Casual Diehard

Don’t worry. We still talked about butts. And we’re thrilled to welcome Keelin and Britt, who are going to be part of our football team in football season, talking about football, and football accessories. And butts.

And not just the t-shirts that we’re now selling.

There’s some “site news” kind of talk pretty early on in the episode, so check that out. But if you’re not a podcast thing, you’ve maybe noticed some changes around our website. It’s all good. We’re not planning to go anywhere, and playing around with stuff is kind of the essence of the whole deal here. So, let us know what you like and keep what you don’t like to yourself. Thanks! <3

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

A thing that needs to be noted here is that this episode was recorded before the death of Olivia Newton-John, whose mention amid our non-sighting of Livvy Dunne also came amid a lot of murder and heist talk, and also the Yankees scoring runs, a thing that they did in the heady days of early August. We had no idea how much things would change, or, really, who Livvy Dunne was, or is.

She does seem to be good at going viral, and good at gymnastics…

…and we’d love to do that here, because it would mean us making some money on this. The going viral, not the gymnastics. We’re crazy, not stupid.

Anyway, we’re now selling more shirts, and have repurposed willetspen.com to better serve our current needs. The book is still our touchstone, but given this Mets season, it seems smart to wait and see how it plays out, because we’re gonna want some 2022 in this book… and the current needs include an easy place to sell the wares that we do have, rather than a book that we someday will.

We’ve had Willets Pen logo gear and a couple of wonderful LFGM designs available, and now have added Queens neighborhood t-shirts, some BUTTS t-shirts, and the BOOKS Collection. There’s lots more to come, including items other than t-shirts for the designs that we have now. Stuff can be found as it’s released here, and we’ll get some category pages going to make it easier (we have a long to-do list). So if t-shirts aren’t so much your thing, hold tight! And also feel free to make requests, because it’s honestly just fun to have these things exist in concept, even if we don’t sell any. (We’d really like to sell a bunch.)

One thing you can do to support Willets Pen that’s totally free is to leave a five-star review for us on Apple Podcasts — the thing that every podcast urges you to do, because it really does help with the algorithm. Then, perhaps, someday you can run into someone and make small talk about what a weirdo that Spector guy is.

Also, that weirdo knows the newsletter is running behind schedule, and it’s on him, because he’s got stuff he simply hasn’t edited. He’s sorry about that, but also, better to give full attention to editing and give you, the work, and the writers the proper respect. I don’t know why I wrote that in the third person, you already know it’s me. Anyway, my new job has been a blast so far, but it’s also an adjustment, including making sure Willets Pen is properly tended. It’s a work in progress, but our first season continues to be beyond what I could have dreamed. Thank you!

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

Jesse here… the “show notes” (I need to take better show notes) kind of became a personal news/site update kind of thing at the end of my first week at a new job and the dawn of a new era for Willets Pen.

First, we lost Allison right before we sat down to record, because of thunderstorms wreaking havoc with her internet access. Then, we did half a show where it turned out you couldn’t actually hear Chrystal, even though we were hearing her fine during the recording. We kept that half of the show because I thought it was still listenable and enjoyable — and that’s saying something when it comes to listening to something that includes my own voice. Even the technical gremlins can’t subdue the joy right now.

I’ve also had a joyous week, starting work at a new job. It certainly feels meant to be when the first thing I actually did to help improve the MTA website was add a live service status widget to the Citi Field information page.

Am I also pushing for special service to Jacob deGrom starts?

Not quite, but it has been a busy week, and I feel a little guilty about not getting more content up here — it’s not for lack of contributions, as the Willets Pen crew has been doing fantastic stuff, like Addy’s piece yesterday on the SNY broadcast’s dream season.

The thing is, we want Willets Pen to be the best it can, and to me that means not rushing through editing, even when I know I’m barely going to be changing anything. I want the pieces that I edit to have my full attention, so that it’s not just making sure it’s good, but looking for ways to help make it even better.

That’s a somewhat different approach than how things are for Willets Pod and its associated shows… which I think is a good thing. Our podcasts and our writing, generally, are serving different purposes. That’s not to say every podcast here will be silly, or that every bit of writing will… oh, you get the point — and that’s why I also want to take this moment to thank you for support throughout our early days and appreciate that we have an audience that gets it.

It’s been a podcast-heavy week because I haven’t been mentally checked in enough to edit well. Soon, you’ll see that backlog of writing get published, especially since Chrystal and Steph have their own editing shoes (but also day jobs), and we’ll keep experimenting and having fun and all the other stuff we’re here to do.

