Acing Opening Day

After losing their first eight Opening Days from 1962 to 1969, the Mets finally got their first W on the season's first day in 1970, when they beat the Pirates, 5-3, in 11 innings. From that day forward, they're 31-9 on Opening Day following today's game in Cincinnati, and that .775 winning percentage is baseball's best in that span. Add in those eight losses for a 31-17 mark, and the .646 winning percentage still leads MLB.

Unlike some won-loss records in baseball, this one has some weight to it. Whereas some team-vs.-team records (or pitcher-vs.-team records) are a bit hollow -- because the players on both sides change, rendering the numbers little more than uniform-vs.-uniform -- the Mets' Opening Day mark is an indication of just how strong the front of their rotation has been over the past four decades. If the franchise has come to be known for developing a certain type of player over its nearly 50-year existence, starting pitching is it.

A look at their Opening Day starters shows a few Hall of Famers or potential Hall of Famers (and one who was believed ticketed for Cooperstown before derailing his career with substance abuse): Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden, Tom Glavine and Johan Santana among them. Seaver started 11 openers, including 10 straight from 1968-77; Gooden had eight scattered from 1985-94; Glavine took the ball for four of the five from 2003-07, with Pedro Martinez getting the other one; and Santana has had the last two.

Those five hurlers account for 26 of the 48 openers including today, and with this afternoon's win, the Mets' record in those 26 games is 19-8. Also scattered in there are starts by Bobby Ojeda (a win in 1987), David Cone (a win in 1992), Al Leiter (a loss in 1999, wins in 2001 and '02) and Mike Hampton (a loss in 2000). Those arms don't belong to journeymen, at least not at that stage of their careers (particularly in Hampton's case, who was an ace when he arrived via trade but quickly fell to journeyman status when he signed with Colorado). They were all considered solid No. 1 starters, if not traditional aces, and their Opening Day starts led to a 4-2 mark, bringing the team's record in this selection of games to 23-10.

With that kind of pedigree on the arms the Mets have sent to the hill for the first pitch of the season, it's no wonder they've won more than 75 percent of their season openers since 1970 and 64 percent overall.

Surely some not-so-free agents

If money were no object, some team in baseball could potentially add nine future Hall of Famers to its roster this offseason, including what is obviously a baseball first: available sluggers who have reached the 700, 600, 500, 400 and 300 home-run plateaus.

First, the possible -- not all probable -- Hall of Famers: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Tom Glavine, Andruw Jones, Mike Piazza, Mariano Rivera, Alex Rodriguez, Curt Schilling and Sammy Sosa. I'm not going to go into here the debate about whether Jones and Schilling are Hall of Famers, just like I'm not bothering with the technicality that Clemens hasn't filed (and could very well retire) and that Sosa's election to the Hall is very much in doubt.

And the homers:

Bonds, 762
Sosa, 609
A-Rod, 518
Piazza, 427
Jones, 368

Even in such a weak free-agent class, some video-game roster finagling could still produce a pretty competitive team. Obviously age is a factor in the real world, but not on the Xbox -- particularly if you turn off the injuries. A rotation consisting of Clemens, Glavine, Schilling, Kenny Rogers and Livan Hernandez would pile up some wins. Todd Jones or Eric Gagne could close. First base would be a problem -- Doug Mientkiewicz and Ryan Klesko seem to be the only options, unless you count Julio Franco -- but Kaz Matsui is there at second, David Eckstein at shortstop and A-Rod, obviously, at third. Or go with A-Rod at short and Pedro Feliz at third. The outfield has options from Bonds, Jones, Sosa (left to right) to an all-center lineup of Jones, Torii Hunter and Aaron Rowand, or some other grouping. Mike Piazza, Paul Lo Duca and Jorge Posada are there to catch.

But the team would probably have a payroll of $300 million, a tenth of that spent on A-Rod alone.

Sprinting from the gate

I don't know that my mom is superstitious per se, but she'll make a comment or joke about maintaining her routine during a baseball or football game if the Mets or Notre Dame have been playing well. "I don't want to jinx it," she'll explain.

She's been out of the country all week, touring Poland and Czechoslovakia -- or maybe just the Czech Republic -- as a chaperone on a school trip. While she's been away, the Mets have gotten off to their first 4-0 start since 1985. "Guess I'll just have to stay in Europe until November," she'll say.

