Comparing Weather Conditions of Yankees & Mets Home Openers (1970 - 2019)
In two previous posts I summarized game-day weather conditions for each Home Opener of New York's Yankees and Mets. This post, however, brings the two teams together with a side-by-side comparison, found below, of each year's first home game, going back to 1970. First, some key takeaways:
- Looking at average high temperature, there has been a three-degree difference between the home openers of the Mets (59°) and Yankees (56°). For the Yankees it's ranged from 35° (twice) to 76°, while for the Mets the temperature range has been from 40° to 90° (twice). However, over the five decades, there has been a shift. In the '70s and '80s home openers of the Yankees were five degrees warmer than those of the Mets (60° vs. 55°), but the last three decades home openers were in favor of the Mets (61° vs. 53°)
- Both teams have had to contend with precipitation during six of their home openers, about once every seven or eight years. The Yankees, however, are the only team to play in snow. It's happened three time, in 1982, 1996 and in 2003 (the 1982 opener was postponed because of a blizzard that dumped nearly ten inches of snow.) For the Mets, snow fell during the morning on the day of their 1974 home opener but it was over long before the first pitch.
- Temperatures have been in the 70s for the Yankees six times; they all occurred between 1976 and 1988. The Mets had the last home opener with temperatures in the 70s, back in 2010.
- The 1970s was a decade of cold home openers for the Mets. Afternoon temperatures were in the 40s for seven of them between 1970 and 1978. The Yankees had consistently chilly/raw conditions between 1996-2005.
- There have been six seasons in which the two teams' home openers were played in very different weather conditions. The greatest contrast was in 1977 when the temperature was in the mid-40s for the Yankees while the mercury climbed to 90° for the Mets five days later. Not far behind was 1991 when the Mets once again started the season on a day the temperature soared to 90°; a week later the Yankees home opener was played in rainy conditions with a temperature of 50°.
- Six seasons have had home openers with bad weather for both teams while five had good conditions for both, the most recent being last year (when both teams played on the same day, April 1).
Comments