Casual Diehard

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 games for Triple-A Norfolk.

The way Alfonzo went after that? He played for the 2007 and 2008 Long Island Ducks, the 2008 Tigres de Quintana Roo, the 2009 Yomiuri Giants, and finally the Newark Bears in their last season, 2010 — a team managed by Tim Raines that included Elijah Dukes, Carl Everett, Nook Logan, Scott Spiezio, and Daryle Ward. And they had Armando Benitez striking out 52 hitters in 34.2 innings for the best K/9 rate in the Atlantic League. How the heck did that team finish in last place?

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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, the energy over the last few weeks has been extremely “go girl give us nothing” both on and off the baseball field with miserable pitching (aside from Drew Smith’s recent first career save, love you king) and a dead offense — and to top it off, the team hasn’t even provided any notably fun dumb social content for the girlies lately. Buck really tried to spice it up with that ejection, but man. I really hit a point of having nothing to give this team, and while we’ve all been there before, it hurts somehow even more in May than September, I think.

Thankfully, there’s Formula 1, and those freaks are absolutely serving. In my deep Mets depression, I’ve finally woken up and seen the light. F1 is the best sport in the world, and Jesse devised a perfect game for Britt and I to use as a vessel for our Ferrari thirst. As this is an audio production, allow me to take you on a brief visual tour, brought to you by the blessings of the Ferrari admin team and my perfectly calibrated Instagram algorithm:

Would you like to see Charles LeClerc getting into an ice bath? Scuderia Ferrari’s official account has you covered. Mussing his hair after a race? Or playing the piano? Or hearing good gossip? (me) Leaving a plane bathroom?

Would you like to see Carlos Sainz checking out a fan? (TRIGGER WARNING NSFW I HAVE WATCHED THIS 15,000 TIMES) Looking like a psycho freak? Being a judgmental bitch? Singing badly for one minute straight?

Would you like to see fancams of the two of them being huge sexy dorks? This is an endless genre of art!

I’m still learning about F1, but my general feeling — encapsulated by this realm of content chaos and as we discuss on the pod — is that the entire sport is just constantly giving everything. It’s a traveling circus of hotties who drive cars two hundred goddamn miles an hour and I can’t believe it took me this long to join the party. It’s been a real balm as the Mets have imploded.

Of course, because this is how it always goes, in the time between recording this podcast and putting it out into the world, everything changed, first with the cancelation of this weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix (good, safe, hate it) and then with three swings of the bat and a “Let’s fucking go Mets” heard ‘round the world. In that moment, Pete saved the season and gave us a sound bite matched only by Christian Horner’s “Change your fucking car!”

After weeks of bad baseball and Ferrari fan cams, I needed this FCC violation more than I even realized, and I think the team needed it too. Another good thing Pete said last night was that the 2023 Mets have needed to figure out who they are, and I think last night helped them define that — and thankfully, this Sunday, the absolute idiots at ESPN have decided to mic up Jeff McNeil, so it certainly won’t be the last violation of the season, either.

At the exact moment I finished typing this little blog, Pete Alonso absolutely crushed a home run to put the Mets in front against the Rays. The vibe is improving, you guys, so do your part and say it with me: Let’s fucking go Mets!

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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 Johnson started for the Diamondbacks and gave up tying dingers to Mike Piazza in the third and Edgardo Alfonzo in the seventh, followed by Robin Ventura taking Mike Morgan deep in the eighth to tie the game yet again, and the Mets winning, 7-6, on a walkoff single by Derek Bell off Byung-Hyun Kim, with Joe McEwing (who hit two non-tying homers off the Big Unit that day) scoring the winning run.

The Mets’ other game hitting three tying home runs to thrill fans in Flushing was in 1993, with Bobby Bonilla hitting two of those homers, Tim Bogar the other, and the Mets still losing to the Reds.

But how about two tying homers and a walkoff? The first time the Mets ever did that was 40 years ago this month: May 6, 1983, in a game that started as a Tom Seaver-Mario Soto duel. Dave Kingman got the Mets to extra innings with a two-run shot off Soto in the ninth, Hubie Brooks blasted a solo homer off Tom Hume in the 10th, and George Foster won it with a three-run dinger in the 13th off Frank Pastore.