The group flies home tomorrow -- they'll be in the air during the Mets' 3:55 p.m. ET (thanks, Fox) matchup with the Braves. If Tom Glavine throws the first no-hitter in franchise history, she'll probably think she has to fly during every one of their games this season.

I can hardly believe the 4-0 start myself. I was nervous on Sunday afternoon, eager for the season yet also wary. Would Tom Glavine show his age? (I'm sure he will at some point this season.) Can the lineup come together? (They hadn't hit together but two or three times all spring.) Will the pitching hold up? (Clearly there are questions at the back of the rotation, but how would bullpen newcomers Joe Smith, Ambiorix Burgos and Aaron Sele fare?)

Um, I think those questions have been answered. Yes, it's only four games -- in a leisurely six days to boot. But the Mets have outscored the Cardinals (not a dominant lineup, but one with some huge threats in Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen and even Chris Duncan) and Braves (coming off a season-opening sweep in Philadelphia, where they scored only four fewer runs than the Mets did in St. Louis) by a combined 31-3.

Thirty-one to three.

I'd say that's a good start.

Not a good sign from those Mets

Something didn't sit well with me as we left Shea Stadium on Sunday. That wasn't a good way to end the homestand, not a good way to head out on a season-high 12-game road trip. The Mets went 6-6 on their longest stretch in Queens for the season, losing two of three to the woeful Astros and letting the rubber game against the first-place Angels of The O.C. slip away.

Winding down the ramps, I had the feeling that this was the beginning of the slide that they'll be talking about in September.

Of course, I hope I'm wrong, but Tuesday's lifeless start to the road trip (a 5-0 loss to a weak Oakland club and a starter, Joe Blanton, who was 1-6 with an ERA over 5.00 coming into the game) and last night's additional bullpen failure only strengthened my initial hypothesis. The Mets need Kris Benson to be a stopper this afternoon.

On June 16 last year, the Mets were 30-34, so their current 32-32 record is just two games better. They reached 43-40 on July 7, 2004, and 44-41 two days later, but they went into the All-Star break at 44-43 and emerged from it by losing four of six to fall to 46-47, and it spiraled from there.

These are games the Mets should be winning. Tom Glavine and Victor Zambrano have pitched well of late, while Blanton and Dan Haren have struggled. Why did the Yankees win 10 in a row in May after falling eight games below .500? Because they played 12 straight against Oakland and Seattle. The Mets should've taken two of three from both of those teams, but now to go 4-2 on this West Coast swing, they'll need to win the last four — one in Oakland and three in Seattle.

July 18 was the last time the Mets were above .500 in 2004; July 21 was the last time they were at the break-even mark. They're going to have to fix some things in order to surpass those marks this season.

* * *
Just twice in the past 50 years have two Ivy League players started for the same team. The second pair is the Rangers' Chris Young (Princeton) and Mark DeRosa (Penn).

Just found that interesting.

Extra Innings Blogging

Don't know why I started to do this, but I had all these thoughts and observations as I was flipping through some ballgames in the early part of the evening before dinner, and before watching some other TV. So I wrote them out.

Mets at Braves, 8:10 p.m. I’d forgotten that Mets announcer Ted Robinson went to Notre Dame, until a friend just reminded me. I looked him up in the alumni directory – his major (American Studies) and dorm (Grace Hall) were the same as my own. Though he graduated (May 1978) four months before I turned 2 and seven months before my sister was born. … The Mets are getting guys on, and running (stolen bases for Jose Reyes, third, and Mike Cameron, second, in the first), but they’re stranding the runners. Mike Piazza struck out with two on in the first, and Doug Mientkiewicz hit into what I think Robinson said was his third double play in as many as bats, going back to last night’s game.

Phillies at Marlins, 8:15 p.m. Man, is Brett Myers on this year or what? He’s dealing again in Florida – four shutout innings now, a 2-0 lead. He’s become the stopper in that rotation – the guy they want going to the mound to end a losing streak. And for the Phillies lately, any visit to Miami has prompted a losing streak.

Mets at Braves, 8:23 p.m. Sorry, I’ll be coming back to this one a lot. Tim Hudson’s laboring tonight. Three hits, a walk, and he’s gone to three-ball counts on a couple of hitters already, and there’s two outs in the third. Fifty-two pitches after he gets Piazza looking at a full-count pitch clearly over the inner half of the plate, two runners left. Swing, man! David Wright’s continuing his tear with a single in his first at bat, now 4-for-4 with a walk in his last five trips to the plate. He’s 11-for-19 to this moment during his six-game hitting streak.

