In the Year 2000: April

For an intro to this series, see the Pregame Show. If you're nostalgic for the previous year's team, peep The 1999 Project.

April 3: In their proper home opener, the Mets rode eight excellent innings from Al Leiter (who stayed in Florida as his teammates traveled to the Far East) to a 2-1 victory over the Padres. The team could do little against San Diego starter Sterling HItchock until a walk, a single, and a Todd Zeile sac fly tied the game at 1. Derek Bell hit a two-out solo homer in the bottom of the eighth to put the Mets ahead, and Armando Benitez worked a 1-2-3 top of the ninth for his first save of the year.

Bell received a curtain call from the home crowd and a reprimand from the league office, which believed his baggy jersey ("my hip hop unform," in his words) did not conform to their uniform regulations. The outfielder complied by wearing a more snug jersey in the future, though he continued to wear a pair of Mpants.

One person less than thrilled about the dramatic victory: Rickey Henderson, who declared, "I just ain't into it right now, that's all." The mercurial outfielder met with GM Steve Phillips to try and resolve their mutual issues, but apparently to no one's satisfaction. In response to scrutiny from the local press, Henderson imposed a one-month "protest" against the media. An anonymous teammate grumbled "Rickey is Rickey."

April 5-9: Making his first start since May of 1999, Bobby Jones couldn't get out of the third inning against the Padres, and the bats could not bail him out in a cold, listless 4-0 loss. Mike Hampton made his New York debut the following night and gave up four runs in six innings, as his teammates made several errors in the field and the basepaths en route to an embarrassing 8-5 defeat. (A Todd Pratt three-run homer in the eighth made the score appear more respectable than it deserved to be.)

To make matters worse, injuries already began to sprout like weeds. Al Leiter revealed he suffered a groin strain and would miss his next start. Darryl Hamilton was dealing with pain in his left big toe so severe he was contemplating retirement. He was placed on the 15-day DL, a move that would spare Benny Agbayani from demotion for the time being.

The homestand ended with an abbreviated two-game set against the Dodgers. After squeaking out a 2-1 win in the first game behind 7 2/3 innings from Rick Reed, it looked like the Mets would have their first winning streak of the year when they took a 5-1 lead into the ninth of game two. But John Franco allowed a solo homer and a three-run shot to allow the Dodgers to tie, and Benitez gave up a home run to Eric Karros in the top of tenth that led to a crushing 6-5 loss.

Franco was booed off the mound but shook it off. "I've been booed for 11 years," he said. The loss denied Pat Mahomes his first victory as a starter since 1994. The last game against LA was postponed due to a rare April snow-out.

April 10-13: For their first stateside road trip, the Mets traveled down the Turnpike to Philadelphia and promptly found their bats in a four-run first inning. But Bobby Jones let the Phillies find theirs in a five-run second. Despite their best offensive showing yet, the Mets found themselves on the wrong side of a 9-7 slugfest. Then, Hampton was cuffed for six runs in only three innings in an 8-5 loss that set off panic buttons. (The fact that Ordonez committed his third error of the season in this game, after having virtually none the year before, was seen by many as a harbinger of doom.) Despite being 0-3 on the year, Hampton insisted his problems were "more mental than physical".

The Mets salvaged the last game of the series thanks to another great performance from Rick Reed, a ninth inning RBI double by Piazza, and the fleet feet of Jay Payton, all of which secured a 2-1 win. Strangely, all of their victories outside of Japan so far had come by the same score.

April 14-16: In the unseasonably warm series opener in Pittsburgh, Armando Benitez came within one out of preserving a win for Al Leiter, but a Jason Kendall double and a Pat Meares triple in the bottom of the ninth tied the game at 4. The game dragged on into the night until Melvin Mora's two-run bloop single in the top of the 12th, which ultimately led to an exhausting 8-5 win. The next night, Glendon Rusch went the distance in his first start of the year, but took the loss as the Mets were shutout 2-0 (in a game completed in an astonishing 1 hour, 57 minutes). In the series closer, both Rickey Henderson and Bobby Jones were lost to injury (Jones strainied his right calf while covering first base two batters into the game and wound up on the DL), but the Mets managed to outlast the Pirates 12-9.