Three years later, on July 3, 1986, Darryl Strawberry hit a two-run shot in the fifth inning off Jim Deshaies for a 3-3 tie with the Astros, then hit a two-run shot off Frank DiPino in the 10th to tie it again after Phil Garner had taken Jesse Orosco deep in the top of the inning. After DiPino settled down for a pair of outs, Ray Knight won that one with a solo shot.

It took another 20 years for another such game at Shea, until May 23, 2006. And that game itself took 16 innings against the Phillies. The first tying homer was Cliff Floyd off Gavin Floyd for a 2-2 game in the fourth inning, then José Reyes in the eighth off Ryan Franklin to make it 8-8. Being one of those games, of course nobody then scored until the 16th, when Carlos Beltrán punished Ryan Madson on a 2-2 pitch for a 9-8 Mets win.

That’s some big names in Mets history for those games… and then there’s the last time before last night that they’d had two tying homers plus a walkoff: September 13, 2018, against the Marlins — a Thursday afternoon in the first game of a doubleheader. But unless the Mets can acquire Shohei Ohtani, it’s special in its own way that won’t soon be repeated.

Steven Matz started for the Mets and gave up back-to-back homers to Peter O’Brien and Isaac Galloway (these were real major leaguers five years ago) in the second inning. But in the bottom of the inning, after a Kevin Plawecki walk, Matz hit a homer off Sandy Alcantara (hey, he’s actually good).

Alcantara being actually good, the Mets didn’t score again against him, and went to the ninth inning down 3-2. With two outs, Michael Conforto tied the game with a dinger off Kyle Barraclough. Three pitches later, Todd Frazier sent everyone… well, not home happy, because doubleheader (the Mets won the second game, 5-2, with Tomás Nido homering off the same Jeff Brigham who gave up Jose Siri’s homer last night), but to the concession stands happy?

So, that’s five times in Mets history that they’ve hit two game-tying homers and gone on to walk it off. If you’ve been waiting for something special to spark the season, there you go.

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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 vs. Suns: Lost Game 2, won series

* 2022 Bulls vs. Bucks: Won Game 2, lost series

* 2022 Nets vs. Celtics: Lost Game 2, lost series

* 2021 Clippers vs. Suns: Lost Game 2, lost series

* 2021 Clippers vs. Jazz: Lost Game 2, won series

* 2021 Bucks vs. Nets: Lost Game 2, won series

* 2021 Wizards vs. 76ers: Lost Game 2, lost series

* 2021 Lakers vs. Suns: Won Game 2, lost series

* 2021 Heat vs. Bucks: Lost Game 2, lost series

* 2019 Warriors vs. Raptors: Won Game 2, lost series

* 2019 Raptors vs. Bucks: Lost Game 2, won series

* 2019 Trail Blazers vs. Nuggets: Won Game 2, won series

* 2019 Rockets vs. Warriors: Lost Game 2, lost series

* 2019 Thunder vs. Trail Blazers: Lost Game 2, lost series

* 2018 Bucks vs. Celtics: Lost Game 2, lost series

* 2018 Timberwolves vs. Rockets: Lost Game 2, lost series

* 2018 Jazz vs. Thunder: Won Game 2, won series

* 2018 Wizards vs. Raptors: Lost Game 2, lost series

* 2017 Spurs vs. Warriors: Lost Game 2, lost series

* 2017 Hawks vs. Wizards: Lost Game 2, lost series

* 2017 Pacers vs. Cavaliers: Lost Game 2, lost series

By outcome…

* 12 teams lost both Game 2 and the series

* 5 teams lost Game 2 but won the series (by winning Game 5, 7, or both on the road)

* 3 teams won Game 2 but couldn’t defend their own home court and lost the series

* 2 teams won Game 2 and the series

The Nuggets’ institutional memory of 2019, their only appearance on this list, may be beneficial to them.

