Casual Diehard

Editor’s note: Not exactly the way that I wanted to update this graphic from last week … …but so it goes. The good news is Jalen Brunson is now very clearly the guy the Knicks need to build around. It’s going to be a very interesting offseason, one that we’ll podcast about at some point elsewhere on the feed. Not really related other than thinking about the future a bit… Francisco Álvarez has play...

Editor’s note: You used to be able to embed tweets on Substack, but then Elon Musk went and elonmusked all over everything, and now here we are. On a day without the little bit of content to go with your Beatles lunch ( Scott Muni forever), it was nice to be able to throw in a tweet for a chuckle. If you’re opening the email, and not just listening on your podcast app, you should get a lil somethi...

Today’s guest is Kristen Mulrooney, the author of the critically acclaimed Gilmore Girls cookbook whose recent tweet is going to spark the next revolution. The revolution that brings real ketchup back to the ballpark , not only in Boston, but as Addy points out, in Washington, too. What ketchup are they serving at the ballpark where you live? Sound off in the Discord! And join the movement for rea...

NEW! We Can Pod It Out t-shirts are here! Instead of writing about the Knicks today… graphic about the Knicks today, based on data from Stathead ! Jalen Brunson , thank you for keeping the season alive. 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

The 76ers took a 3-2 lead in their series with the Celtics last night, headlined by 33 points from Joel Embiid and 30 from Tyrese Maxey . Meanwhile, in 33-plus minutes on the court, P.J. Tucker scored three points, on 1-of-4 shooting. That’s normal stuff. Tucker is averaging 3.6 points per game in this year’s playoffs, and he’s played at least 21:21 (he rested for a lot of the Game 2 blowout in Bo...

The other night, Nikola Jokić had 53 points and 11 assists for the Nuggets in Game 3 against the Suns… and Denver lost, 129-124. Would you believe that’s nothing new? The last time someone had a 50-point, 10-assist game in the playoffs was 2021, when Damian Lillard went for 55 and 10 in the Trail Blazers’ 147-140 loss to the Nuggets, in a two-overtime affair. Jokić’s line in that one was 38 points...

The Devils scored eight goals yesterday to get back into their Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Hurricanes, the most goals scored by a team so far in this year’s playoffs. Last year’s high was nine goals, by the Flames against the Oilers… while the Oilers also scored eight against the Kings and gave up eight to the Avalanche. Big goal totals do happen in the playoffs, but the Devils...

Been a long and difficult week, so just the pod today. There’s a decent chance that the accompanying notes here become less timely in nature, which is fine, because like the topic of We Can Pod It Out , there’s plenty, plenty , of material to discuss already on the record. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit will...

After yesterday’s post featuring birthday wishes for Dave Ball , and a subsequent TikTok , We Can Pod It Out co-host Andrew Lowden asked on our Discord where “Tainted Love” ranks on the Josie Scale. In response, a question: what if Josie is the narrator of “Tainted Love?” What then? Ah, dang it. Here’s another TikTok, featuring Wander Franco and various video clips of the same play from last night...

Turning 64 today is Soft Cell instrumentalist Dave Ball . So, here’s Tainted Love . Also, today is a happy 64th birthday for Tony Arnold , who made 38 relief appearances for the Orioles between 1986 and 1987. Today’s only other 64th birthday among the four major sports is former Arizona State running back Alvin Moore , which is not to slight Moore because he played five seasons in the NFL, it’s ju...

Honestly didn’t realize it until right now because there’s hockey and basketball playoffs — and because the Yankees have a .500 record at 15-15 — that the Yankees are now last in the American League East. Aaron Hicks is now 7-for-45 with a .380 OPS. Isiah Kiner-Falefa , referred to on this episode as not being able to hit his way out of a paper bag, has a .421 OPS. Neither one of them has an extra...

James Harden tied for seventh all-time last night, scoring 45 points on the road against the Celtics in the playoffs, and without a lot of ado, here’s the list (asterisk indicates the Celtics beat them anyway)… 63: Michael Jordan (1986 - 2OT)* 61: Elgin Baylor (1962) 50: Wilt Chamberlain (1960) 49: Jordan (1986)* 47: Jimmy Butler (2022), Dominique Wilkins (1988)* 45: Harden (2023), Paul Millsap (2...

