Casual Diehard

Last night, Francisco Álvarez (check out his home run chain) became the first Met to hit a game-tying home run with two outs in the ninth inning of a game since all the way back on May 17, when Francisco Álvarez hit a game-tying home run with two outs in the ninth inning off Jason Adam of the Rays.

This is not normal. Before Álvarez in May, the Mets hadn’t had a two-out, game-tying homer in the ninth inning of a game since Michael Conforto took Kyle Barraclough deep on September 13, 2018, a blast followed immediately by Todd Frazier’s game-winning dinger.

Álvarez last night became the first Met to hit a game-tying homer with two outs in the ninth inning on the road since Curtis Granderson off Matt Albers in Washington on July 3, 2017 — a game the Mets then lost in the bottom of the ninth on a Ryan Raburn RBI single.

Last time the Mets won a game on the road after one of these special homers? That was September 13, 2015, in Atlanta, when Daniel Murphy hit a three-run shot off Ryan Kelly and the Mets added three in the 10th for a 10-7 shocker.

All by himself, Álvarez has done this twice this year. The Mets as a team haven’t had a pair of down-to-their-last-regulation-out tying homers since Scott Hairston and Lucas Duda in 2011.

That tied the team record for occurrences in one season. The Mets also enjoyed such clutch hitting twice in 1970 (Dave Marshall and Donn Clendenon), 1988 (Howard Johnson and Darryl Strawberry), 1997 (Todd Hundley and Carl Everett), 2000 (Derek Bell and Bubba Trammell), and 2004 (Mike Piazza and Victor Diaz).

Individually, Álvarez is now tied for the team career record with Hundley, Marshall, and Piazza. Marshall was not another catcher, but an outfielder whom the Mets acquired after the 1969 season from the Giants, along with Ray Sadecki, for Jim Gosger and Bob Heise. The Mets traded Marshall, who hit a total of 13 home runs for them in 264 games, to the Padres before the 1973 season for Al Severinsen. The Mets assigned Severinsen to Triple-A, but he never pitched professionally again.

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 Crack Team is real and the Crack Team song is real and Mr. Happy Crack is real.

Mr. Happy Crack is real and was once photographed with Cardinals reliever Ray King (“The Gerund”) as the lefty wore a Mr. Happy Crack crop top.

And you should read Jordan’s piece on Tim Wakefield and knuckleballs.

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

Happy anniversary to Tommy Pham, who eight years ago went deep for the first time as a major leaguer, a two-run shot at Busch Stadium that gave the Cardinals the lead after a Matt Kemp RBI single for the Padres in the top of the third inning. Scoring ahead of Pham on that first homer was an appreciative Lance Lynn, who’d given up the run to San Diego in the top of the frame, and led off the bottom with a single.

Two innings later, Lynn and Pham hit back-to-back doubles, and the Cardinals went on to a 3-1 victory — Lynn the winner, he and the just called up Pham (he was in his third game that season after a cup of coffee the previous September) responsible for all the runs.

