April 20, 1996: The New York/New Jersey MetroStars play their 1st home game, at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey. It doesn't go so well: They lose 1-0 to the New England Revolution, on an own goal in the 87th minute, by Nicola Caricola.
The MetroStars' 1st manager was Eddie Firmani, a South African of Italian descent, who had played as a forward in England for Charlton Athletic; and in Italy for Sampdoria, Internazionale Milano and Genoa. He had won the North American Soccer League title as manager of the Tampa Bay Rowdies in 1975, and the New York Cosmos in 1977 and '78. The MetroStars fired him after 8 games. As of April
20, 2022, he is still alive, 88 years old, but has never managed another club.
The original MetroStars included Caricola, who had been a star in his native Italy, with Bari, Juventus and Genoa; Roberto Donadoni, a legend with AC Milan; Venezuelan forward Giovanni Savarese; and established American stars Tony Meola, Peter Vermes and Tab Ramos. But they ended up losing their 1st 3 regular-season games. After winning their next 3, they then lost 5 out of 6, and later on had another 4-game losing streak.
They still managed to finish 3rd in the Eastern Conference, but lost their 1st Playoff series to D.C. United, which went on to win the MLS Cup in 1996, 1997, 1999 and 2004. As a result, MLS is the only league in which the New York Tri-State Area has a team whose biggest rival is a team from Washington, D.C., as opposed to another Tri-State Area team, or one representing Philadelphia or Boston: As much as the team's fans now hate New York City FC, the Philadelphia Union or the New England Revolution, they still refer to United as "The DC Scum," and the week of playing them as "DC Week."
Known as the New York Red Bulls since 2006, and playing at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey since 2010, the Red Bulls have won 3 Supporters' Shields (regular-season league titles), and have reached the Final of the MLS Cup once and the U.S. Open Cup twice, but have never won those. Some Metro fans (many RBNY fans resist the corporatization of the club) attribute their failure to this home opener, and call it "The Curse of Caricola."
Caricola retired before the next season began. He now runs a coffee company in South Africa.
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April 20, 1996 was a Saturday. These other game were played in MLS that day:
* The Los Angeles Galaxy beat D.C. United, 2-1 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.
* The Tampa Bay Mutiny beat the Columbus Crew, 2-1 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus. The Mutiny folded after the 2001 season.
* The next day, the Colorado Rapids beat the Dallas Burn, 3-1 at Mile High Stadium in Denver. The Burn later became simply "F.C. Dallas."
* Also the next day, the Kansas City Wiz beat the San Jose Clash, on penalties following a 2-2 draw, as MLS rules then allowed. The Wiz later became the Wizards, and then Sporting Kansas City. The Clash later became the Earthquakes, moved to become the Houston Dynamo, and were replaced by a new Earthquakes team.
These Major League Baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees beat the Minnesota Twins, 7-6 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Andy Pettitte and Rick Aguilera started. The Yankees scored a run in the 8th inning and 2 in the 9th, to make a winning pitcher out of Bob Wickman and a losing pitcher out of Eddie Guardado. But on August 23, the Yankees would put Wickman in a trade package with the Brewers, replacing him in the bullpen with Graeme Lloyd, which made a big difference in the postseason.
Rubén Sierra went 3-for-5 with 2 home runs and 5 RBIs, but he wouldn't be there at the end, either: On July 31, he was traded to the Detroit Tigers for Cecil Fielder, who also turned to be key to the World Series run the Yankees made. So did Jim Leyritz, who hit a home run in this game. Rookie shortstop Derek Jeter batted 9th, and went 1-for-4.
* The New York Mets beat the Colorado Rockies, 4-3 at Shea Stadium. José Vizcaino singled Rey Ordóñez home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning, making a winning pitcher out of John Franco, who had previously blown a save for Mark Clark. Todd Hundley hit a home run.
* The Montreal Expos beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 11-2 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. After 8 innings, Alan Benes of the Cards had allowed only 2 hits, while former Mets star Sid Fernandez had allowed 3 hits and struck out 11 for the Phils. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially
the leadoff variety. In the top of the 9th, Phils reliever Ricky Bottalico walked Royce Clayton to start the inning, got Pat Borders out, walked Willie McGee, got Ron Gant out, and let Brian Jordan single Clayton home.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the San Diego Padres, 6-5 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. The Braves trailed, 5-2 in the bottom of the 6th, but scored 1 in the 6th, 2 in the 7th and 1 in the 8th to win. No home runs were hit in this game, but Ryan Klesko went 4-for-4 with an RBI for the Braves. Tony Gwynn did not play for Padres.
* The Florida Marlins beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-4 at Joe Robbie Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Red Sox, 2-1 at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland.
* The San Francisco Giants beat the Chicago Cubs, 8-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Barry Bonds (presumably, not yet on steroids) and Steve Scarsone hit home runs.
* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Kansas City Royals, 12-4 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Houston Astros, 6-1 at the Astrodome in Houston.
* The Texas Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 8-3 at The Ballpark (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Brady Anderson hit 2 home runs. Cal Ripken went 1-for-3 with a walk.
* The California Angels beat the Detroit Tigers, 2-1 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Oakland Athletics, 8-3 at the Oakland Coliseum. Former A's player Tony Phillips went 2-for-5 with 4 RBIs for the White Sox.
* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Seattle Mariners, 3-1 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Ken Griffey Jr. hit a home run.
Football was out of season. There were 5 games played in the NBA, which was winding down its regular season:
* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Atlanta Hawks, 121-99 at The Omni in Atlanta. Jayson Williams scored 35 points in defeat for the Nets.
* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Detroit Pistons, 75-73 at the Gund Arena (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.
* The Indiana Pacers beat the Chicago Bulls, 100-99 at the United Center in Chicago. The Bulls fell to 71-10 on the year. They would finish 72-10, still the best record for a team that went on to win the NBA title.
* The Utah Jazz beat the Sacramento Kings, 104-92 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 106-82 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in
Inglewood, California. Cedric Ceballos scored 36 for the Lakers.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs were underway, but only 1 game was played: The Colorado Avalanche beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-0 at General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.
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