The first game in April at Citi Field felt and sounded like the five games last October, the crowd boisterous and bawdy, the baseball crisp, the mood ebullient. We dwell an awful lot on the many neuroses that so often seize Mets fans but back in the autumn, Citi Field felt like the happiest place in all of baseball for those five playoff games. 

Now, in the spring, it sure looked that way again. 

“I couldn’t sleep for two nights,” a retired teacher named Richard Sullivan was saying, 25 minutes or so after they opened the gates at Citi, before the traditional horseshoe was presented by the Shea family, before the team introductions. “I’ve been a fan since 1967 but I’ve never been to an opener before. I’d never bought a jersey before.” 

Pete Alonso tips his helmet to the crowd after his first-inning homer on Friday. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post

He pulled proudly on his white shirt with the pinstripes, “Mets” on the front, “Soto” and “22” on the back.