This episode of Pod At The Park is from the September 12, when the Mets… they played the Cubs. Let’s just leave it there. But the beauty of Pod At The Park is that we don’t need a good game to have a good show, and this is a good one with writer and Mets Twitter stalwart Danielle Sepulveres. We know that the Mets didn’t come back to win this game, but they certainly did turn things around after that series.

Pete Alonso

That’s not a lot of words, so here’s some more, it’s a little thing I used to do on Twitter, and miss doing… going back through players’ home run logs and finding their first homer, then finding the first homer that pitcher gave up, and so on, until you either reach someone whose first homer was off someone giving up their first homer, or until the 19th century. It’s a fun little game to play with Baseball Reference.

To bring this game here to Willets Pen, there’s only one sensible guy to start.

PETE ALONSO’S HOME RUN CONNECTOR

Off Drew Steckenrider, 4/1/19

Wilmer Flores, 8/19/17

Off Heath Bell, 8/11/13

Damion Easley, 8/30/04

Off Rick Aguilera, 9/20/92

Andrew Dawson, 6/16/85

Off Buzz Capra, 5/18/77

Nate Colbert, 4/25/72

Off Jack Billingham, 4/24/69

Nate Colbert’s homer was the first allowed by Jack Billingham

This isn’t just unusual because it cuts off before the beginning of Mets history, but also because of the extremely Mets tint to the whole thing. Flores, Bell, Easley, Aguilera, and Capra all spent time in Flushing. So, we’ll probably see Steckenrider in Flushing before too long.

Also, Billingham went on to become a steady arm for the Big Red Machine. In 1969, though, as an Astros rookie, he gave up homers to the following players, in order:

Nate Colbert

Willie McCovey

Johnny Callison

Dick Allen

Roberto Clemente

Rico Carty

Tommie Aaron

Henry Aaron

Fred Whitfield

Ernie Banks

Jim Hickman

Ron Slocum

That’s four Hall of Famers (plus Allen, who will be eventually) out of 12 homers. Allen was a seven-time All-Star, while Colbert, Callison, Carty, and Hickman combined for nine more All-Star selections.

How did Lindor get a Mark Canha Summer t-shirt? It’s a mystery, for sure, but you can get one at markcanhasummer.com ;)

Willets Pen

Pod At The Park 12: Danielle Sepulveres (and…