ejflor
February 10, 2005
The only opener I've been to was the Mets home opener after the strike. This was the one where the three guys ran on the field with shirts that said "Greed", threw dollar bills at the players, and then stood at second base to cheers from the crowd.

After that it was a parade of people running on the field. There were at least three others in seperate incidents, and each of them ran to the outfield to try to jump over the wall. One of them, a fat redheaded guy, ran on right after security pulled another guy off, so he was out there for at least five minutes before they came back to get him. He tried to jump the fence, but could barely even touch the top. After he realized he wasn't making it over the wall, he took pictures of the left fielder, I forget who, and Brett Butler in center. Butler took off his hat and posed for him, holding his hat in the crook of his arm, logo forward.

All in all, a fun day.

jay bee
June 24, 2006
I remember this game vividly. As I recall there were only 26,000 of us there but it was the most raucous, rowdy crowd I have ever been in. There must have been at least 10 delays of fans running on the field. The classic was the heavy guy taking Brett Butlers picture in CF, then trying to climb over the fence, to no avail. The game was marred by numerous fights un the stands. I saw MSG analyst Dave Simms after the game, and he said in all his years he has never seem such a wild stadium. Todd Hundley came through with a big bases loaded hit, and this Met fan and his bussies went home happy after a long strike.

Jimrat
April 30, 2009
This was the Mets' only home opener at Shea Stadium that was ever played at night. It wasn't scheduled that way originally, but the delay in starting the season caused by the strike of '94 forced this 7:00PM starting game to serve as the home debut for '95. Every other Shea opener between 1964 and 2008 was played during the daytime.

Dave VW
April 12, 2023
It's kinda sad the big story of this game wasn't the Mets comeback from 5 runs down but instead the 5 times (at least that's how many delays I counted while watching the broadcast) fans ran on the field. It was a real sign of disrespect, not only for the game and players, but also for law enforcement. It takes a special kind of person to know a few seconds of hamming it up on the field will lead to their inevitable arrest. I was also going to post about the anecdote that Jimrat shared -- this was the Mets first ever home opener played at night.

As far as the actual game was concerned, it wasn't a good one if you enjoy good pitching and defense. Bret Saberhagen got tagged for 7 runs, the most he gave up in 16 starts with the Mets in 1995. I think the Mets also could have easily been charged with two errors in the 4th inning, when David Segui came up way short on a dive attempt in left field and had the ball kick off his glove, allowing opposing pitcher Allen Watson (who hit .417 in 1995!) to get a double. The next batter, Bernard Gilkey, hit a sharp grounder to 1B that Rico Brogna had lined up but let the ball bounce over his glove for an RBI single. But no errors were charged all inning, nor against the Mets all game.

The same couldn't be said for the Cardinals, as Ozzie Smith and Scott Cooper committed errors in the 8th that allowed the Mets to score their final run of the game. By the way, both baseball-reference and this website have the order of the errors incorrect for some reason. It was Ozzie who booted Jose Vizcaino's grounder to lead off the inning, and Cooper who had the throwing error on Jeff Kent's grounder. Whoops!

Newcomer Carl Everett hit a home run on the very first pitch he ever saw as a home player at Shea Stadium, going deep to lead off the bottom of the 3rd. He also had a huge OF assist to end the top of the 7th, which helped keep the Mets down by just 2. Brogna led off the bottom of the 7th with a homer, and then the Mets loaded the bases with 1 out after St. Louis opted to intentionally walk Everett to face Todd Hundley in the hopes of coaxing a double play. Instead, Todd slammed one to the fence in left-center field, scoring a pair to give the Mets their first lead of the contest.

There were some other things I noticed that were new in 1995. I believe this is the first year the Mets installed the scrolling ad banner behind home plate. They also starting using Tag Team's "Whoomp There it is" as the home run song. And John Franco sported a different look from year's passed, going with the goatee instead of the mustache and growing out a bit of a mullet. It was nice to see him strike out the side and look like a true closer after quite a few years of giving fans heart palpitations every time he took the mound.