Pardon that Brent Musburger stinks forever, but he’s necessary here for the clip of Greg Kite , 57 seconds in. The important part, really, is that the NBA on CBS theme from the 1980s slaps , and if not for John Tesh and Roundball Rock , it would be remembered a lot more fondly by a lot more people. This is, in fact, one of the things that Bill Simmons said in the early 2000s that actually holds up...

Editor’s note: Congratulations to Andrew and Roger on 100 episodes! Not attaching any silliness to this today, just sincere thanks to We Can Pod It Out for becoming the unexpected beating heart of Willets Pen for the last few months. We’re so glad to be able to give the show a home, and can’t wait for the next hundred (and more after that)! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss th...

The Knicks did the thing. Not only winning that game, but getting their first road Game 5 closeout in a best-of-seven series since the 1973 Finals . As we travel here with The Beatles, still 1967. 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

We have no doubt that our friends at The Sickos Sentinel will have their own thoughts on this, as Commissioner Escalante was so enthusiastic on the episode, but we need to bring our own research to the academy on the most important question in footballogy: what is Long Snapper U.? The rankings at BNB Football , the most trusted source for long snapper rankings because it has ranked long snappers f...

When you come across an “it’s been a while since the Knicks did a thing in the playoffs” stat, it generally means you have come across any historic Knicks playoff stat. But, hey, do you know the last time the Knicks closed out a series with a Game 5 road win? Of course you do, it’s the Allan Houston game. That was one of nine all-time road Game 5 victories that the Knicks have ever had. The eighth...

Aaron Rodgers is a Jet now, which sounds like, “hey, that’s the guy to rewrite the record books for this sad-sack franchise.” What’s easy to forget is that Rodgers is going to turn 40 next season, and he’s coming off a year in which the only Jets records he would have broken were starts (17) and completions (350). Aside from that? Rodgers has a lot of ex-Jets looking at his 2022 season and feeling...

The Knicks, the New York Knicks, the professional basketball team from New York City, the Knicks, ore formally known as the New York Knickerbockers… are one win away from reaching the second round of the playoffs for the first time in a decade. Being up 3-1 in a playoff series isn’t really something to celebrate, is it? Uh, yeah it is. Knicks fandom, in my lifetime, has been a constant series of g...

The other day, I wrote on the We Can Pod It Out show notes, “an extensive accompanying newsletter that I hope to write” could be part of this episode. Sorry to tell you that it is not, but glad to tell you that my digital journalism urge to do power rankings of baseball managers’ celebratory throwability was beaten back. Instead, please enjoy this video of Tsuyoshi Shinjo , whose exploits in Japan...

Regular readers of this newsletter/podcast accompaniment knew last night that Pete Alonso didn’t just reclaim the major league home run lead all by himself with his blast in San Francisco, he tied a Mets team record with his ninth dinger in 20 games to start the season. Dave Kingman got to nine homers in 18 games in 1976, while Neil Walker hit his ninth dinger of 2016, like Alonso, in game 20. In...

Editor’s note: We did a Willets Pod “heavy” episode last night, so watch for that on the feed, along with an extensive accompanying newsletter that I hope to write… and also I made the following cursed image which… I’m not sure who should be angriest about it. Let us know in the Discord? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episo...

Editor’s note: A better editor would’ve had something to say about Darryl Strawberry here, but instead I created Father Sickobocker . Hey, it’s still 1-1 coming back to Madison Square Garden, no matter how bad Game 2 was. And soon you’ll see me with a Father Sickobocker t-shirt and a Golden State Warios t-shirt because what is this if not an excuse to make clothes for myself? This is a public epis...

Hi, Jesse here. The delay in this episode is (as usual) on me, in this case because I had a lot of thoughts that I want to expand on from what we talked about on the show… but also I don’t. Maybe eventually, like how I didn’t really want to take the episode in that direction… but deep down, I did. Anyway, semi-publicly dealing with issues that include the lines in life between public and private,...

After yesterday’s Ron Swoboda rabbit hole brought to you by the second of Brandon Nimmo’s catches in Oakland, Nimmo went out last night and demanded not only an update to our Instagram video , but an accompanying piece on Tommie Agee . Agee, like Swoboda, was on the 1969 Mets but not the 1973 Mets, as he was traded to the Astros for Rich Chiles and Buddy Harris after the 1972 season. It wasn’t rea...