the Padres as a Mets pitcher after defeating them nineteen times before his trade to Cincinnati six years earlier. The hit that put the Mets ahead to stay and got Tom the win was a three-run homer by Strawberry. This was Darryl's second career home run and first ever at Shea Stadium.

Meanwhile, another big moment in New York sports history took place about thirty miles east of Shea. The Islanders won their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup championship.

Neil Allen had been converted into a starter because of his struggles as a closer, and had his curve & fastball working. I know because I sat in Section 1 of the Loge, right behind home plate.

A complete game shutout against a pretty good club - probably the best performance of his entire career.

Went to this game with my brother and his future wife. Lied about my age to get a WHITE Mets batting helmet as Seaver is rocked for 5 runs as Bob Welch (forever known for striking out Mr. October in the '78 World Series) gives up only 2 hits.

My wife made me a surprise 30th birthday party at the Diamond Club. Total surprise. The party lasted as long as the game was being played. Unfortunately, this was the shortest game the Mets ever played... I had to say hello and goodbye to my guests at the same time, and had to take the cake home.

Originally this was going to be Seaver vs Fernando Valenzuela, but the previous night's game was rained out so Bob Welch pitched for the Dodgers instead. Disappointing to say the least, because they had a HUGE crowd even with the gloomy, overcast day. Welch was lights-out, pitching a CG and allowing just two hits (Seaver had one of them!) and five walks with 9 Ks. The kind of pitching performance I'd be much more appreciative of today as an adult than the miffed 10-year-old kid I was that day. :)

Day after attending the Mets/Dodgers game, I got to go to Shea to see my FIRST night game at Shea ever. I sat in the field box (9A/Seat 4) near the Mets dugout! George Foster hits one out but I missed it since I was at the concession stand. According to retrosheet.org; 9,000+ attended this Mets/Giants tilt compared to the 45,000+ that were at Shea the afternoon before!

Yet another game I cut school to attend. I sat right behind home plate and the thing I recall about this game was Kingman hitting a bomb off of Jim Barr. Frank Robinson came out to take Barr out of the game and Barr with total disrespect, tossed Robinson the ball and attempted to walk right past the Giants skipper. Robinson a no-nonsense person grabbed Barr and yanked him back on the mound. For a moment it looked as if the two would come to blows, but cooler heads prevailed.

My friends and I were at this game. We were seated in the third-base-side Loge. After the Barr-Robinson on mound pitcher-manager confrontation, I was convinced a Reggie-Billy style fight would break out in the dugout. So we hustled to the first-base side to see into the third-base dugout but nothing erupted.

George Bamberger's last game as Met manager. After this brutal 14-inning loss during a West Coast trip with the Mets holding the worst record in the National League, he gave up and retired. Frank Howard took over the rest of the year.

This was Frank Howard's first game as manager of the Mets. George Bamberger resigned earlier in the day. The Mets were 16-30 (.347) at this point, and under Howard they went 52-64 (.448) the rest of the way.

I was there that day!!!

Ditched visiting my family so my girlfriend at the time and I decided to go and it ended up being the Mookie Wilson Show.

Sat in the bleachers and had the perfect view of (1) Mookie going up and over the wall to rob Pedro Guerrero of a homer in the bottom of the first, (2) drive in Strawberry with a single, steal second base, take third on a bad throw from Steve Yeager and then score a run, all in the top of the eighth and (3) make a diving catch to rob Steve Yeager of a hit in the bottom of the ninth.

I was attending college in Chicago and went to this game to see Seaver pitch for the Mets after his tenure in Cincinnati. Tom Terrific threw well for 5 innings, giving up just one run in the first before tiring and being relieved by Neil Allen. The Mets were able to tie it in the 7th, but as was often the case for the Mets at Wrigley, the Cubs came back in the bottom of the 7th to take the lead and beat the Amazin's. The following day, the Chicago Tribune noted that Tom pitched well, but that "The Seaver of old is also an old Seaver". Still, it was great to see Tom Terrific back in a Mets uniform.

I stayed for the whole thing. Dave Kingman finally saved us all in the 17th inning by hitting a ball to Connecticut. My favorite frisbee-playing pitcher Rick Ownbey got the win, and then we traded him to St. Louis a few days later in the Hernandez trade.

I recently found video of Kingman's homer on an old VHS tape I have that contained horse races. I must have recorded while setting the tape for the next day's Belmont Stakes. It is striking how dead Shea looked in contrast to how alive it would soon become.

