Here's the initial starting lineup:
1 CF Richie Ashburn
18 SS Félix Mantilla
4 2B Charlie Neal
25 LF Frank Thomas
3 RF Gus Bell
14 1B Gil Hodges
17 3B Don Zimmer
5 C Hobie Landrith
38 P Roger Craig
If you know your New York baseball history, you know that Hodges, Zimmer and Craig were all members of the 1955 World Champion Brooklyn Dodgers. All were also members of the Dodgers' 1st title team in Los Angeles, in 1959, as was Neal.
To boost attendance, the Mets played on memories of the Dodgers, the New York Giants who were now in San Francisco, and the New York Yankees by acquiring as many players from those teams as they could, including former Yankee manager Casey Stengel. This strategy did not work.
(It also didn't work when the original 1982-83 New Jersey Devils tried to acquire as many New York Islander Stanley Cup winners as they could. As George Santayana put it, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.")
Ashburn, the Philadelphia Phillies' former All-Star, began the Mets' history by batting against the Cardinals' Larry Jackson, and flying out to Curt Flood in center field. The Cards scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 1st, including an RBI single by Stan Musial.
The Mets scored their 1st runs in the top of the 3rd. With 1 out, Ashburn singled, Mantilla drew a walk, and Neal singled Ashburn home, and Neal over to 3rd base. Thomas then hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Mantilla. That tied the game at 2-2.
The Cards struck back in the bottom of the inning, taking a 4-2 lead. Hodges hit the Mets' 1st home run in the 4th, and Neal hit one in the 5th, to close to within 5-4. But the Cards made it 6-4 in the bottom of the 5th, and 10-4 in the bottom of the 6th. They tacked on another in the 8th, to make the final score 11-4.
The Mets would get a ticker-tape parade in New York the next day, just for existing. The Yankees were the defending World Champions, and hadn't gotten one the preceding October. So they objected, and Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. gave them one on April 9.
The day after the parade -- a Friday the 13th -- the Mets had their home opener, at the Polo Grounds, and lost 4-3 to the Pittsburgh Pirates. They ended up losing their 1st 9 games, at which point they were 9 1/2 games out of 1st place. That was possible because the Dodgers were 10-0. They finally won for the 1st time on April 21, beating the Pirates 8-4 at Forbes Field.
They finished 40-120, the most losses of any MLB team since 1899. It led Stengel to say, "Come and see my amazing Mets! I been in this game 100 years, but they've shown me ways to lose I never knew existed before."
So the Mets became known as "The Amazin's." It was said that they had accomplished as much ineptitude in one year as the St. Louis Browns had in 50 years.
Finally, in 1969, "the Amazin' Mets" name stopped being a joke, and became reality.
On April 10, the Yankees opened at home, beating the Baltimore Orioles 7-6, with Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Moose Skowron homering in support of Ralph Terry.
And District of Columbia Stadium in Washington hosted its 1st baseball game on April 9, after opening in time for the previous year's football season. The Washington Senators beat the Detroit Tigers 4-1. President John F. Kennedy threw out the ceremonial first ball. He was assassinated in 1963. His brother and Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy, ran for President in 1968, and he was assassinated, too. In 1969, D.C. Stadium was renamed for him.
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