Casual Diehard

The A’s held their 50th anniversary celebration for the 1973 World Series yesterday, and Brandon Nimmo was not having it. In fact, Nimmo was so not down with the Oakland dynasty that he decided to make the day more about the 1969 Mets, emulating Fall Classic catches by Tommie Agee and Ron Swoboda . Swoboda couldn’t help the Mets in 1973 against the A’s because he was traded with Rich Hacker to the...

The Toronto Maple Leafs are back in the playoffs again, looking for their first series win since 2004 again, and probably will find a way to lose again, because the playoffs always brings a bigger emphasis on goaltending and Toronto’s first-round challenge is taking on Andrei Vasilevskiy after a season in which the Leafs have used Ilya Samsonov , Matt Murray , Joseph Woll , Erik Kallgren , and eve...

On this episode, we welcome Trevor Hildenberger , currently of the Sacramento RiverCats, formerly of the New York Mets, and forever one of the pioneers of Minor League Baseball players unionizing. We talked a lot about that last bit on the show, but not at all about the Mets, so let’s give Trevor his due here as arguably the greatest strikeout artist in franchise history. If we’re having an argume...

There have been 1,193 players who have appeared for the Mets, according to Baseball Reference as of this morning, but only 1,187 names for players in Mets history. Yesterday, Bobby Jones — an entirely different Bobby Jones than either of the Mets’ Bobbys Jones , and the golfer Bobby Jones , and not the Hall of Famer from the 76ers Bobby Jones either, that was the point — came up on Twitter thanks...

On this date in 1965, the Mets opened their fourth season with an 8-1 loss to the Dodgers at Shea Stadium. The 112-loss season didn’t even have a moment to gather oxygen before Maury Wills led off with a single, stole second, moved to third on a passed ball by Chris Cannizzaro , and scored on a Willie Davis double. Later that inning, being the 1965 Mets, it became 2-0 Dodgers when Davis scored on...

Last night’s Mets game was a little weird. It’s not every day that Max Scherzer takes a no-hitter into the fifth inning, then leaves the game after that fifth inning even though all he gave up was a little single to Ha-Seong Kim . The 11-pitch strikeout of Austin Nola to end the fifth took Scherzer’s count up to 97 for the night, and in an April game where the 38-year-old issued six walks to go wi...

In 10 games, Pete Alonso has hit five home runs, the second time in his career that he’s started a season that way, as in 2019, the then-rookie made an instant impact with not only the five dingers, but 10 other hits for a .385/.429/.923 start to his career. To start this season, Alonso’s line is at .237/.326/.658. It’s been a weird first couple of weeks. This isn’t a record-setting start, althoug...

(Editor’s note: Apologies for the delay in getting today’s episode posted. I got sick and missed going to the Mets’ home opener, too. NOT REALLY HAPPY ABOUT THAT, but they won, and that’s cool, and you should join the Discord . —Jesse) 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 Mets Are (Probably) Not Terrible By Roger Cormier I'm not someone inclined to tell others not to panic. I know from experience that if I am freaking the fuck out and someone tells me not to panic I then obtain the knowledge that yet another person exists in this world who does not know what the hell they are talking about. I'm simply going to show you a whole buncha numbers.  1969  2-5 1973  5...

Yesterday, Pete Alonso became the third Met with a multi-homer game in Milwaukee, joining Mike Piazza in 2001 and 2005, and Carlos Beltrán in 2005 (the day after Piazza, in fact). The Mets, of course, lost 7-6, falling to 2-2 all-time in these games. The Polar Bear also tied the Mets’ team record for career home runs at the former Miller Park, joining Piazza, Curtis Granderson , and David Wright w...

All that stuff from yesterday about the Mets in April in Milwaukee? Same deal after they got pounded again, 9-0, last night. Let’s not dwell on that. Instead, let us focus on the meme of the day. Sorry to Kenny Lofton, this is Ken time only. 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 Mets took a good, old-fashioned pounding on Monday afternoon, giving up 10 runs to the Brewers after having allowed only eight runs in the first four games of the season, combined, while taking three out of four in Miami. What’s worse, they disappointed Chrystal and Colleen, who made the trip to Cream City to see that mess. Maybe the Mets felt weird being in Wisconsin. After all, I’ve said on...

