Casual Diehard

The MLB-wide OPS in 2023 is .729. So far this month, there are only four Mets above that number: Tommy Pham (1.014), Mark Canha (.865), Brandon Nimmo (.764), and Starling Marte (.735). Meanwhile, there are only four Mets pitchers who have allowed a sub-.729 (sub-.800, in fact) OPS in June: John Curtiss (.286), Dominc Leone (.412), Jeff Brigham (.466), Kodai Senga (.655), and Brooks Raley (.686). T...

Congratulations to the Denver Nuggets, who not only are NBA champions for the first time, but whose victory in the NBA Finals assured — since the Vegas Golden Knights and Florida Panthers are competing in the Stanley Cup Final — that this will be the fifth time ever, and second time in five seasons, we have new NBA and NHL champions. * 2023: Denver Nuggets, Vegas Golden Knights/Florida Panthers *...

Yeah, pretty much. ESPN did all the research necessary: we’ve never seen the Mets lead by three runs and lose in three straight games until now . In Atlanta, for maximum pain, amid a traumatic week in New York. I’m so tired, indeed. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willetspen.substack.com

Addy’s working on a thing about the glorious F1 theme, Jesse is working on a thing about early 1980s baseball… neither of those things is ready to accompany this podcast episode, so here’s a TikTok combining them both. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willetspen.substack.com

With 100 games left in the regular season, we can say this now with ease. The Mets played .623 ball last year. If they match that pace for the rest of this season, they’ll be a 92-win team. And if they play like they have for the first 62 games of this season, well, they’ll be a team with a losing record. There’s not a whole lot else to say at this point. The defending National League East almost...

It would be nice to be able to really make the case for Daniel Vogelbach . He seems like a nice and fun guy who likes to hit dingers, which is rad, except now he’s not hitting dingers. He’s hitting ground balls and pop flies like never before in his life, and all the hard contact in the world doesn’t mean anything if you’re pounding the ball directly into the ground. It’s baffling that someone cou...

Yesterday, we talked about the Heat changing defensive focus in light of the fact that they can’t actually stop Nikola Jokić , with Game 2 of the NBA Finals going so differently than Game 1 as Miami gave the two-time MVP more shooting options and fewer passing lanes. Today, we visualize that… here’s a graph of Jokić’s games this season, including playoffs, with assists going up as you go left to r...

Watching Nikola Jokić dominate Game 1 of the NBA Finals the other night sparked the following thought on Twitter : miami doesn't have any way to handle jokic, and doubling him only opens up options for him to make easy passes... i think their only hope is to make him take more shots, and then bury ton of threes at the other end. maybe that gets them a game. Well, they got themselves a game. Changi...

At least Max Strus has a whole rest of the finals to try to make a three-pointer. When John Starks went 0-for-11 from downtown in 1994, it was in Game 7, and the Knicks losing by six points, well, it’s still haunting 29 years later. Strus and the Heat got beat by the Nuggets in Game 1 last night a lot worse than the 104-93 score suggested. Strus was 0-for-10 overall, but his 0-for-9 on threes put...

We had a lot to talk about in this episode that we recorded last night, a lot of negative feelings to get through about Baseball, because as much as we love the game, the institution… well, as Britt says, a big part of our podcast, in general, is about loving something that maybe doesn’t love you back. It’s been a pretty lousy week on that front. And then Mark Canha, on the first day of Pride Mont...

The NBA Finals pit the 53-win Denver Nuggets against the 44-win Miami Heat, which means that we’re going to see a second all-time NBA champion with a specific regular-season win total. The only question is whether it’s going to be for the first time in nearly 70 years, or the second time in a row. 53-win NBA champions: 2021-22 Golden State Warriors (53-29) 44-win NBA champions: 1956-57 Boston Celt...

Last night was one of the best pitched games of the season, not just for the Mets, but in all of Major League Baseball. Kodai Senga’s seven innings of one-hit shutout ball, with nine strikeouts and no walks, has been matched this year only by Michael Kopech of the White Sox in a 2-0 win over the Royals on May 19, and veteran Drew Smyly , now with the Chicago Cubs, in a 13-0 pasting of the Dodgers...

This will be only the seventh time since the start of the NBA’s conference finals, as such, in 1971, that one series was a sweep and the other went seven games. So, for the rest vs. rust narrative… here’s how it’s gone historically. * 1982: Lakers swept Spurs, 76ers beat Celtics in 7… Lakers over 76ers in 6 * 1987: Lakers swept SuperSonics, Celtics beat Pistons in 7 … Lakers over Celtics in 6 * 19...