This game ties for the longest extra inning game with a Met walk-off homer. Lenny Randle also hit one in the 17th inning in 1977.

We bought general admission tickets and when Kingman hit the home run into the Expos bullpen we were sitting 5 rows off the 3rd baseline in box seats. The good old days of Shea.

I remember a fresh-out-of-the-box rookie named Strawberry hit a lazy, high popup to shallow center. Andre Dawson camps under it and "Plop!" -- the ball hits off the heel his glove. Straw gets only one base and blasted in the papers by no-nonsense manager Frank Howard for not reaching second.

This was the night I knew the Mets were going to become something special in the very near future. And it had nothing to do with the game itself.

Before the game the message board flashed the news that the Mets had traded Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey to St. Louis for Keith Hernandez.

This was the type of elite position player other teams seemed to have, but never the Mets.

One of my top-10 favorite games ever at Shea. And of course it wasn't because of what happened on the field. This was the night a franchise was transformed.

It happened before the game. My dad and I were there, at a three-quarter empty Shea, when a regular we knew, sitting near us told us about a wild rumor he heard - that the Mets were about to land Keith Hernandez from the Cardinals. No way, we both thought. Why would the Cardinals do that?

My dad gave me some change and told me to run out to the pay phone and call Sportsphone (900) 976- 1313 (Remember the jingle on the TV commercials? And current SportsCenter anchor Steve Levy doing those updates?) Anyway, I made the call, found out the news and by the time I was running up the ramp to our loge box seats, I could hear the cheering. Then I saw the message on Diamond Vision: "The Mets have just acquired star 1B Keith Hernandez from the Cardinals for pitchers Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey." And then hearing Bob Murphy on the radio that night after the game: "The Mets lost a game tonight, but have gained a superstar."

This was Keith Hernandez's first game with the Mets. My dad and I had planned a trip to Montreal to see the Mets and Keith's first game was an added bonus.

The Mets and Tom Seaver were beaten pretty easily, but on the way up to Montreal we stopped by the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. All around it was a pretty good day and with Keith on the Mets there were some pretty good days ahead.

This was Game 2 of a double-header with the Cardinals, who less than a week before traded us Keith Hernandez. They won game 1, but Mex hit a homer off John Stupor in the second game, his first as a Met I think. What I remember most was hearing about the trade on the radio a few days earlier and thinking: Wow, the Mets just might become a good team again.

I was at this game. How sweet for Keith Hernandez to crack his first Mets HR against his old team and get a curtain call from the Shea fans in front of his tormentor, Whitey herzog.

This was Neil Allen's return to Shea. After getting the Mets 1-2-3 in the top of the first, which ended when Allen struck out Keith Hernandez, Darrel Porter went toward the mound and made sure that Allen didn't go to the Mets dugout by directing him to the visitor's dugout.

A five inning save for Doug Sisk. We may never see that again. Well, we certainly won't see it again from Doug Sisk.

I went to this game. Thursday afternoon game. Long, beautiful late June day. I had literally just graduated high school that week. I got my first personal look at newly acquired Keith Hernandez and rookie phenom Darryl Strawberry, who had just been brought up in May. Things were starting to look up, after 6 straight bad seasons.

Before seeing the box score of this game, I thought that the maximum a relief pitcher could go in order to get credit for a save was four innings. My theory was based on the rule of a starter having to pitch a minimum of five innings to qualify for the win. But as Doctor Worm stated, Doug Sisk pitched five innings for the save here. The win went to fellow reliever Carlos Diaz, who got through the top of the fourth before Junior Ortiz's RBI single and Hubie Brooks' three-run homer put the Mets ahead to stay in the bottom half. Sisk then entered and did something that no Met pitcher had ever achieved over the team's first twenty-one seasons. A five-inning save is a rarity.

In the first game of a Sunday doubleheader at Shea, Rusty Staub leads off the ninth inning batting for Junior Ortiz and singles to center. It is Staub's eighth straight base hit as a pinch- hitter...a streak that negan June 11 against Montreal.

That streak tied Dave Philley for the all-time record. Philley actually had nine stright pinch hits but the first eight were at the end of the 1958 season and the ninth was on Opening Day of 1959.

I attend this game with my buddy Eric. This was a twi-night and we drove from my Grandmother's house, where we spending the weekend. I clearly remember the Mets rallying to tie the game at 5, only to lose in bottom of ninth on a botched rundown play after Bob Dernier led off with a triple and the Phils tried to squeeze. Junior Ortiz or Ron Hodges threw the ball over Hubie Brooks' head.