Rockies at Brewers, 8:32 p.m. Milwaukee’s staked Victor Santos to a 3-0 lead after one. I’m hoping for a second straight stellar spot start from a Brewers starter for my fantasy team. I had Chris Capuano last night and dumped him for Santos tonight. I figured the young Rocks – the youngest team in the majors, the graphic on FSN North just told me – will come through for me again. On the mound for Colorado is Jeff Francis, the Rockies’ young stud prospect, whom I drafted but had to cut loose.

Red Sox at Blue Jays, 8:34 p.m. Top of the sixth, 4-3 Blue Jays. David Wells is struggling this season.

Phillies at Marlins, 8:35 p.m. Kenny Lofton walks, drops the bat across the plate and sort of hot-dogs it down to first, and apparently Josh Beckett didn’t like it. There were words, and Lofton took a few steps toward the mound halfway down the line. There were discussions among umpires, and between umpires and coaches. Nothing happened, just a bunch of inflated egos brushing in the Miami night.

Twins at Indians, 8:36 p.m. It’s 1-1 with an out in the top of the sixth, but Minnesota has runners at first and third. I’d considered both Jake Westbrook, who’s pitched well against the Twins this season, and Cleveland starter Joe Mays for spot starts, but Santos’s numbers and matchup were too good to overlook.

Mets at Braves, 8:37 p.m. Woah. In the 15 minutes it took me to surf through all those other games, Tom Glavine’s dispatched the Braves in the bottom of the third and Hudson already has two Mets (including Wright) out in the top of the fourth. Still scoreless. Could be a pitchers duel between Hudson and the classic Glavine.

Tigers at Yankees, 8:39 p.m. Had to take a look. 7-0 Yanks, bottom of the fifth, runner on second, A-Rod up, no outs. Ho-hum. Yeah, the Yankees have won 12 of 14 since the big panic move of early May, but that could have been predicted when you realized that they had 12 straight against Oakland and Seattle. And the Mets should’ve won two of three over the weekend, but they gave away Sunday’s game to those Bronx boys. I might make it back to this game.

Mets at Braves, 8:41 p.m. Hey, Mientkiewicz is on first! Way to get Glavine to the plate now, rather than leading off the fifth.

Twins at Indians, 8:42 p.m. I guess Jacques Jones got that runner in from third. It’s hard to tell what I miss when I leave a channel, because Yahoo’s box scores aren’t updating and I don’t feel like jumping over to ESPN or one of the other sites. So I’ll just move on …

Phillies at Marlins, 8:43 p.m. One-hundred pitches for Beckett with two outs in the sixth. First and third, David Bell up with a 2-2 count. Still 2-0. Bell down looking on a curve – perhaps questionable – at the letters.

Mariners at Orioles, 8:44 p.m. Two outs with Rafael Palmeiro up. I’m hitting a lot of games when they have two outs in an inning at the moment. 2-1 Seattle in the third, runner on first. I haven’t seen many games at Camden Yards so far this season, but I don’t remember noticing that, behind the plate, not only do they have a brick wall creating the border between seats and field, but the gate behind the plate has a brick design on it. Kinda funny. Palmeiro down swinging on a changup.

Red Sox at Blue Jays, 8:46 p.m. This one’s moving along. Top of the seventh. You can kind of see where I’m flipping through the Extra Innings channels by looking at the order of the games. At the moment, I’m going up from 441 to 449 (those with games on at the moment); earlier, I’d gone from 449 down to 442. But now I’ve got to go eat dinner. It’s a late one tonight.

Mets at Braves, 9 p.m. The Braves went up 1-0 and they played that stupid, insulting, annoying tomahawk chant. Idiots. Then they tried to squeeze in a run, but Glavine dove and flipped the ball home for the out. Suckers.

OK, I’m done for now. Time to watch some other things, as per the lady’s wishes.

Minaya knows when to let go

This week's New York magazine has a great article on Omar Minaya and the Mets. It delves into Minaya's professional history and his plan of action after returning to the Mets at GM back in September.

I took particular note to the paragraphs that talked about Al Leiter's departure. I'd heard a lot before, from Leiter's 20-minute-plus discussion with Steve Somers on WFAN back in December to various articles -- particularly in today's Daily News, where Leiter blames his departure, in part, on "Mike & The Mad Dog" on FAN. I mean, c'mon, Al. Please.