Back in the old days, there were a few ex-pats who had come from what became the Soviet Union, and may have been during their careers — Eddie Ainsmith was born in Russia, but came to America and went to high school in New Hampshire before becoming a catcher for the Washington Senators from 1910-18, and then on to the Tigers, Cardinals, Brooklyn Dodgers, and New York Giants through 1924. Ukrainians...

This year’s LFGM Pride shirt with Sarah Wiener’s logo design is now available… and also we sent some to the fellas at 41 Seaver Way. Hope they enjoy them and wear them with, well, pride. We’ve been over Pete Alonso’s torrid start with home runs, and he heads to Denver for the weekend with a major league-leading 19, a new Mets record for 51 games into a season. He’s got three dingers in nine career...

So far in the Stanley Cup playoffs, Sergei Bobrovsky has a .935 save percentage (he led the league at .931 the year he won the Vezina, 2016-17) and a 2.21 goals against average (he led the league at 2.06 in the Vezina year). This was not Bobrovsky’s Vezina year. He’s 34, had a .901 save percentage for the season and 3.07 goals against average, and didn’t even enter the Panthers’ net until Game 3 o...

So, we’re not going to have a first-ever double sweep in the NBA conference finals, since the Celtics hit a whole mess of three-pointers in Miami to extend that series to a fifth game… but now both NHL conference finals are at 3-0. The double sweep there… has happened before! In 1992, Chicago swept Edmonton in the Campbell Conference finals, Pittsburgh swept Boston in the Wales Conference Finals,...

It could be time for some NBA history. With the Nuggets sweeping the Lakers, and the Heat up 3-0 on the Celtics, this could be the first time that both NBA conference finals have been sweeps. A sweep and a gentleman’s sweep in the other series? That’s happened before, most recently in 2017, when Golden State obliterated Portland, while the Cavaliers dropped Game 3 (at home) to the Celtics before b...

Should I have done this episode? No, I should not have done this episode, I sound, as Janice notes, like I gargled with gravel, and as Chrystal points out, like I smoked three packs of cigarettes before recording. But I also haven’t had a full voice since the start of this Mets winning streak, when they walked off the Rays and Pete Alonso said fuck. And I had a great time listening to Janice, Chry...

The Mets are on one right now, in a way that they haven’t been for almost 40 years, and in a way that’s pressing history. The last five games have all been Mets wins, all by exactly one run. That ties the team record, set from July 20-24, 1984. Then, the Mets won three games in Cincinnati — 3-2 (11 innings), 2-1, and 7-6 — before coming home to beat the Cardinals on a Wally Backman single in the 1...

There's assuredly a good newsletter post in this, but too bad, because the ol’ brain is rattled by being reminded that Edgardo Alfonzo played 12 games for the 2006 Blue Jays (after he’d already been released that year by the Angels)… and after three weeks, got released from Toronto. Fonzie then went to Bridgeport, had his contract purchased by the Mets… and never made it back to Queens, playing 42...

The "Let's Fucking Go Mets" Heard 'Round The World By Addy Baird As Jesse , Britt , and I recorded this episode Tuesday night, the Mets lost to the Rays, 8-5, in Justin Verlander’s home debut. If you’re reading this right now, I don’t think I need to explain the combination of frustration and resignation permeating the pod after the Mets’ recent stretch. As we discussed briefly in this episode, th...

Last night in Queens was special, as Mark Vientos and Francisco Álvarez hit game-tying home runs, the latter with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, and Pete Alonso walked it off with a three-run shot in the 10th. Obviously, that kind of thing doesn’t happen often. But there are a few games in Mets history that it recalls, and those are fun, too. For instance, May 21, 2000, when Randy Joh...

The Lakers came close to stealing a game on the road to start the Western Conference finals… was that their best chance to grab the game in Denver that they’ll need in order to win the series? Maybe. Believe in narratives at your own risk, but here’s the list of NBA teams that lost Game 1 on the road by single digits since 2017. * 2023 Warriors vs. Kings: Lost Game 2, won series * 2022 Mavericks v...

Here’s a fun list that’s about to change with the start of the NBA’s conference finals, because it’s a list about the NBA’s conference finals. Among active players, LeBron James has appeared in the most career conference finals games, with 64. It’s a long way to second place, which is 38… can you guess by whom? Here’s the rest of the top 10. 3. Kevin Durant (35) T4. Stephen Curry , Draymond Green...