Now that I also have a day job, and now that I’m truly no longer a journalist, this project does become different for me, but in a way that I think will be healthy both for me and Willets Pen something that I’m making time for, rather than spending time on. And I hope that you’ll continue to make time for us as we continue to experiment, grow, and have fun!

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

Hello! Here are your handy links to our Discord, merch store (check out the Pride collection!), and Twitter. This is a bonus episode of the podcast for paid subscribers, but on the back end of our Grand Opening Spectacular, we’ll have a free newsletter coming later today.

We’re back for our second episode of Willets Pod At The Park, and so far, it’s been a real boon to the New York baseball teams to have us recording at their games. The first time we did this, with Jesse Spector and Thornton McEnery, the Mets throttled the Nationals, 10-0. This time, Jesse took comedian Tony Deyo to the Bronx and not only saw the Yankees beat the Tigers, 13-0, but a seven-run inning.

Gerrit Cole did not wind up pitching a perfect game, of course, nor did Jose Trevino hit for the cycle. Eduardo Escobar did wind up cycling for the Mets three nights later, but obviously he did so with a triple to finish, not going homer-triple-double-single.

Counting up the total number of cycles that went in “reverse order” is beyond our capabilities here, but we can tell you the last time it happened: old friend Rajai Davis, not at that point an old friend, for Cleveland at Toronto on July 2, 2016 — 25 major league cycles ago now. Davis did have a groundout in his third at-bat in that game, so for completeness’ sake, the last recorded player to turn the trick in four straight at-bats (there were four cycles in the 1940s without inning-by-inning data on Stathead) was Arky Vaughan, for the Pirates against the Giants at the Polo Grounds on July 19, 1939. In between, Carlos Gomez, Luke Scott, Jim Fregosi, and Jackie Robinson also did it with outs amid cycles. Given that there are 24 possible orders to tick the boxes on a cycle checklist, you’d maybe expect each outcome around 4.2% of the time. It’s actually happened about 2.3% of the time over the last 80-some years, and that seems well within a margin of error for something so infrequent.

The last player to cycle in order? Another eventual Met, Gary Matthews Jr., for the Rangers in Detroit, September 13, 2006.

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

There’s actually another Pod At The Park that was recorded before this episode, a night at Yankee Stadium with writer and actor Sarah Sweeney. But since the Mets-Atlanta series over the weekend was a seismic event for the Queens franchise, it feels right to skip ahead and bring you this episode now.

It was 8-0 in the blink of an eye on Friday night, so any plans to really concentrate on a game with Maggie Wiggin went out the window in a hurry. Did we still have a great time at the ballpark? Of course we did. And then the Mets went ahead and, of course, won the rest of the games on the weekend, as well as Monday night against Cincinnati.

So, another episode of PATP is coming your way very soon, but with this one already feeling like it’s from another era of Mets baseball, enjoy this one now, and we’ll get Maggie back out to the park for a better game!

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

Editor’s note: During the episode, we talked about Chrystal’s ode to dad bods post, which had yet to run at the time of recording. We decided to just put it here instead of as a separate post, because why make things more complicated than they need to be? We already have an entire podcast devoted to doing that. Also, here’s the time Creed played Thanksgiving for some reason.

You wouldn’t see Nickelback doing that, what with the being Canadian and with Chad Kroeger being too busy having all that sex. Anyway, on to the newsletter portion of today’s program… which is free today as we’re giddy about the Mets taking four of five from Atlanta, but also please consider a paid subscription to support the folks bringing you fun stuff here!

Project ShaqBox trivia: Yesterday, Jacob deGrom combined with Joely Rodriguez and Edwin Díaz to strike out 19 Atlanta hitters, tying Tom Seaver and David Cone in individual efforts for the most K’s by Mets pitchers in a nine-inning game. Which team did Seaver’s game, a 2-1 victory on a Wednesday afternoon in April at Shea, come against… and why wasn’t it that team’s most notable time that season being on the short end of a historic pitching performance?

An Ode To Dad Bods

By Chrystal O’Keefe

The great Lizzo once sang, “I like big boys, itty bitty boys,” and that resonated with me. I know women often get criticized for only enjoying the tight pants and baseball butts, and I’m not here to dispel that rumor. Some, like myself, live and breathe baseball, but also enjoy the different body types of players. 

Sure, Starling Marte has abs of steel. Yes, Jacob deGrom could probably be a Calvin Klein model. Does Fransisco Lindor remind me of a young Prince Rogers Nelson, oozing sex appeal? Hell yes. Any hot blooded, man-loving person would surely go for that, I mean, have you seen Michael Kopech? Some of these baseball players are buff, or clearly prioritized squats and leg day in the offseason. And that’s great. But what about the normal-looking guys that weren’t sculpted by the gods?