Then, on Michael Kay's show on the way home tonight, a caller talked about the running back situation with the Jets and compared it to the Knicks in 1994 with Patrick Ewing. This caller felt that the move 11 years ago would've been to trade Ewing when they could've gotten several top players and/or first-round picks in return. He wondered if maybe the Jets should've done the same -- trade Curtis Martin, last season's NFL rushing leader, for a player to fill a need and a first-round pick and a later-round pick or two. Promote the promising Lamont Jordan to starting running back. Kay agreed he had a point, adding that he felt the downfall of the Boston Celtics was their determination to hold onto the past and not cutting ties with Larry Bird, Robert Parrish and Kevin McHale when they could no longer carry the team deep into the playoffs.

Minaya's doing what the Jets, Knicks and Celtics probably should have done. He's said goodbye to 39-year-old Al Leiter and 57-year-old John Franco, two longtime Mets who deserve a special place in fans' hearts, but not on the roster anymore. It won't surprise me if he does the same this offseason with Tom Glavine and Mike Piazza, unless, of course, the right deal comes up in July. It might be tough to replace Piazza with anything more than a weak-bat, strong-glove kind of backstop, but a good defensive catcher presumably will be the final piece needed to shore up the defense up the middle. Sign Charles Johnson for a year, finally make that trade involving Mike Cameron or Cliff Floyd, and use the money for a big bat in the outfield. Next winter, we should see Brian Giles and Lance Berkman on the market.

Piazza has long been my favorite Met since I looked up at the bar TV at Craigville Pizza and Mexican in Hyannisport, Massachusetts, and saw the trade announced on SportsCenter. But now there's David Wright, Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran. There's Pedro and Kris Benson and you just can't have a 37-year-old catcher as the heart of your order in the National League and expect to have a shot at going far into October. Come November, I'll be ready to let go. He's done enough to have that interlocking "NY" on his Cooperstown plaque in seven or eight years.

March is here. Exhibition games have begun, tickets to six Mets games and a Giants game are already in my possession, with more untold games to plan. Opening Day is four weeks from Monday.

It just can't go by fast enough.

On fantasy trades and no-hitters

The Late Show's Top Ten Cool Things About Pitching A Perfect Game

As read by Randy Johnson on May 19, 2004:

10. "After this, I can go 0-15 for the year and honestly not give a crap."
9. "My pre-game dinner at Denny's tonight? On the house!"
8. "Shows everyone that even though I'm 40, I can still ... I'm sorry, I lost my train of thought."
7. "Cool to get congratulatory call from the President, even though he kept calling me "Larry."
6. "Can walk up to guys who've thrown no-hitters and whisper, 'Loser.'"
5. "All the pine tar I can eat!"
4. "Your catcher hugs you and it feels kinda ... nice"
3. "Maybe people will finally forget about the time I killed that bird."
2. "It's just one more thing about me that's perfect, am I right, ladies?"
1. "George Steinbrenner just offered me a billion dollars to sign with the Yankees."

Maybe two weeks before Randy Johnson's perfect game last week, a Red Sox fan in my fantasy league e-mailed to see if I'd trade him Curt Schilling for Johnson. He was wary of making the "homer" trade, thinking Johnson could be slightly better than Schilling this year. I thought otherwise, and turned it down.

Then Johnson went out and lost 1-0 to the Mets, pitching a great game. He followed that up with perfection.

My thinking was this: Schilling and Johnson can have very similar numbers on the same team, but now Schilling is on a better team. I figured his numbers had the potential to be better. Besides, Schilling's injury last year wasn't a common pitching injury -- he broke some bones in his hand on a hard hit up the middle. It wasn't a shoulder or elbow injury, no rotator cuff or ligament damage. If anything, it allowed him to rest his arm and throw less innings last year. Johnson's injury was different: It was his knee, and some reports say it's still suspect, that as long as the pain remains minor, or as long as he can pitch through it, he'll go on. But when that pain threshold gets too high, he's in trouble. Our league also doesn't have DL slots, a decision I abhor and a fight I've not been able to win with the majority of our 10 members voting against it. Without any DL slots and with our lineup settings, any injured players have to become part of our five-man bench. So if you have four injured hitters and two of your bench spots are taken up by pitchers, then you've got to cut somebody just to get another hitter to put into your lineup. So I couldn't take the chance that I'd be trading my No. 1 pitcher (and one of my three keepers from last year) for a very similar pitcher on a weaker team who, if he went down, would leave me without a No. 1 starter. Yes, if Schilling goes down, I have the same problem, but at least that's one that didn't have the warning signs of a potential Johnson injury.