* Tommy Pham hit his first home run off Ian Kennedy, 7/5/15

* Ian Kennedy gave up his first home run to B.J. Upton, 9/1/07

* B.J. Upton hit his first home run off Kelvim Escobar, 8/17/04

* Kelvim Escobar gave up his first home run to Rey Ordóñez, 9/2/97

* Rey Ordóñez hit his first home run off Rich Hunter, 9/19/96

* Rich Hunter gave up his first home run to Reggie Sanders, 4/6/96

* Reggie Sanders hit his first home run off Armando Reynoso, 9/26/91

* Armando Reynoso gave up his first home run to Fred McGriff, 8/16/91

* Fred McGriff hit his first home run off Bob Stanley, 4/17/87

* Bob Stanley gave up his first home run to Ruppert Jones, 5/14/77

* Ruppert Jones hit his first home run off Rick Wise, 8/29/76

* Rick Wise gave up his first home run to Willie Mays, 5/21/64

* Willie Mays hit his first home run off Warren Spahn, 5/28/51

* Warren Spahn gave up his first home run to Frankie Gustine, 7/14/46

* Frankie Gustine hit his first home run off George Barnicle, 5/6/40

* George Barnicle gave up his first home run to Ival Goodman, 9/18/39

* Ival Goodman hit his first home run off Charlie Root, 4/21/35

* Charlie Root gave up his first home run to Elmer Smith, 7/9/23

* Elmer Smith hit his first home run off Parson Perryman, 5/31/15

That was the first home run allowed by Parson Perryman, who pitched 24 games for the 1915 St. Louis Browns and gave up one other home run that season, to White Sox first baseman Jack Fournier, who went on to lead the National League with 27 home runs in 1924, and also is part of Francisco Lindor’s home run chain, which we haven’t yet gotten to here. Maybe tomorrow?

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

Last night, Travis Jankowski hit his first home run of the season, and his first as a member of the Texas Rangers. Last year with the Mets, the speedy Jankowski, who has 82 stolen bases in his career, did not homer in 63 plate appearances, going 9-for-54 with three steals and 11 runs scored. He also didn’t homer in his one plate appearance as a Mariner, last having gone deep on June 23, 2021, as a Phillie against Erick Fedde and the Nationals.

Jankowski has hit as many as four home runs in a season, as his 2018 season with the Padres included a blast off Félix Hernández. Eight of Jankowski’s now 10 career home runs came as a Padre — he didn’t go deep in 16 games with the 2020 Reds, but did steal a base for them in the playoffs.

The first time Jankowski homered? That was right after a couple in chicken and pig masks appeared on the broadcast of the Padres-Giants game on September 13, 2015.

* Travis Jankowski hit his first home run off Mike Leake, 9/13/15

* Mike Leake gave up his first home run to Andre Ethier, 4/22/10

* Andre Ethier hit his first home run off Dewon Brazelton, 5/3/06

* Dewon Brazelton gave up his first home run to Carlos Delgado, 9/13/02

* Carlos Delgado hit his first home run off Dennis Cook, 4/4/94

* Dennis Cook gave up his first home run to Lonnie Smith, 9/20/88

* Lonnie Smith hit his first home run off Larry McWilliams, 7/25/80

* Larry McWilliams gave up his first home run to Gary Carter, 7/28/78

* Gary Carter hit his first home run off Steve Carlton, 9/28/74

* Steve Carlton gave up his first home run to Doug Clemens, 4/19/65

* Doug Clemens hit his first home run off Vern Law, 6/30/62

* Vern Law gave up his first home run to Del Ennis, 6/11/50

* Del Ennis hit his first home run off Claude Passeau, 5/5/46

* Claude Passeau gave up his first home run to Mel Ott, 5/11/36

* Mel Ott hit his first home run off Hal Carlson, 7/18/27

* Hal Carlson gave up his first home run to Fred Merkle, 5/1/18

* Fred Merkle hit his first home run off Patsy Flaherty, 6/23/08

* Patsy Flaherty gave up his first home run to Jesse Burkett, 4/22/03

* Jesse Burkett hit his first home run off Bill Hutchison, 6/23/90

* Bill Hutchison gave up his first home run to Jake Beckley, 5/11/89

* Jake Beckley hit his first home run off Lev Shreve, 5/6/89

* Lev Shreve gave up his first home run to Roger Connor, 8/29/87

Roger Connor, the career home run king before Babe Ruth with 138 from 1880-97 with the Troy Trojans, New York Gothams/Giants, Phillies, and St. Louis Browns (Cardinals), connects us to Brett Baty’s home run chain.

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 love Mark Canha around here for Mark Canha Summer and for wearing our Pride Month shirt, but now it’s Wrath Month, and Canha went deep last night to help give the Mets consecutive wins for the first time since June 14 and 16, and on consecutive days for the first time since May 30, 31, and June 1. We haven’t gotten to check out his home run chain yet, so here we go!

