Rheingold Retro Radio Days No. 2: The Mets Come Home

Pittsburgh Pirates at New York Mets · Polo Grounds · Saturday, April 14, 1962

The Second Game Ever at the Polo Grounds

The Mets came home on Friday, April 13 — and like just about everything else that first week, the home opener didn't go their way. The Pirates won it, 4–3. So on a Saturday afternoon, April 14, 1962, everybody came back to the Polo Grounds and ran it back: the second home game in franchise history, in front of 9,231 fans who were still very much in the honeymoon phase with the most lovable losers ever assembled.

Casey Stengel handed the ball to Al Jackson, the little left-hander the Mets had plucked from Pittsburgh in the expansion draft — which meant Jackson spent his Saturday trying to beat the organization that had just given him away. Pittsburgh countered with Vinegar Bend Mizell, all arms, legs and motion, and for seven innings Mizell made the Mets look like exactly what they were: a brand-new ballclub still learning everybody's name.

Clemente's Afternoon, Maz's Homer, and a Debut

The Pirates scored in the first on Donn Clendenon's RBI single — yes, that Donn Clendenon, wearing Pittsburgh gray for now — and Bill Mazeroski homered to open the second. The Mets scratched one back in the third: Félix Mantilla singled, moved up on a passed ball, and scored on Charlie Neal's groundout. Then the fourth inning happened. Bill Virdon doubled, Dick Groat singled home two runs, Roberto Clemente doubled, and Dick Stuart tripled — four runs, and a 6–1 hole the '62 Mets were not built to climb out of.

Clemente, by the way, was perfect: 3-for-3 with two doubles and two walks, on base all five times he came to the plate. If you paid your money at the Polo Grounds that day, the Great One gave you your money's worth all by himself.

The afternoon wasn't without a first, though. In the seventh, a 23-year-old outfielder named Jim Hickman pinch-hit for Jackson — the first plate appearance of a big-league career that would make him an original fan favorite and, eight years later, an All-Star with the Cubs. He popped out to short. They all have to start somewhere.

The Mets' last word came in the ninth, when Jim Marshall — who'd taken over at first base for Gil Hodges — homered off Roy Face. Final score: Pirates 6, Mets 2. The Mets were 0–3. They would get worse before they got lovable, but on a Saturday afternoon at the Polo Grounds, nobody in the joint cared yet. There was National League baseball in New York again, and that was enough.

About This Broadcast

The recording opens right at the first pitch — no pregame show survives on this tape — with the '62 booth — Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner — on the call, Murphy welcoming you to the Polo Grounds and pointing out that the Mets' starting pitcher was Pittsburgh property just a few months ago. Like No. 1, it comes to us from the Internet Archive, Mets feed, commercials and all. And yes — we left the period sponsor material in. That was half the fun of 1962 radio.

One programming note, because we play these in the order they happened: this was the second game of the first homestand — the home opener was the day before, Friday the 13th. No. 2 picks up the story exactly where opening week left it.

📻 LISTEN: The Complete Broadcast

Broadcast: WABC (770) Radio, New York — Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner.

Source: Internet Archive (classicmlbbaseballradio).

Box score: Retrosheet via Baseball-Reference.

Next on Rheingold Retro Radio Days: the road trip begins — Friday, May 4, 1962, the Mets at Connie Mack Stadium against the Philadelphia Phillies.

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