There aren’t many things that the New York Mets can say they’ve been the best at since they came into the league in 1962. They have an all-time record well below .500, haven’t won a World Series in 32 seasons, and have never had a player win MVP. They’ve been a perennial punchline for decades, and will likely always play second-fiddle to the Yankees in New York. And there’s no indication any of this will change anytime soon.
Even the most optimistic Mets fan would likely acknowledge this.
But, if there’s one exception to this rule, it’s Opening Day, where the Mets are 36-20 all-time in their first game of the season — that’s a .643 winning percentage for those keeping track at home. No other team has an Opening Day winning percentage above .600. So perhaps it’s not the first pitch of Opening Day that marks the end of the year — as Stewie Griffin is informed in that legendary “Family Guy” clip.
Outside of the record itself, there are several reasons why this is particularly impressive. The first of which is that the Mets lost their first six Opening Day games. From 1962-1967, the Mets lost every single year on Opening Day — giving them the odd distinction of having won a World Series before they had won an Opening Day game. Go figure.
Since then, the Mets are 36-12 all-time in Game 1 — a .750 winning percentage. The Mets’ first Opening Day win came in 1970, which was a 5-3 win against the Pirates. From that year through 1994, the Mets would lose just three times on Opening Day, giving them a 22-3 record on Opening Day from 1970-1994. This includes a franchise-best nine-opener win streak from 1975-1983, which is particularly curious considering that the late-70s and early-80s are often considered to be the darkest period in Mets history. Again, go figure.
Since 1995, the Mets have fared slightly worse on Opening Day, going 14-9 in their last 23 openers. Still, though: That record gives the Mets a .608 winning percentage, which is still better than any other team has in its history.
One more “go figure” stat in Mets’ Opening Day history: They’ve had just one Opening Day losing streak since 1970, when they lost back-to-back openers in 1999 and 2000. The Mets made the playoffs both of those seasons, which marked the first instance in franchise history that the Mets made the playoffs in consecutive seasons.
The Mets should feel particularly confident when they take the diamond at Citi Field on Thursday, because they’ve been especially dominant in Opening Days at home: They’re 21-7 all-time in Opening Days in their home ballpark– 0-1 at the Polo Grounds, 17-5 at Shea Stadium, and 4-1 at Citi Field — and are still a pretty impressive 15-13 on the road. So history will be on the Mets’ side in Game 1 of the 2018 MLB season.
Games 2 through 162? Well, that remains to be seen…