* Mark Canha hit his first home run off Taijuan Walker, 4/10/05

* Taijuan Walker gave up his first home run to George Springer, 6/30/14

* George Springer hit his first home run off Drew Smyly, 5/8/14

* Drew Smyly gave up his first home run to Carlos Peña, 4/12/12

* Carlos Peña hit his first home run off Gil Heredia, 9/19/01

* Gil Heredia gave up his first home run to Ray Lankford, 9/1/91

* Ray Lankford hit his first home run off Mark Gardner, 9/6/90

* Mark Gardner gave up his first home run to Pedro Guerrero, 9/19/89

* Pedro Guerrero hit his first home run off Bob Owchinko, 9/22/79

* Bob Owchinko gave up his first home run to Ellis Valentine, 5/21/77

* Ellis Valentine hit his first home run off Jim Rooker, 9/5/75

* Jim Rooker gave up his first home run to Carlos May, 5/1/69

* Carlos May hit his first home run off Jim Nash, 4/9/69

* Jim Nash gave up his first home run to Al Kaline, 7/3/66

* Al Kaline hit his first home run off Dave Hoskins, 9/26/53

* Dave Hoskins gave up his first home run to Vic Wertz, 5/28/53

* Vic Wertz hit his first home run off Bob Muncrief, 8/13/47

* Bob Muncrief gave up his first home run to Ray Hayworth, 9/30/37

* Ray Hayworth hit his first home run off Bob Cooney, 5/30/32

* Bob Cooney gave up his first home run to Bruce Campbell, 9/26/31

That was the first home run for Bruce Campbell, who is not that Bruce Campbell, obviously. This Bruce Campbell may or may not have been evil, but he’s been dead since 1995, having lived to the age of 85. In 1932, Campbell started the season with the White Sox, but was traded to the St. Louis Browns at the end of April, along with Bump Hadley, for Red Kress.

Campbell went on to lead the American League that year in both strikeouts and getting hit by pitches. After hitting a career-high 16 homers in 1933, Campbell remained a regular in American League outfields for the next decade, with Cleveland from 1935-39, Detroit in 1940-41, and Washington in 1942. He was 9-for-25 with a homer in the 1940 World Series for the Tigers, but it wasn’t enough to beat the Reds that year, with Paul Derringer tossing a complete game in Game 7 and Campbell going 0-for-3 with a walk.

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

Whee! It’s Friday. Brett Baty and Brandon Nimmo homered for the losing Mets last night, and we’ve already done their home run chains, so how about the guy who then pinch-hit for Baty for… reasons?

* Danny Mendick hit his first home run off Jaime Barria, 9/8/19

* Jaime Barria gave up his first home run to Ryan Rua, 4/11/18

* Ryan Rua hit his first home run off Huston Street, 9/21/14

* Huston Street gave up his first home run to Paul Konerko, 7/10/05

* Paul Konerko hit his first home run off Bob Wells, 6/6/98

* Bob Wells gave up his first home run to J.T. Snow, 5/6/95

* J.T. Snow hit his first home run off Bill Wegman, 4/6/93

* Bill Wegman gave up his first home run to Jim Rice, 9/14/85

* Jim Rice hit his first home run off Steve Kline, 10/1/74

* Steve Kline gave up his first home run to Frank Howard, 7/10/70

Frank Howard connects to the Daniel Vogelbach home run chain, so both Danny and Daniel track back through baseball history together. Connecting to Frank Howard with the 1970 Senators (managed by Ted Williams), that’s nothing. They had Dick Billings, Dick Bosman, Dick Nen, and Dick Such.

Unfortunately, despite the passage of time and that baseball team having moved to Texas, Washington remains FULL OF DICKS.

