Remembering Mets Opening Days (1978) Jerry Koosman Begins His Final Mets Season with His First Opening Day Start

Mayor Ed Koch Throws Out First Pitch of 1978

April 7th, 1978: The New York Mets opened the 1978 without much fanfare or excitement. The team had traded away the beloved Tom Seaver the previous year & finished in last place.

Over the winter the Mets traded away the popular pitcher Jon Matlack & slugger John Milner. It was also just over a week after trading away another popular Met, long time short stop Bud Harrelson. 

New Mets that year included the return of short stop Tim Foli who had started out his career with New York. 

The Mets added a power hitter in "The Hot Dog" Willie Montanez to play first base. Outfielder Ken Henderson was a newcomer but would only last seven games as a Met. The Mets also added Tom Grieve & Elliott Maddox.  

Shorter Dimensions: Shea Stadium had made changes that year too. The foul lines were shortened from 341 feet to 338 feet. Previously the corners of the outfield wall had a beige brick wall with an orange line above it. If the ball had hit above the line, it would have been an official HR.

A small crowd of 11,736 came out to Shea Stadium to see Joe Torre's Mets host Dick Williams, Montreal Expos. 

For the first time in yen years, Tom Seaver was not the Mets Opening Day starter. Seaver had started every Mets Opening Day from 1968 thru 1977. This year Seaver was now opening up his first full season with the Cincinnati Reds. 

Long time Mets pitcher Jerry Koosman got the ball to make his first opening day start. Koosman had always pitched in the shadows of Seaver & was one of the game's premier left handers. 

Sadly this was also to be Koosman's last season with the Mets, as the organization fell into the dumps & traded away all their top players without making any improvements, Koosman asked for a trade at the end of year.

On this opening day, Koosman went up against Montreal veteran pitcher, Steve Rogers. 

New York City Mayor, Ed Koch threw out the ceremonial first pitch & play began.

Jerry Koosman started out shaky, he had put two runners on base in each of the first two innings but worked out of jams. 

In the bottom of the 2nd, new Met Willie Montanez doubled to left field. Next, Ken Henderson followed with another double, scoring the Hot Dog making it 1-0 Mets. 

After Lee Mazzilli grounded out, John Stearns walked & Doug Flynn followed with a base hit up the middle bringing in Ken Henderson for a 2-0 Met lead. 

The score remained that way until the top of the 6th, when Expos All Star, Gary Carter hit a solo HR, making it 2-1 Mets. Carter was coming off a 31 HR season in 1977.

In the home 6th inning, Steve Henderson singled to left to start the inning. He got to second base on Ken Hendersons ground ball out. Lee Mazzilli then doubled into left field bringing Henderson home to make it a 3-1 Mets lead.

After the Carter HR, Koosman retired the next 12 batters in a row to finish off his complete game victory. He allowed one run on eight hits, with no walks & seven strike outs.

That season, Koos would have the worst year of his career on a poor Mets team, going 3-15 but posting a decent 3.75 ERA. After the season, Koosman would get dealt to his home state of Minnesota, to pitch for the Twins. In exchange the Mets received a minor leaguer at the time, pitcher Jesse Orosco. 

Mets Trivia: Koosman was on the mound for the last out, when the Mets won the 1969 World Series & Jesse Orosco got the final out on the mound in the 1986 World Series.

The 1978 Mets would finish in last place (66-96) twenty-four games behind the Philadelphia Phillies. They would finish last three straight years from 1977 thru 1979.