During the Pittsburgh trip, Valentine was visited by GM Steve Phillips, who was irked by comments the manager made during a speech at the Wharton School of Business. The comments were recounted by a Wharton student on the Mets' official Web site, then hastily removed. Among other things, Valentine said he didn't like the signing of Todd Zeile to play first base, and that he was "forced" to play Derek Bell because of his salary (even though Bell had hit well so far, especially compared to many of his teammates). For his part, Valentine thought it "ludicrous" that such comments would be any kind of issue, but he was concerned enough about the remarks to allegedly request a tape of the talk be destroyed (how serious this request was is a matter of interpretation).

April 18-27: After a day off, the Mets returned to Shea to begin a long homestand that saw the team get into its first real groove of the season: a long winning streak full of plenty of offense, late inning heroics, and all the other mojo that to this point they had been lacking.

First, they pounded the Brewers for 10 runs, including Robin Ventura's 14th career grand slam, and held on for a 10-7 win. Mike Hampton finally earned his first win as a Met ("I kind of felt like me again," he said) and contributed at the plate with two hits and two walks. The next night, Rick Reed took a line drive off his left hand four pitches into his start, but recovered to turn in yet another brilliant performance in a tidy 3-1 victory. In the series finale, the Mets rallied for three runs in the seventh to tie the game at 4, then won in it in the bottom of the 10th on a Melvin Mora home run--a bomb that bounced off the camera tower in straight-away center--to complete a sweep of Milwaukee.

When the Cubs came to town, the Mets found their offense and then some, pounding out 30 total runs in the series. They swept both halves of a rain-necessitated doubleheader, cruising to an 8-3 win in the first game behind Glendon Rusch, then holding off a late rally to take the second game, 7-6 (with veteran knuckleballer Dennis Springer the emergency starter in place of the injured Jones). To close it out, Mike Hampton gave up 5 runs in seven innings of work, but his teammates more than compensated for it in a 15-8 victory that swept Chicago out of Shea. During the series, Valentine made a point of bringing the lineup card to home plate--something he never did--just to insist there were no hard feelings with Cubs manager Don Baylor after the lineup card kerfuffle in Tokyo (or perhaps, just to irk him even more).

The bats disappeared the following day, in an afternoon makeup game against the Dodgers, but the Mets still managed to eke out a win. With no score in the bottom of the ninth, they loaded the bases with nobody out, then scored the game's only run when Matt Franco bounced a single up the middle that just eluded reliever Terry Adams. "I was too relieved to be excited at that point," said the slumping Franco, who had only two hits on the year so far.

The Mets capped their nine-game winning streak with some sweet revenge. In the series opener against the Reds, they rallied on a Derek Bell homer and a bases-loaded walk to take a 6-5 into the ninth. Armando Benitez was brought on to get the save, but a leadoff walk meant he'd have to face Ken Griffey Jr. as the tying run with two out. Griffey had been booed all game for the well-publicized sin of not wanting to be traded to New York, but the Mets got the last laugh when he was called out on strikes to end the game.

The series came to an end in deflating fashion, when the Mets and Dennis Springer (starting in place of Rick Reed, still smarting from the shot he took off his hand) were pounded 12-1, then blew multiple opportunities in a baffling 2-1 10-inning loss. It was an unfitting end to an otherwise impressive 8-2 homestand.

April 28-30: As the first month of the season drew to a close, the Mets began a grueling 13-game road trip in Colorado. Mike Hampton was tagged for seven runs in five innings in a 12-5 drubbing, while Mike Piazza injured his wrist on a play at the plate. He rested the next game, but his absence didn't prevent New York from pounding out an astonishing team record 23 hits (four apiece for both Edgardo Alfonzo and Todd Pratt) in a 13-6 win, with the bulk of the damage coming against ex-Met Masato Yoshii. The month ended with a typical Coors Field-ian slugfest. The Mets belted four homers (one each for Todd Zeile, Melvin Mora, Pratt, and Alfonzo) and took an 11-3 lead into the eighth inning, watched it quicky evaporate in the mile-high air, and finally held on to win, 14-11.

Though the Mets had finally strung together some of their best offensive games of the young season, many of them lamented the kind of baseball played in Denver. Al Leiter joked that the best strategy was "to win by a touchdown," while Dennis Cook opined, "I don't think it's enjoyable for anybody to sit out a four-hour game and watch both teams club each other to death." While noting that Denver was "a lovely city," Bobby Valentine said, "I'm glad we're not coming back here."

W-L record, April 30: 16-10