True ball fans are always gripped by the lure of arcane trivia. And franchise "first" games are one of the richest sources of such cherished, if useless, data. Especially the very first franchise games of an inaugural season, or first games held in a new ballpark. Who collected the first base hit? Who stroked the first-ever homer? Who scored the first-ever run for the home team? Who recorded the first strikeout, balk, or triple? These are the fodder of years of future barroom debates.

The first scheduled Mets game, of course, never actually happened. The new franchise was rained out of its inaugural match in St. Louis on opening day 1962 in what had to be taken as a foreshadowing of the depressing events to follow throughout the remainder of the team's first lengthy season stuffed with countless disasters. When the debut game of the 1962 NL season was finally played a day late, the actual franchise opener was about what might have been expected. Roger Craig, former Dodgers journeyman and projected Mets staff ace, opened the proceedings for the visitors in the home half of the first when he allowed the first-ever run scored against the newest NL club by balking home a Cardinal runner from third. The final count was 11-4 in the Cardinals' favor, and three Mets hurlers called upon to relieve Craig, Bob Moorhead, Herb Moford, and Clem Labine; all found other employment before the first month of the season had run its course. The first pair of franchise round trippers by another pair of ex-Dodgers - Gil Hodges and Charlie Neal - were the night's only bright spot.

The Mets' home opener two days later also ran true to expectation. It was another loss, but much closer in its final count. Yet it was a loss of the kind that would haunt the team all season long, one booted away by a whisker with the help of a series of infield and outfield defensive blunders. Two late-inning wild pitches by Ray Daviault provided a 4-3 victory for the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates. The loudest crowd response of the afternoon came in the form of raucous booing that greeted lineup introductions, when it was announced that Jim Marshall would man first base in place of an injured Gil Hodges. Only 12,000 turned out to watch the homecoming for National League baseball in New York City, and those who did attend had to endure the most uncooperative type of April baseball weather. There were snow flurries and bitter winds throughout the contest. But if the nasty springtime conditions were inappropriate for baseball, the calendar date for the affair was nonetheless absolutely perfect. League schedule makers had displayed an inspired flair for the ironic by penciling in the Mets' first-ever Polo Grounds game for Friday the 13th.

A first franchise victory, on the other hand, had plenty of tantalizing buildup. It had indeed begun to appear to the hordes of new Mets fans during the first couple of weeks of franchise life that this hastily assembled collection of big-league pretenders might actually be so bad that they would never actually win a game. By the end of week two, the club had reeled off nine straight failures and were now matched up on the season's second weekend with a hot Pittsburgh Pirates outfit that had themselves burst out of the gate with 10 straight wins. Then on April 23 in Pittsburgh's ancient Forbes Field, the New York bats finally came to life with a 14-hit outburst that was good enough for nine runs. And this time out, there was some pitching and defense to actually support the run production. Promising right-hander Jay Hook (an 18-game loser two years earlier in Cincinnati and now launched on a season that would eventually bring 19 setbacks) lasted the full nine frames of the historic and surprising 9-1 Mets rout.

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