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

Fun thing about the home run chains is that they cut both ways. Take any pitcher who pitched long enough, and they gave up home runs. Like, say, an unrepentant domestic abuser and cheater who happened to get 27 straight outs last night against the 21st century Cleveland Spiders, the team you may remember from yesterday’s post about the 1899 Washington Senators finishing 35 games ahead of them, in next-to-last, also-went-out-of-business-after-the-season place. Congratulations or something. Baseball immortality.

* Domingo Germán gave up his first home run to Yuli Gurriel, 7/2/17

* Yuli Gurriel hit his first home run off Andrew Miller, 9/7/16

* Andrew Miller gave up his first home run to David Wright, 6/10/17

* David Wright hit his first home run off John Patterson, 7/26/04

* John Patterson gave up his first home run to Tom Lampkin, 7/20/02

* Tom Lampkin hit his first home run off Mike Scott, 7/28/90

* Mike Scott gave up his first home run to Bill Fahey, 5/13/79

* Bill Fahey hit his first home run off Roger Nelson, 9/4/72

* Roger Nelson gave up his first home run to Tony Horton, 9/22/67

* Tony Horton hit his first home run off Fred Talbot, 8/8/64

* Fred Talbot gave up his first home run to Luis Aparicio, 6/11/64

* Luis Aparicio hit his first home run off Tommy Lasorda, 5/28/56

* Tommy Lasorda gave up his first home run to Bill Sarni, 8/5/54

* Bill Sarni hit his first home run off Bob Miller, 6/6/54

* Bob Miller gave up his first home run to Hank Thompson, 5/14/50

* Hank Thompson hit his first home run off Tiny Bonham, 7/16/49

* Tiny Bonham gave up his first home run to Jimmie Foxx, 8/5/40

Foxx connects us to the Francisco Álvarez home run chain, running all the way back to one of baseball’s all-time scoundrels, in a different way, Charlie Comiskey. Probably also not great with misogyny or racism, being a 19th century baseball player and 20th century baseball owner.

It could be worse. Gurriel hit his second home run one day later in Cleveland off some dude who’s currently in Japan. Pity, because Germán, Gurriel, and that guy all are worthy riders of the baseball submersible to be launched later.

Miller “saved” it from being a total rogues’ gallery, so how cool is it that David Wright’s home run chain goes to Mike Scott… who gave up his second and third home runs (while pitching for the Mets) to Keith Hernandez (in his MVP season with the Cardinals)?

Also, it should be noted, Hank Thompson hit home runs for the Kansas City Monarchs before he smashed 129 in eight seasons with the New York Giants. These home run chains rely on the Baseball-Reference home run logs, which are powered by a SABR database. Maybe the day will come when more information is added to that database — maybe there’s an account of the home run that Thompson hit for the 1943 Monarchs as a 17-year-old. He was the third Black player in MLB, debuting for the St. Louis Browns just 12 days after Larry Doby integrated the American League. Thompson was also the first Black player for the Giants, debuting for New York on the same day as Monte Irvin, July 8, 1949 — a week later, he got on the board with the first of those 129 National League dingers.

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 two homers last night, Brandon Nimmo is an obvious choice for today’s home run chain, so let’s do it…

