A years-in-the-making organizational rebuild emphasizing the in-house harvest of dominant starting pitchers has started to generate genuine excitement among the Met fandom.

You could feel an elevated level of anticipation in the sold-out stands on Flushing Bay Monday afternoon as the Metropolitans opened their 2015 home schedule under beautiful blue skies.

Last year’s rookie of the year Jacob deGrom was mid-90’s on the gun. His long hair fluttered out from the back of his cap. No runs allowed by Jake over 6.1 and the Met lineup scraped together a couple of runs.

Mets GM Sandy Alderson made a great swap right before the regular season started to shore up the pen. He acquired Jerry Blevins from the Nats for Matt den Dekker, a speedy, young outfielder who could turn out to be a good player. It was a risky move but could prove to be really important given what Blevins can do to neutralize dangerous lefty bats. So far, left-handed sticks are 0 for 8 against Blevins. In three of his four outings so far, Blevins has helped preserve narrow leads. With the half-season suspension of Met closer Jenrry Mejia – and the team’s effort to limit pitch counts for their young starters – it’ll be a lot of Blevins and Familia in the final frames. That’s what is was Monday and both guys did their jobs.

2-zip the final. Put it in the books.

I attended the game with five co-workers. We sat on the porch. The families of murdered NYPD officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were honored before the game. Liu’s widow and the Ramos boys threw out the game’s ceremonial first pitches.

NYC Mayor Bill deBlasio was at the game. He was booed worse than Chase Utley and Cole Hamels when introduced to the crowd in Queens. Two days earlier, deBlasio refused to join the parade of Democrats who quickly lined up behind Hillary Clinton after she threw her hat in the ring.

The refusal to offer an immediate endorsement was viewed by the Clinton camp as full-on betrayal given the boost both Clinton’s gave deBlaz during his mayoral run. Had he been a little more nimble with his reaction to Hillary‘s entry to the presidential race, deBlasio could have preserved his neutrality without looking like a traitor. All he had to do was say something to the effect that Hillary is a formidable candidate with great experience and talent. He didn’t need to attach conditions to a possible future endorsement.

But back to the game. It was a perfect day out there in the sun. The nicest opener I can remember in a life full of them both here and in Chicago. On the way out, one of the guys in our group suggested walking down Roosevelt Avenue for a slice and a beer to let the traffic thin out. As we were walking down Rosie towards Corona, we saw Jerry Seinfeld in the front passenger seat of a SUV stuck in traffic. He smiled a bit but attempted to ignore the attention. He probably said something funny to his friends in the car.

I went to the Big A for Wood day on Saturday. I met Marc at the race track and we had about as good a time as you could have given what that place has become since it turned into a racino. Chalk prevailed in the big Derby prep races here and elsewhere but we had fun ducking between the track apron and the monitors inside to watch all the big events in quick succession.

Knowing in advance you can’t buy a reasonably-priced beer at Aqueduct any more, we both sipped on hard stuff brought in from the outside.

Frosted won the Wood in visually non-impressive fashion. The grayish 3-year-old son of Tapit beat a mediocre field at odds of 2.2 to 1 and likely won’t be among the top six or seven betting choices in the Kentucky Derby should he remain healthy enough to make the starting gate.

Marc got me pumped up to see The Big Beast, a 4-year-old colt bred in Maryland with a physique that fully justifies the name he was given. The Big Beast ran in the grade 1 Carter (one race after the Wood) and finished fourth. He was charging hard late after getting bottled up entering the final turn. We both expect The Big Beast to run a big and beastly effort next time out wherever that may be.

The Aqueduct results chart does not disclose an attendance number but Dave Grening of DRF reported the figure was 11,213. That number is not based on turnstile clicks since people walk in for free from the outside with nobody counting who enters. The on track handle was two and a half million bucks for the 12 race card which continues the Wood Day trend of lower and lower on-site wagering.

It’s a shame NYRA allows an event with such a rich history and fantastic quality of race fields to play out in such an unnecessarily wretched fan environment. There is not a lick of effort by the folks operating Aqueduct to provide even modest avenues of sporting venue amenities even though it has the time, space, money and understanding to execute. This year, NYRA invited a few food trucks to sell creatively-prepared food on the apron just beyond the finish line. This is a good idea but I felt bad for the obvious first-time attendees who appeared stunned at the difficulty of buying a beer – not to mention the struggle to locate a clean place to sit down.

I worked on Easter Sunday but was off Monday. The Mets opened up their ballpark to fans wanting to watch the team’s season opener in Washington. It was free. And it was fun. The new big screen video board carried the SNY signal and I’d say 5000 or so fans showed up. Most sat on the sunny side of the box seats along the first base line. Mr. Met was there. It was a great game. There were times you felt the same fan energy you’d feel at a real game. Many of the concession stands on the lower level were open which provided a sneak peak into what Met fans can expect this upcoming season. As a beer drinker, I’m always curious about price, size and type. The Mets “Watch Party” revealed those details. For me, the 25-ounce Bud served in a can for $11.50 will be the way I go during the 2015 season. You try not to think about the fact that same can is sold at my corner bodega for $1.85 – rather – you view it as the best deal you can find at the ballpark on a cost per ounce basis.