Mets fans leave happy after opening win

A crowd of happy Mets fans remained largely upbeat Monday afternoon as they waited through what some described as longer-than-average delays at the Willets Point Long Island Rail Road stop.

MTA conductors and police maintained order as crowds swelled around the entrance to the stop around 4:20 p.m., shortly after the Mets defeated the Florida Marlins, 7-1, in their season opener. The mob scene died down by about 5:15.

Michelle Czlapinski of Middletown, N.J., said she didn't expect to get home until 9 or 10 p.m., but she wasn't bothered.

"Yankees-Mets games it's even worse," she said.

Her son, Ryan, 6, was slightly more annoyed.

"This is, like, my last game," he said while waiting in line for the train.

Scott Fitzgerald, 26, of Flushing, standing near the door of a packed-to-the-gills eastbound train, said he thought the MTA should've added more trains.

"They are cutting [MTA workers] overtime, they are cutting service, and they still make us pay as much and wait longer," he said, boarding a train after a 45-minute wait.

Some fans anticipated the long wait and grabbed a drink at McFadden's, a popular nearby bar. Eddy Bielecky, 45, of Douglaston, said it made the wait more tolerable.

"That caught our eye," he said of the bar. "You figure there will be a wait [at the train] anyway."

Conductors punched tickets upstairs from the platform because trains were too packed to punch tickets on board. Some patrons still slipped past.

MTA police at the scene described the scene as orderly.

"Everything was great - it was a good time and the Mets won," said Tommy Motts, 43, of Little Neck. "The wait didn't bother us at all."