Casual Diehard

We just went over this when the Mets traded 38-year-old David Robertson. So, we know that Max Scherzer joins Gil Hodges and Frank Tanana as players the Mets traded after they turned 39. Seems likely that Scherzer plays more than the three more combined games in his career that Hodges and Tanana did. We’ll see how it goes, and what happens with any further Mets trades before Tuesday’s 6 p.m. deadline…

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If the concept of character alignment charts is new to you, here’s a little introduction, and congratulations on whatever you’ve done with the copious hours of your life not spent on role playing games? Honestly, there was gonna be a lot more content here to go with this podcast, but life got in the way, and now it’s next week already, so… really, you’re just gonna enjoy this episode on its own. We all sure did. Share your mascot thoughts on the Discord, willya? We’ve also got an Immaculate Grid channel there for the game that’s sweeping today’s baseball nerds.

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The Mets traded David Robertson to the Marlins last night for a pair of teenagers, infielder Marco Vargas and catcher Ronald Hernandez. Both have joined the Mets’ team in the Florida Complex League, and if we ever see them in the majors, fantastic.

Vargas, the younger of the prospects acquired for the 38-year-old Robertson, was born on May 14, 2005. That day, the Alabama Crimson Tide played the Arkansas Razorbacks at home in Tuscaloosa. Robertson did not pitch, because he had given up a couple of runs in relief in a loss the night before. The following day, with Vargas now in the world, some 1,100 miles away in Chihuahua, Mexico, Robertson pitched another couple of innings, this time holding the Razorbacks scoreless to close out Alabama’s second loss in the three-game series.

If you get traded for someone who was born in between your college pitching appearances, you’re doing something right, so congratulations and best of luck to Robertson the rest of the way. But he’s not the oldest Met to be traded.

The standard was initially set 60 years ago, when the Mets sent Gil Hodges, who’d just turned 39, to the Washington Senators for a suddenly-washed Jim Piersall. The Senators made Hodges their manager, Piersall was released in a couple of months, and the Mets eventually traded Bill Denehy and $100,000 to the Senators to get Hodges back to be their manager. That’s probably the best trade the Mets ever made.

The Hodges “record” lasted 30 years, until September 17, 1993, when the Mets sent the recently-turned-40 Frank Tanana to the Yankees for Kenny Greer, who struck ou two of the three batters he faced as a Met and recorded a win. Tanana went 0-2 in three starts for the Buck Showalter-managed Bronx Bombers.

If the Mets trade Justin Verlander, he’ll become the oldest player they’ve ever dealt… once again, 30 years after the last time this benchmark was set.

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Editor’s note: Apologies for this week’s off-kilter posting, the editor has been sick.

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You may notice that the cover art for this episode is a picture of Jesse and Chrystal at the Mets-White Sox game, while the podcast is from the Yankees-Royals game. Simple explanation for that: one person, who regularly hosts this show, messed up the recording at the Mets game, and so joined Chrystal as she wrapped up her New York visit in the Bronx. It was fun. There were Nestor Cortes Jr. bobbleheads, and for as bad of a rap as Yankee Stadium food (rightfully) gets, the hot dogs there are top notch.

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Last night, Pete Alonso hit a pair of home runs to lift the Mets to a 9-3 win in the Bronx, the seventh time this season that a Met has gone deep twice. The Mets lost the first four of those games (including Alonso’s two-homer game in Milwaukee in April), but have won the last three. The last time a Met had multiple homers in a Subway Series game was Francisco Lindor’s three-homer game in 2021… what’s the last time a Met hit multiple dingers against all the teams?

* New York (AL): Alonso, last night (9-3 win)

* Chicago (AL): Francisco Álvarez, 7/18/23 (11-10 win)

* Milwaukee: Brandon Nimmo, 6/27/23 (7-2 win)

* Atlanta: Álvarez, 6/8/23 (13-10 loss in 10)

* Toronto: Tommy Pham, 6/4/23 (6-4 loss)

* Cincinnati: Álvarez, 5/9/23 (7-6 loss)

* Philadelphia: Mark Canha, 8/21/22 (10-9 win)

* Miami: Alonso, 6/25/22 (5-3 win)

* Los Angeles (NL): Alonso, 6/4/22 (9-4 win)

* Arizona: Lindor, 4/15/22 (10-3 win)

* Washington: Kevin Pillar, 8/28/21 (5-3 win)