Let’s not talk about the Mets’ fifth game of the season, although if you want to, the Willets Pen Discord is always open . Instead, let’s look forward to the Mets’ eighth game of the season, scheduled for this Thursday afternoon in Flushing — the home opener. Specifically, let’s turn our minds to our stomachs, and the delights that await when we return to the ballpark. To that end, we welcome to t...

Editor’s note: Our sports rabbit holes return tomorrow. Wrestlemania lived up to all the expectations after reading Bill Hanstock’s preview , unless you were expecting Cody Rhodes to win the main event last night. Personally, I was, until the run-ins began. That’s when it became clear that WWE was going to “finish the story,” just not Cody’s. This was Sami Zayn’s Wrestlemania, and if you look at i...

Editor’s note: Cheese and Onions rules. 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

Opening Day was delightful. We’re exhausted. Ride off into the sunset of the weekend with this one… 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

It’s Opening Day! No room in the brain for anything else. Let’s go! 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

This is an extremely long episode, but also some of the most fun I’ve had on an episode, and also some of the most nervous I’ve been doing an episode. I could go on and on, but the show notes are going to be complicated enough already. Long covid sucks. Depression sucks. Anxiety sucks. A whole lot outside of my own body sucks, too, and dealing with it all in concert really and truly sucks. I walk...

We’re about to embark on a full season of baseball, which will have plenty of statistical rabbit holes to go down, in addition to the basketball journey we resumed yesterday with Wilt Chamberlain. Plus, there’s a new Willets Pod “Heavy” coming this afternoon. Thanks for subscribing and listening, and enjoy! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get a...

You know I can’t resist a good Wilt Chamberlain stat around here, and this one from Bomani Jones sent me scrambling to Stathead , so you know it’s a good one. That’s pretty surprising, isn’t it? That the seventh-leading scorer in NBA history doesn’t hold any team’s points record? But that’s also been the case for a little under two years — it was April of 2021 when Steph Curry passed Chamberlain,...

EDITOR’S NOTE: This post was sent without this video, which Andrew and Roger asked me to include, but which I forgot to do because… I don’t really know, I don’t have a good reason other than a bad brain. —JS Congratulations to the winner of our men’s bracket challenge, munkyjk_09 , who had a Final Four of Baylor, Tennesse, Texas, and UConn — only the last of which even made it to the final weekend...

This episode of Willets Pen is brought to you by alabamatrucknuts.com . It’s very difficult to come up with a tagline for alabamatrucknuts.com because it’s alabamatrucknuts.com , which is already quite intriguing, so we’ll just say alabamatrucknuts.com again — that’s alabamatrucknuts.com . One note on this show — an actual show note — is that we were wrong about Bill Veeck , who did not own the Cu...

There’s a lot of reasons to be feeling, hmmm… if a picture’s worth a thousand words, then who knows what a video is ...a lot of reasons to be down, including the garbage world of hockey . But this is a place for joy, not for shredding Marc Staal (his dipshit bigot-using-religion-for-cover brother Eric , too, but especially Marc because of all the years he spent in New York, including when I (hi, i...

No extra sports nugget today! Sorry! But it’s because we recorded the next Willets Pod “Heavy” last night, with another one tonight, and there’s sports-adjacent content on not one, but two, of our Instagram reels. So, enjoy! Oh, and, remember that the WCPIO discount code is good for 10% everything in our shop, including at alabamatrucknuts.com ! This is a public episode. If you would like to discu...

This might be the single best pitch ever thrown. Like, not hyperbole. That might be the single best pitch ever thrown. Since Shohei Ohtani is beyond describing with words, numbers, music, electromagnetic fields… let’s let baseball sit for a moment and focus on the home front. The folks at Hell Gate have presented a field of 64 for NYC hot takes, and, yeah, okay… it’s good to have this forum becaus...