The Mets lost game one of theis doubleheader when Bob Dernier led off the ninth with a single, went to second on a sac bunt by Pete Rose, and then with two outs after Mike Schmidt was intentionally walked, Schmidt was caught off first base. But Keith Hernandez threw the ball away trying to get Dernier and the Phillies won it, 6-5.

Also in this game, Dave Kingman, who all but disappeared and became just an occasional pinch-hitter once the Mets got Keith Hernandez in June, hit a pinch 2-run homer late in the game. It was his last home run as a Met. He would barely play the rest of the season.

Torrez set a Met club record in this game by giving up ten walks.

I was at the game and walked to the outfield concession stand on the left field foul line when Cesar Cedeno hit a long fly ball that just went foul at the last minute and landed right in my hands on a fly. After going to ball games my whole life, it is still the only foul ball I ever got at a game.

My college girlfriend at the time -- a Reds fan -- and I had great seats behind home plate. Both teams were terrible that year and somewhere about the middle innings, someone threw a rubber chicken -- you read that right, folks, a rubber chicken -- from somewhere in the blue field level seats along the third base line.

It flew end-over-end and bopped some unsuspecting fan upside the head. The crowd was shocked, dumbfounded at this vaudevillian assault on our national pastime. Until the fan grabbed the rubber chicken around its scrawny rubber neck and flung the chicken to another part of the blue seats. The crowd crowed with approval. For an inning or so, fans tossed the rubber chicken around and ignored the game.

Until some strong-armed chicken flinger flung it far out high into the night air until it landed -- gasp -- on the field of play, right in front of the Mets dugout. The fowl ran afoul. One of the Mets tossed it into the dugout and soon fans started chanting. "We want the chicken. We want the chicken." What were the Mets to do?

The Mets gave the fans what they wanted: the chicken. Only in pieces. Someone (probably gour-Met cook Rusty Staub) had tried to fricasse the chicken by cutting its rubber extremities off.

Now in several pieces, the chicken lost its excitment. Fans went back to watching the game. Sensing it was safe, an usher grabbed the body part of the chicken away from a little boy sitting near me. The scoreboard then got into the act, announcing that a limited number of chicken sandwiches were "now available at concession stands". And the Cincinnati Chicken never appeared again as far as I know. The boring game was pretty forgettable. But I think the Cincinnati Chicken deserves a mention at the Hall of Fame. What better place to remember the Cincinnati Chicken but at Coop-erstown?

I was at this game, the Mets mounted a 4 run 9th inning come from behind that ended on George Foster's 2 run double.

For some reason, the brawl games all stand out to me. Here, Mike Torrez turned in his best accomplishment as a Met on the mound - punching out Braves pitcher Rick Camp after he charged him. With the Mets having such a miserable year, I remember telling my mom about the fight, to which she wisecracked: "Maybe they should be boxers instead of baseball players."

I was at this game and sitting behind the visiting team dugout. Camp hit Mookie with a pitch and then Mike Torrez drilled Camp. Camp charged the mound and Torrez wisely took his glove off and nailed Camp with a couple of good punches. I remember Kingman charging out of the Mets dugout like a madman and grabbing one of the Braves by the throat. I was about sixteen years old and had never seen anything like it before. Then Mookie came up in the bottom of the tenth inning and hit a homer to win it for the Mets. I've been to a lot of baseball games in the last forty years and this is one that I haven't forgotten. Torrez also pitched a ten-inning complete game.

I went to this game with my friend. We sat in Section 1 of the Loge Level, directly behind home plate. It was Old Timers Day and players from the 1973 team (and opponents from that year) were on hand for a 10-year reunion of "You Gotta Believe." Tom Seaver pitched in the Old Timers game, even though he was still an active player!

The regular game started at 4:00. The Mets led early, but the Pirates (in black shirts and gold pants that made them look more like the Steelers) came back to win. Darryl Strawberry made a costly error, misjudging Bill Madlock's fly ball with the bases loaded. All three runners scored on the play.

After a seventh inning rain delay, we watched the rest of the game from the empty loge left field seats. We hoped to get a home run ball, but that didn't happen. No player on either team even reached base once play resumed.