* Pittsburgh: J.D. Davis, 7/19/21 (9-7 loss)

* Baltimore: Pillar and Billy McKinney, 6/9/21 (14-1 win)

* San Diego: Robinson Canó, 7/23/19 (5-2 win)

* Detroit: Wilson Ramos, 5/25/19 (5-4 win in 13 innings)

* Minnesota: Alonso, 4/9/19 (14-8 loss)

* Colorado: Nimmo, 6/18/18 (12-2 win)

* Seattle: Michael Conforto, 7/28/17 (7-5 win)

* Oakland: Conforto, 7/21/17 (7-5 win)

* San Francisco: René Rivera, 6/25/17 (8-2 win)

* Chicago (NL): Asdrúbal Cabrera, 6/12/17 (6-1 win)

* Texas: Jay Bruce, 6/7/17 (4-3 win)

* Tampa Bay: Curtis Granderson, 8/8/15 (5-4 loss)

* Kansas City: Conforto, 10/31/15 (5-3 loss, WS Game 4)

* St. Louis: Lucas Duda, 5/21/15 (5-0 win)

* Houston: Ike Davis, 8/26/12 (2-1 win)

* Los Angeles (AL): Carlos Beltrán, 6/16/08 (9-6 win)

* Boston: Mike Piazza, 7/14/00 (6-4 win)

* Cleveland: Never

The Mets visit the Guardians next May 20-22. Will we see them finally have a player hit multiple homers against the last team they haven’t done it against? They also still haven’t had it happen against the Royals in the regular season, and having Conforto’s two-homer game wind up a loss in the World Series… yeah, that’s how that one went.

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Christ, you know it ain’t easy… how did they know then about the 2023 Mets? It’s not a good sign when you turn on SNY at 7:00, then WPIX, then realize the Subway Series doesn’t start Monday, but Tuesday… and it’s a sigh of relief that there isn’t a game on.

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The silver lining of the Mets’ season-killing weekend in Boston is that Mark Vientos returned to the majors and collected three hits. Now to see when he’ll smack his first homer since his season debut on May 17. There’s no reason not to play the kids now, is there?

* Mark Vientos hit his first home run off Ken Waldichuk, 9/24/22

* Ken Waldichuk gave up his first home run to Vaughn Grissom, 9/7/22

* Vaugh Grissom hit his first home run off Darwinzon Hernández, 8/10/22

* Darwinzon Hernández gave up his first home run to Gio Urshela, 9/9/19

* Gio Urshela hit his first home run off Vidal Nuño III, 6/11/15

* Vidal Nuño III gave up his first home run to Nate McLouth, 5/21/13

* Nate McLouth hit his first home run off Jason Marquis, 8/23/05

* Jason Marquis gave up his first home run to Kevin Young, 6/12/00

* Kevin Young hit his first home run off Rod Beck, 4/9/93

* Rod Beck gave up his first home run to Larry Walker, 5/6/91

* Larry Walker hit his first home run off Ron Darling, 4/20/90

* Ron Darling gave up his first home run to Claudell Washington, 4/10/84

* Claudell Washington hit his first home run off Nelson Briles, 4/16/75

* Nelson Briles gave up his first home run to Jim Gentile, 6/6/65

* Jim Gentile hit his first home run off Robin Roberts, 9/22/57

Robin Roberts connects to the Daniel Vogelbach home run chain, and on Friday night, Vogelbach homered before Vientos replaced him as designated hitter, striking out in that at-bat but singling later in the game.

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In this episode, Jesse goes across the Brooklynverse to find a spot that works to podcast about baseball and F1 and all the other stuff… anyway, here’s Kota Yazawa, who is 22 and has pitched two scoreless innings with three strikeouts this season.

Yazawa is blood type A, according to his Hokkaido-Nippon Ham Fighters bio, and his favorite game is grilled meat. It’s possible that Google Chrome’s translation of that roster page isn’t quite right, and that it’s like his hobby is barbecue. Some might even say likely. Nevertheless, we hope that he wins all of his grilled meat and keeps hitting bombs and striking batters out.

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We welcome Joey Langdon, one of the folks responsible for the 2Fast2Sickos account on Twitter, and of course part of the Sickos Committee, our fellow travelers on the journey to joy in all corners of the sports world. The cover art background here, by the way, is a Photoshop-blotched version of an old Astoria picture of an El Camino, previously described (accurately) on Willets Pod as the mullet of cars. We love you, Valtteri, keep posting ass.

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