* * *

As some writers and announcers are fond of saying, for the 6,706th time since the team's inception in 1962, a Mets pitcher failed to throw a no-hitter. Tom Glavine came close yesterday, taking a perfect game into the seventh inning and giving up the only hit in his 4-0 complete-game win with two outs in the eighth.

Four outs away. Again.

And, for the record, I was offered Glavine in a trade in the same fantasy league about a month ago. Turned that one down too. Decided to keep Juan Pierre.

I've watched so many Mets games get past the fifth with a 0 in the hits column for the opposing team. I once remained in the same horizontal position on the couch one night as David Cone mowed down the Phillies or the Braves or whoever it was in the late 80s that he nearly no-hit. I didn't move until he gave up that first hit, and by then I really had to go to the bathroom. I've seen two minor-league no-hitters in person, but I've yet to watch one in the majors even on TV -- most likely owing to the fact that the Mets are usually the only games I watch from the beginning and, well, you know. I was at the ballpark on September 2, 1990, when Dave Steib threw one for the Blue Jays, but that was in Cleveland and I was at Shea.

Maybe I'll see one tomorrow night. I'll be at Shea when Steve Trachsel, who threw one of the Mets' two one-hitters in three games last year, faces the Phillies. It's my fourth Mets game this season ... and my fourth Steve Trachsel start this season. He's quickly become the pitcher I've seen throw the most innings in person in my lifetime. Last offseason, I discovered Retrosheet and began the process of cataloging ever major league game I've attended. I remembered many of them offhand, not by date, but by pitcher, home run, event, etc. I remembered Lenny Dykstra's inside-the-park home run for the Phillies against the Mets, and found the date of July 24, 1990, in a Phillies media guide I have. I recalled Joe McEwing and Mike Piazza homering off Randy Johnson on a Sunday afternoon at Shea in 2000, so I browsed for that box score. I consulted friends and family who attended certain games for their recollections, and I dug out old scrapbooks for ticket stubs. I'm certain I got every one, which is now up to 85 games since my first one in August 1983, and I would also count the 1989 Mets-Yankees exhibition game at Shea at the end of spring training, since it was two major league teams in a major-league park close enough to the regular season, but I can't find a box score. Because I can't remember exactly when I got to the park, or if we left early, or when I was in the bathroom and missed an at bat or four, I used artistic license to just count all stats from every game for which I had a ticket. If I was in the ballpark for an inning, I was in the ballpark for five innings, and the stats count.

So Trachsel leads in individual innings pitched, and Mike Piazza has both games played (24) and at bats (91). I've yet to scour the data for leaders in all the other categories, but I do know this:

• I've been to 16 ballparks, including the now-retired (and, in some cases, razed) Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, County Stadium in Milwaukee and Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

• The Mets are 21-22 in the 43 games I've seen them play. The Yankees are second with 22 (14-8), the Phillies third with 11 (4-7). The Braves and Pirates, with nine each, lead the teams more than a two-hour drive from the Jersey Shore.

• I've seen all 30 teams play at least once.

• At 3-0, the Royals are the only team undefeated in more than one game I've attended.

• The Dodgers are the opposite at 0-3.

• The Brewers are 2-0 as a National League team (a win each at County Stadium and Wrigley Field), 0-1 as an American League team (at Yankee Stadium).

• After attending one game in 1983 (Yankees 2, Angels 1, August 21) and two in 1985 (the Mets split at Shea, losing to Cincinnati and beating Chicago), I've seen at least one game every year since 1988.

• The 12 games I attended in 2000 are the most in one season, followed by 1990's 10.

• July's 21 games is tops by month, followed by June's 16 and September's 15.

• I've seen four October games, two of them postseason (the Mets' Game 1 NLCS loss in Atlanta in 1999 and their Game 5 NLCS clinching victory over St. Louis to send them to the 2000 Subway Series).

Tomorrow we'll see if the Mets can break .500 for 2004 and reach .500 for my career, and if

Trachsel can improve upon his 2.48 ERA, his 1.20 WHIP and his 2-2 record in 40 innings over six starts.

And just maybe a no-hitter.