This is the first game as a child that I can remember going to with my father. I was 9 years old. The Mets were not very good back then but there was starting to be a light at the end of the tunnel with Strawberry coming up and with the trade for Keith Hernandez.

Hernandez was my childhood idol and this was the first time I got to see him live.

The Mets won the first game in 12 innings after trailing 6-2 going into the bottom of the 8th where they scored 4 runs. Both Hernandez and George Foster homered in the game.

The Mets also won the second game in 12 innings but this time the final was 1-0. This was a scheduled doubleheader, which would never happen today, that seemed to last forever. One of my fondest childhood memories. Little did I know then that 3 years later in October I would be at Game 6. That is probably THE fondest of my childhood memories.

Being a Pirate fan, going to a doubleheader was a great idea. So I thought. First game all I remember was the 1st inning the Pirates first three guys get on then Jason Thompson blasts a slam into the upper deck. Mets come back to win in extra innings. Second game flew by. Jose Deleon pitched a no hitter for 8 2/3 but it was 0-0. Then in 12th Mookie Wilson scores from 2nd on a ground out. 1-0. What a day!

Being a Pirate fan, going to a doubleheader was a great idea. So I thought. First game all I remember was in the first inning the Pirates' first three guys get on then Jason Thompson blasts a slam into the upper deck. Mets come back to win in extra innings. Second game flew by. Jose Deleon pitched a no hitter for 8 2/3 but it was 0-0. Then in 12th Mookie Wilson scores from second on a ground out. 1-0. What a day!

Jose DeLeon almost threw a no-hitter against us. He was absolutely awesome. It's hard to believe that two years later he went 2-19. Mookie won this game in the bottom of the 12th inning in true fabulous Mookinian fashion: HE SCORED FROM SECOND ON A GROUNDOUT! Jesse Orosco won both games of this doubleheader to cap an incredible month for him. And can you believe Mike Torrez went eleven innings? A great game all around.

It was after this doubleheader that it became apparent that the first dark ages were drawing to a close. The first game the Mets go down 4-0 in the first after Jason Thompson hits a grand slam. They stay in it, chipping away, Darryl hits a HR and I believe Keith does as well and they win 7-6. The second game ends as above with Mookie never breaking stride and scoring in the bottom of the 12 from second on a groundout.

The times they were a changin'.

I was 7 years old. It was my first time at Shea. It was really hot and it was a Banner Day doubleheader. We left about halfway through the second game. I remember watching Mookie score the winning run on the TV in my living room.

During tonight‘s Mets game they said it was the first doubleheader where both games went into extra innings since 1983 versus the Pirates. I immediately came to this page to check my memory because my thoughts went to July 31…Orosco wins twice… Mookie scores from second on a ground out.

What a great day this was. I’d forgotten the big comeback in game 1.

Remember the second game of the doubleheader three days earlier when Mookie scored from second on a groundout in the bottom of the 12th to win the game? Well, he did it again two games later, this time in the bottom of the ninth!

Amazingly, the sequence was the same in both games. Mookie led off with a single, Hubie Brooks bunted him to second, Keith Hernandez was intentionally walked, and George Foster hit a grounder resulting in Hernandez being forced out at second (on July 31 it was second to short, today it was short to second). Mookie kept going around third and scored the winning run!

I remember this game at Chicago-- Walt Terrell, that's right, Walt Terrell hitting 2 homers against the Cubs. I think he hit one the other way.

Right you are, Brian. I was there, too, with my dad. It was the NBC game of the week and Terrell launched two homers to left-center field. But more than that, the Mets swept this three-game series and it was also Jesse Orosco's coming out party as one of the game's best closers. In this series and for the rest of the year, he pitched like a man possessed - a little foreshadowing of 1986.

I remember watching this game on TV. The story, of course, was Terrell's 2 homers. The thing that surprises me, in looking st the boxscore, is that Hernandez and Strawberry played in the game. I realize that they both came to the Mets in '83, but this game seemed to be before their era, in my mind.

I went to this game with a friend of mine. We saw Tom Seaver and Jesse Orosco shut down the Cubs. Darryl Strawberry drove in two runs with an 8th inning triple.

The thing that I remember most from this game, though, is seeing something that I had never seen in a ball game, either before or since. In the bottom of the first inning, Keith Hernandez was on third base with two outs. From my seat in the left field corner, I saw the home plate umpire yelling something to Bobby Valentine, who was the third base coach at the time. About a minute later, the umpire again said something to Bobby. the next thing I saw was the Cubs' players running off the field. The inning was suddenly over!