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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, and Klay Thompson (32)

7. Danny Green (31)

8. Serge Ibaka (28)

9. Andre Iguodala (27)

* George Hill (26)

Did you get it yet? Did you figure out which active player trails only King James in conference finals games played?

Would it help if you had the rest of the top 25?

25 conference finals games: Jaylen Brown

24: Russell Westbrook

23: James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Marcus Smart

22: Al Horford, Tristan Thompson

21: Trevor Ariza

20: Jayson Tatum, P.J. Tucker

19: Paul George

18: Clint Capela

17: Jae Crowder, Kevin Love, Kyle Lowry

Maybe this was too easy. Indeed, if you guessed Jimmy Butler, that’s wrong because he’s about to add to his total of 13, along with Bam Adebayo… and Grant Williams for that matter, but not Kyrie Irving.

The correct answer is someone who is still in this year’s playoffs, but has not scored a point… but has averaged 27.4 defensive rebounds per 100 possessions.

Udonis Haslem haș committed 2,455 combined personal fouls in his storied NBA career, between the regular season and playoffs. Surely he has more to give before calling it a career.

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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 played 285 professional baseball games. Francisco Lindor played his 285th career game in Double-A in 2014, moved up to Triple-A that year, and still started 2015 in Columbus before making his major league debut on June 14, 2015, at which point he’d been on Baseball Prospectus’ top 20 prospects list four straight years.

Álvarez went 0-for-8 this weekend in Washington, bringing him down to a .217/.260/.391 line for the season… but since effectively taking the starting job behind the plate on April 23 in San Francisco (he’s started 14 of 18), the 21-year-old is hitting .261/.320/.522. So, that’s where I’m gonna put some optimism today — that’s really good for someone who’s only really here because Omar Narváez got hurt, and now really has to carry the load because Tomás Nido is, too.

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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 something for your click, I think. It shouldn’t really be an issue, because I keep planning to tee up some stuff that isn’t necessarily dependent on being timely, to go with the podcast about songs from the 1960s, but listeners of Willets Pod “Heavy” will also understand that the brains of this operation isn’t exactly firing on all cylinders. Speaking of which, I mashed up the opening to Kim Possible and the SEC football theme song. Just like the title of this video says.

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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 real ketchup with a new shirt and hat!

(thanks for scrolling all the way to the bottom, here’s charles leclerc as promised)

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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.

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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 Boston) in all nine of the 76ers’ games. Not a single time has he been a double-figure scorer.

Who holds the record for such a thing? Going with the next-lowest round number, the most single-digit scoring games by a player logging at least 20 minutes in the playoffs is … wait for it … P.J. Tucker of the 2020-21 champion Milwaukee Bucks.

The Sixers aren’t guaranteed 11 more playoff games for Tucker to try to tie his own record, and in fact they may not want 11 more — if they just win the next nine, they’ll be NBA champs.

If that does happen, Tucker can at least tie the Philadelphia team record, set in the 2001 Finals run by Tyrone Hill. That tied the NBA record at the time, 18 games of 20-plus minutes and single-digit points, set by Dennis Rodman with the 1998 Bulls. It’s subsequently also been matched by Bruce Bowen with the 2005 Spurs.

On the all-time list, Tucker tied Bill Cartwright for 13th place last night with his 64th career postseason game playing at least 20 minutes and not cracking 10 points. Up next are Caldwell Jones and Michael Cooper in an 11th-place tie at 65, with the top 10 in reach if the Sixers keep rolling.

The top 10?

* Robert Horry 113

* Derek Fisher 106

* Rodman 99

* Bowen 98

* Paul Silas 84

* Danny Green, Andre Iguodala, Kendrick Perkins, and Ben Wallace 78

* Dale Davis 71

It’s all the more impressive when you consider that Tucker didn’t make the playoffs until he was in his 30s with the Raptors, having previously played in Israel, Ukraine, Greece, Italy, Germany, and Phoenix. As recently as 2019, he averaged 11.4 points per game in the playoffs with the Rockets.

Tucker also is now one win away from going to a third straight Eastern Conference finals with a third different team.

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