The Mets: How it all started for the Amazin's

The Mets: How it all started for the Amazin's

Original Mets (l. to r.) Rod Kanehl, Jim Hickman, Gil Hodges, Frank Thomas and Charlie Neal.

In honor of the Mets Golden Anniversary, heres an excerpt from the Daily News book The Mets: A 50th Anniversary Celebration. The book, available everywhere, is by News writers Andy Martino and Anthony McCarron, with a foreword by former Met Ron Darling and is published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang.

* * *

After all the heartbreak in New York over the loss of the Giants and Dodgers, after William Shea and Branch Rickey worked first to create the Continental League and then to create a new National League franchise for the city, the Mets were scheduled to begin their competitive existence on April 10 in St. Louis, but that game was postponed by rain.

With no baseball to watch, the team could retain, for one more day, its spring training optimism.

If we can make the few moves I expect, I believe we have the chance of playing .500 ball, team president George Weiss said, going on to express excitement over his new job. Its quite a thrill. Ive never been president of a ball club before. The telegrams have been streaming in, wishing us well.

The next night, all that enthusiasm dampened somewhat after a dreary 114 loss to the Cardinals, but a more exciting debut remained. After that game, the team flew to New York, where they would ride up Broadway in that ina ugural ticker tape parade. The makeup of the teams roster was clearly secondary to the citys excitement to see the senior circuit return.

That enthusiasm was, in true New York fashion, undercut by heavy sarcasm. Infielder and former Brooklyn Dodger Don Zimmer reported hearing a man shout, Zimmer, youre still a bum. Youll strike out 114 times.

Another man, this one in a construction workers helmet, yelled, You guys better do better than you did last night!

Because their new stadium in Flushing, Queens, was not nearly ready, the Mets would play in the Polo Grounds, the upper Manhattan former home of the Giants. After the parade, the team rode uptown for a workout at its temporary ballpark. Once they were there, Met luck persisted.

Preparing for their workout, the team changed into its uniforms, and then discovered that their shoes were missing. It took more than an hour for the spikes to arrive. Over on the visitors side, the Pittsburgh Pirates arrived to find that their clubhouse floors were being sanded. That forced the team to cancel its off-day workout because they could not change or shower.

Uh-oh, Mets manager Casey Stengel said. Theyll be mad at me. I told them they could use the field.