What happened was that Bobby had violated a rule stating that the third base coach cannot leave the coach's box while the pitcher is on the rubber. If he does, a runner at third can be called out. When Keith was called out, Bobby was livid. He argued loudly and got ejected. The crowd was confused, not knowing what really happened -- until an explanation of this rule was put on the DiamondVision a few innings later. I always knew this rule existed, but I have never seen it enforced except in this game.

Does anybody else remember this bizarre occurence?

I would have been in summer camp when it occurred, and probbaly wouldn't have been listening (and definitely not watching) the game.

According to retrosheet, Hernandez was ruled out on coach's interference, because the umpires ruled that Bobby V was moving around trying to force Cubs pitcher Rich Bordi to balk.

A game mostly memorable for Ed Lynch's fistfight with Keith Moreland as the Mets and Cubs were duking it out for the NL East flag that summer.

My last Day as a Met Bat Boy. Left the next day for boot camp for the Navy. Threw out the first pitch, ending the best 4 years of my life. Lots of great memories. Let's Go Mets.

Before this game, there was a ceremony honoring Willie Mays as the Giants retired his uniform #24. The Mets then came up seven runs in the top of the fifth for a victory as Ed Lynch pitched the first complete game of his career. Ron Hodges doubled twice and George Foster slugged a grand slam in the big inning. One interesting fact about this is that Mays and Foster have a certain connection to each other. When Willie hit his 600th career home run, he did so as a pinch-hitter for George.

Just like he did seventeen days earlier in Chicago, Walt Terrell pitched and powered his way to a win in this game at San Diego. He hurled eight scoreless innings and collected three hits of his own, one of which was a three-run homer that capped off a six-run top of the eighth for the Mets. The Padres scored three times in the ninth against Terrell, but that didn't ruin anything for him at all.

Mets really bombed out bad in this game. I even remember Murphy saying his old phrase, "The Mets have really run into harrrrrd times".

I was at this game. We got there early enough to see batting practise. Keith Hernandez had joined the team the month before so Dave Kingman hardly played at this point. During BP Kingman didn't hit and didn't take fielding practice. He was nowhere on the bench during the game. He did pinch hit later on and he hit the highest goddamn popup over the infield in major league history. The ball took about ten minutes to come down. Of course the ball was caught for an easy out. Even when Kingman did absolutely nothing he still managed to leave you with a memory.

Darryl Strawberry hit two home runs in this game. His second one was a mammoth shot over the center field wall. Afterwards, a reporter asked him if it would have also been a homer at the Polo Grounds. Darryl (who was only two years old when that place was demolished) answered "What's the Polo Grounds?" Must have made that writer feel old!

You sure one of these games wasn't actually part of a double-header vs. the Dodgers on May 22nd? I went to a double-header vs. L.A. in 1983 and the ticket stub I have says May 22nd.

Jesse Orosco finished an awesome month by saving this game and being named NL Pitcher Of the Month - the only Met reliever ever to get the award. In 12 games during August 1983, he picked up 5 wins and six saves, giving up only 1 earned run in 22.2 innings.

My first Met game ever! I was 9 years old. I believe Tom Seaver and Eric Show started this game, and Seaver pitched 10 innings. (I am not certain of this, but I believe he pitched 10). Great game!!

Seaver started this game against Tim Lollar, and Seaver left the game with a 3-2 lead in the top of the 7th after giving up a single and an infield out. Jesse Orosco came in and, after another infield out, threw a wild pitch to score the tying run.

The Mets won it in the 15th on a sac fly by Brian Giles with the bases loaded and nobody out.

The Padres managed just 7 hits in 15 innings, and they had only 2 hits after the seventh inning.

Keith Hernandez had a 2-run homer for the Mets in the third inning, and Darryl Strawberry singled to drive in the first Mets run. Tom Gorman got the win, his first as a Met.

Ron Darling's major league debut. He gave up only one run on a walk, groundout and two balks!

I went to this game because I had heard about Ronnie. There was maybe 5000 fans there and he didn't pitch a bad game.

One of the first specific games I remember going to ... Sat behind home plate I remember my father saying it was such a perfect Mets game ... Seaver started, Orosco relieved and Mookie scored the winning run in the bottom of the ninth ...

Mike Fitzgerald got his first major league home run off Tony Ghelfi. I remember watching and thinking what hopes we had for him. And it kinda worked out, since he was part of the Gary Carter package.