 

Dad bods have been a thing for quite some time now, even in the baseball world. It’s one of the few sports that allows for multiple body types, and I appreciate that. When the Mets acquired Daniel Vogelbach, I was thrilled. Not only because I knew the power he brings, as someone that is very familiar with the Pirates, but also as someone that appreciates his body type. 

 

With Pete Alonso and Daniel Vogelbach often going back to back in the lineup, I’m thrilled to see peak athletic performances from guys that look like they can smash some ribs, chug a beer, and immediately walk out of the dugout and tattoo a ball out into the concourse. 

Alonso is known for being meaty, and the video of his shirt being ripped off after a bases loaded walk to win the game, showcasing an immaculate dad bod is one of the many reasons I love baseball. (I hope no one goes through my Google searches for this piece.) 

Pete Alonso Joins MLB Network SHIRTLESS

It’s time to normalize the dad bod in baseball. It’s time to appreciate Prince Fielder, Johnny Cueto, Yasmani Grandal, Bartolo “Big Sexy” Colon, CC Sabathia, Lance Lynn, Pete Alonso, Daniel Vogelbach, and the OG dad bod, Babe Ruth. 

If you’re reading this, ESPN, please make one of the above mentioned players the cover of the Body Issue. I promise there is an audience of appreciative dad-bod loving people out here.

And even more after yesterday.

Trivia answer: On April 22, 1970, an Al Ferrara homer and Dave Campbell single were all that stood between Seaver having a 19-strikeout game and Seaver having a 19-strikeout no-hitter. But the San Diego Padres had even more trouble connecting two months later, on June 12, when they drew eight walks in a game against the Pirates, but got no-hit by Dock Ellis, famously under the influence of LSD for the gem.

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

Jesse here… and, yes, I am an idiot. In fact, I tweeted this just yesterday…

It turns out, there was an issue with the storage on our Google Drive, namely that I needed to delete previous podcast files. Again, I’m an idiot.

I’m not an idiot for the referenced update to the deGrom stat not happening yet. That’s more a result of being under the weather and that we’re gonna have pieces from Roger Cormier and Colleen Sullivan about Jacob deGrom’s return, too… and today happens to be the trade deadline. So, we’ll get to that, but here’s some 1974 Topp from Project ShaqBox to tide you over, and Craig’s piece from 2016 that I came across when researching Tim Johnson.

The card backs, of course, are also golden, and in this case, relevant. Tim Johnson was born in 1939… wait a minute. Okay, Topps also had some idiots on hand, because Johnson was born in 1949, and thus an 18-year-old when he went to spring training in 1968, preparing to lead California League shortstops with 69 DPs. He should’ve used that to motivate his players instead of fake Vietnam stories. Would’ve been nice. But, what do you expect from a seasonal motorcycle salesman, really?

Gorman enjoys billiards.

Also, Craig is correct, and the demonym for Columbus is, indeed, Columbusite, even if it does sound like a disease or a kind of parasite.

And we will soon have an episode of The ELAINE Show with the fantastic Claire de Lune to talk about the Knicks. It’s not like they’re gonna make sense anytime soon. And even more to come in this latest podcast series... enjoy!

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Allison never does make it onto this episode, recorded one million years ago after the Mets swept the Subway Series, just to answer that question from the first seconds of the show. Janice Scurio makes her WP debut and gets to immerse herself in the stunning stability of Metsdom, which is really some kind of thing to say, but here we are in 2022, where up is down, down is up, Max Scherzer is a Met, and Jacob deGrom is back tonight.

We’ll talk about that in the next episode.

And now, Glenallen Hill:

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It’s Chrystal O’Keefe, Allison Robicelli, and Jesse Spector on this episode. However, if you have any pants-pooping stories, from sports or otherwise, please do drop them on the Discord. Was “drop” the best choice of words there? Perhaps not. Enjoy!

And now that our episode title has kept the robots from looking at this, a word from our sponsor:

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Sophie Ross has a newsletter, Sophie’s Substack. She has a podcast, So True with Sophie Ross. She has a bunch of work as a copywriter. What she does not have is an autographed Joe Burrow jersey… and she still does not have one after a trip to Yankee Stadium before the All-Star break. Even though there was an autographed Joe Burrow jersey for sale, at Yankee Stadium of all places, before the All-Star break. This show was so much fun, we hardly even noticed the Reds blowing the game and eventually losing on a walk-off wild pitch, of all things. The baseball that night was drunker than the podcasters, who were decently buzzed.

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