Remembering Mets Opening Days (1979) Mets Score Ten Runs at Wrigley Field in Jesse Orosco's MLB Debut

January 1st, 1979: Effective at the start the new year, Mets President Lorinda de Roulet fired longtime Mets chairman M. Donald Grant. After the death of de Roulet's mother Joan Payson, she inherited a team she didn't really want. She knew nothing about baseball & let Grant run the show.

Grant did not evolve with the times. Although the Mets were one of the games richest teams, he didn't want to spend money, refusing to give into the new era of free agency. With his ego, he looked down on the players. Grant brought the Mets organization into the depths of last place & it took years to get out of it. In the late 1970's Shea Stadium became known as "Grant's Tomb" as the fans stopped showing up.

Less than two years earlier, Grant was responsible for trading Tom Seaver away.  In the past he was also responsible for the bad trades losing Rusty Staub, Nolan Ryan, Tug McGraw, Jon Matlack, Amos Otis & Dave Kingman. 

Coming into the 1979 season, the Mets had now parted ways with long tie pitcher Jerry Koosman, leaving only Ed Kranepool from the 1969 Championship team a decade ago. 

Trivia: In exchange for Koosman the Mets received pitcher Jesse Orosco who would debut on this day & be a big piece of the 1986 Mets Championship team's bullpen.

Another new Mets player debuting on Opening Day was veteran Richie Hebner from the Phillies. Hebner also a long time Pittsburgh Pirate was nicknamed "the Grave Digger" as he had one time worked in a graveyard digging graves in the off season.

A Change in the Broadcasts: Also gone this year was original Mets broadcaster; Lindsey

Nelson. After 17 seasons, the legendary Mets broadcasting team of Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy & Ralph Kiner was over. Nelson went on to work for the San Francisco Giants & his replacement in New York was Steve Albert.

Mets Uniform Trivia: The 1979 season would be the first year the Mets donned the players names on the back of their uniforms.

Thursday April 5th, 1979: s a The Mets opened the 1979 season at Wrigley Field in Chicago in what was to be a wild start to the season. 35,615 Fans came out to a windy Wrigley Field as Herman Franks & his Cubs hosted Joe Torre's New York Mets. 

These were the NL Easts two worst teams for the next two years, as the Cubs would finish fifth (80--82) ahead of last place New York (63-99). In 1980 the Mets would finish fifth ahead of the last place Cubs. These were bad times for the two big cities NL teams.

The Mets sent Craig Swan to start the season in his first of his two Opening Day starts. Swan was the 1979 NL ERA leader (2.43) he was 9-6 on bad team. Swan was a solid pitcher for the Mets for 12 seasons going 59-71 on many bad teams with a 3.72 ERA & 12.9 WAR. Today he took on the Cubs' popular Rick Reuschel. In a 19-year career he spent 12 seasons in Chicago going 135-127 with a 3.50 ERA & 48.3 WAR.

In the top of the 1st inning, Lee Mazzilli led off & grounded out. Next, rookie Kelvin Chapman in his MLB debut & newcomer Richie Hebner both collected base hits. John Stearns sac fly brought in Chapman with the first run of the year. 

In the bottom of the 1st, the Cubs answered as Ivan DeJesus led off with a double. After Swan retired the next two Cubs, former Met Dave Kingman singled home Ivan Dejesus to tie the game. 

In the bottom of the 3rd, Ted Sizemore singled for Chicago & Kingman struck again with a double to left field scoring Sizemore making it 2-1 Cubs.

In the top of the 4th, the Grave Digger, Richie Hebner blasted a solo HR to tie the game.

Craig Swan & Rick Reuschel held the tie thru the first four innings. 

In the top of the 5th with two outs, pitcher Craig Swan singled & Lee Mazzilli drew a walk. Then, Kelvin Chapman singled up the middle, scoring in Swan. Next Richie Hebner collected his third hit of the game, with a doubled scoring both Chapman & Mazzilli making it 5-2 Mets.

In the bottom of the 6th, Kingman hit his first HR of the season, making it a 5-3 game. 

Kingman Trivia: Kong would go on to lead the NL with 48 HRs that season. He also hit a career best .288 & in typical Kingman fashion he also led the league in strike outs (139).

In the top of the 7th inning, the Mets exploded for five runs, five hits while sending nine men to the plate.

Lee Mazzilli led off with a base hit, stole second & reached third on a wild pitch. That year Mazzilli would steal 34 bases, bat .303 make the All-Star Team & have the games winning hit.

Cubs' manager Herman Franks removed Rick Reuschel, after 6.1 innings he gave up six runs on eight hits, striking out six & walking two. Willie Hernandez came on to pitch.

After kelvin Chapman was retired, Richie Hebner collected his third extra base hit of the game, with an RBI double making it 6-3 Mets.

Trivia: Hebner would play just one season with the Mets not enjoying his time & wanting out at the end of the year. That season he tied with Lee Mazzilli for the team lead in RBIs (79) hit 10 HRs 25 doubles & bat .268 with a .747 OPS. In October 1979 he was traded to Detroit for Jerry Morales & Phil Mankowski.

Willie Hernandez then walked John Stearns & gave up a base hit to Willie Montanez loading the bases. Hernandez was done & Donnie Moore came into pitch.

Steve Henderson collected a two-run single, Eliott Maddox then collected an RBI base hit & lastly Doug Flynn's Fielder's Choice brought in Steve Henderson with the Mets tenth run. They had a 10-3 lead.

Craig Swan pitched a decent game, going eight innings allowing three runs on nine hits with three strike outs & a walk. 

In the 9th inning, Dwight Bernard came in & had a rough outing. After recording the first out, Jerry Martin doubled. Bernard then struck out Barry Foote. 

Then with two outs Scott Thompson singled bringing in Martin. Ivan Dejesus singled & Ted Sizemore hit a two-run doubled making it 10-6.

Mets manager Joe Torre had enough, he went to his bullpen bringing in young Jesse Orosco for his MLB debut. Orosco was donning uniform #61. Jesse got Bill Buckner to fly out to right field, ending the game.

New York won the opener 10-6 & would take the first two games of the season at Wrigley Field.

They would lose their home opener & lose four of five on the first home stand.

The 1979 Mets as a team finished 63-99 in sixth place.