I remember this game well. Went to Shea to see Tom Seaver pitch and was taking a chance on seeing Dave Kingman play, these 2 guys being my favorite Mets ever. In those days you could drive up to Shea a half hour before the game and get tickets. Ended up sitting right behind the Mets dugout 2 rows back. Got Brian Giles to sign a baseball card of mine. I would bring cards of different players to different games. Of course I brought Kingman's and Seaver's but they didn't come on the field before gametime.

Seaver pitched a pretty good game, but when Darryl Porter hit the home run you sensed the game was over. I remember Tom Seaver fouling off about 6 piches with one being inches from the left field foul pole, nearly missing a home run. Next pitch he hits fly ball to deep center field and with that the small crowd at Shea gave him a standing ovation, appreciating a tough at bat.

I remember Dave Kingman being put in as a pinch hitter late in game. I yelled for Dave. I said, "Heeeeey Daaaaaaaaaaaave" real loud. I heard my voice echoing in the outfield, he looks over at me with a surly look. Hey I would too if I wasn't playing. Not with Keith Hernandez around. Kingman never got to hit; Whitey Herzog put in a right hander to face Kingman and Frank howard countered with putting in Rusty Staub who grounded to 2nd base on the first pitch.

I remember going to this game and sitting down in the Field Level seats (moved down during the game) and being impressed with how well Ron Darling was keeping the ball down and disappointed his effort and performance didn't earn him a win.

Better things, as it turned out, lay ahead.

My first game in person...team picture day....8 years old...got Strawberry's autograph...had fieldbox seats on the 1B side. One of my favorite childhood memories despite the Mets loss, and seeing many great games in person at Shea since... You never forget your first game.

Seaver's last win as a Met and Torrez almost blew a 7-1 lead in the 9th inning.

A cold, raw, wet day at Wrigley. I still managed to get two friends to come with me to see this game. We treated ourselves to upper deck reserve seats to stay out of the rain. Cubs strike for 6 runs in the second. Rusty Staub came in to pinch hit in the 3rd inning. We left in the 7th inning. Who would guess these two teams would fight for the Eastern Division title the next season?

To R. Solomon: you and your friends were among the "crowd" of 6,200 plus that attended the Mets-Cubs tilt at Wrigley. Before 1984, the Cubbies would draw flies if they were out of the pennant race by September (before Harry Carey's 7th inning stretch, WGN America, the lights being installed in 1988 and the yuppie Cub fans riding the coattails of the '84 season). Btw, the attendance figures are courtesy of retrosheet.org which is a great source to look up old baseball boxscores etc...

Does anyone know why Seaver only lasted 1 inning?

From the New York Times:

"Tom Seaver pitched yesterday for the 34th and last time in his comeback season with the Mets, said that he had exceeded the expectations of 'the skeptics' and predicted that he would pitch for perhaps several more years. Seaver pitched only one inning against the Montreal Expos in Shea Stadium, then was forced to leave when he strained his lower back running on the wet turf. But the Mets scored four runs off Bill Gullickson in the home half of the inning and went on to win by 5-4. The game was supposed to be the first half of a doubleheader. But, after a delay of nearly two hours, the second game was rained out and will be played this afternoon as part of a doubleheader that will end the season."

Remember this game like it was yesterday. Doubleheader to end the season and it's on channel 9. Unbelievable finish to the second game, could not believe my eyes when Mookie Wilson scored from second base on a ground ball. Just knew next year was going to be different and it was; we were a contender now and it felt so good. Finally had something to get me through high school at La Salle!

John, I'm not trying to be the fact police...but Mookie scoring from second on a groundball did not happen in this game. Mookie actaully did it twice in less than a week earlier in 1983: in the bottom of the twelfth against the Pirates on July 31, and in the bottom of the ninth against the Expos on August 3. You can check the posts under either of those games for more details.

So many good things happened in this game. The Tim Leary era finally began, as he got his first career win--only 6 months after his first career start! And, Rusty came down to the last game with 23 PHs and 23 PH RBIs with the record for each being 25. So he couldn't get the record for pinch hits, but sure enough he came thru with a 2 RBI ph to at least tie the PH RBI record.

I remember watching this game on TV and seeing the Mets winning the final game of the 1983 season on Rusty Staub's pinch hit. Manager Frank Howard had a big smile on his face (as if to say, "What a swell way to end the season!") as the Metsies celebrated at home plate.