* Brandon Nimmo hit his first home run off Jason Hammel, 7/1/16

* Jason Hammel gave up his first home run to Melvin Mora, 4/11/06

* Melvin Mora hit his first home run off Curt Leskanic, 4/20/00

* Curt Leskanic gave up his first home run to Mike Benjamin, 6/27/93

* Mike Benjamin hit his first home run off Jason Grimsley, 8/26/90

* Jason Grimsley gave up his first home run to Howard Johnson, 9/13/89

* Howard Johnson hit his first home run off Pete Redfern, 4/28/82

* Pete Redfern gave up his first home run to Bobby Bonds, 5/15/76

* Bobby Bonds hit his first home run off John Purdin, 6/25/68

* John Purdin gave up his first home run to Jim Wynn, 10/4/64

* Jim Wynn hit his first home run off Don Rowe, 7/14/63

* Don Rowe gave up his first home run to Henry Aaron, 4/11/63

* Henry Aaron hit his first home run off Vic Raschi, 4/23/54

* Vic Raschi gave up his first home run to Wally Judnich, 7/24/47

* Wally Judnich hit his first home run off Bobo Newsom, 4/16/40

* Bobo Newsom gave up his first home run to Zeke Bonura, 4/22/34

* Zeke Bonura hit his first home run off Vic Sorrell, 4/18/34

* Vic Sorrell gave up his first home run to Joe Sewell, 5/30/28

* Joe Sewell hit his first home run off Bill Burwell, 4/14/21

* Bill Burwell gave up his first home run to Joe Judge, 5/18/20

* Joe Judge hit his first home run off Bullet Joe Bush, 6/30/17

* Bullet Joe Bush gave up his first home run to Ping Bodie, 8/11/13

* Ping Bodie hit his first home run off Eddie Cicotte, 6/3/11

* Eddie Cicotte gave up his first home run to Topsy Hartsel, 6/19/09

* Topsy Hartsel hit his first home run off Bill Carrick, 6/4/99

* Bill Carrick gave up his first home run to Pete Cassidy, 4/28/99

That was the first home run of Pete Cassidy’s career, an inside-the-parker, according to his home run log, followed by another the next day against Brickyard Kennedy of the Brooklyn Superbas, who had traded him to the Washington Senators four days earlier. The deal sent Cassidy, Mike Heydon, Dan McFarlan, and cash to the Washington Senators (National League edition) for James Casey and Duke Farrell.

Surprise, the team that was trading halfway decent players (Farrell went on to jump to the American League and played for Boston in the 1903 World Series) in exchange for scrubs and $2,500 is the one that does not exist anymore, and in fact did not exist after going 54-98 in 1899.

Good news for Washington, though: the 1899 Senators did not finish last. In fact, they finished 35 games ahead of last, because that was the year the Cleveland Spiders went 20-134, finishing 84 games behind National League champion Brooklyn, which managed to shrug off that Cassidy homer to win 101 games. Brickyard Kennedy went 22-9 with a 2.79 ERA, one of three 20-game winners for the Superbas along with Jack Dunn and Jay Hughes, while Brooklyn also got 19 victories from James McJames and one relief appearance from Welcome Gaston.

Now you can sing “Welcome Gaston” to the tune of Helter Skelter.

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 cover art is specifically an homage to the Washington/Wells station in Chicago, which doesn’t really have to do with the episode at all, but how often does a New Yorker get to play with the CTA color palette?

While we’re here, if you’re playing Immaculate Grid, come join our channel for it in the Discord!

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

Brewers rookie outfielder Joey Wiemer was the difference last night, his two-run homer off Drew Smith accounting for Milwaukee’s scoring in a 2-1 game in Queens. The homer was Wiemer’s 11th, as he opened his account for both the season and his career on April 5 — also against the Mets. That one was a three-run shot, also giving Milwaukee the lead, 4-1, on the way to a 7-6 triumph over New York. Here is Wiemer’s home run chain.

* Joey Wiemer hit his first home run off David Peterson, 4/5/23

* David Peterson gave up his first home run to Johan Camargo, 8/2/20

* Johan Camargo hit his first home run off Matt Grace, 7/9/17

That was the first home run allowed by Matt Grace, who was that day’s winning pitcher in relief of Joe Ross for the Nationals. Grace had only that decision during the 2017 season, when he posted a 4.32 ERA with 31 strikeouts and 18 walks in 50 innings out of the Washington bullpen. An eighth-round pick of the Nationals in the 2010 draft, Grace stuck around Washington through 2019, after which he went to Arizona as a free agent. Grace made only three appearances with Arizona, where he gave up the 20th and final homer of his career to Sam Hilliard of the Rockies on August 26, 2020.

Against the Mets, Grace allowed only one dinger: Pete Alonso’s third on his way to 53 in 2019.

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