We Can Pod It Out 3: Please Please Me

Editor’s note: We’re going to regularly schedule We Can Pod It Out episodes at noon Eastern, so you can look forward to that. After some consideration of making a breakout section, that felt overly complicated, at least for now. Sometimes, there will be a newsletter attached. Sometimes, like today, not! Other days, like when Willets Pod and Not A Football Podcast return from break, newsletters are more likely to appear with those. Think of it not so much as “that guy doesn’t know what he’s doing” (however true that is) and more “hooray, Willets Pen emails are a delightful surprise each time, although they generally say what they are in the subject line, so, uh…” And if you’re just reading this on the web, or on a podcast feed… subscribe to the newsletter!

What we do have today is a little Mets trivia, thanks to this morning’s addition of José Quintana to go along with Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, and Carlos Carrasco in the now Jacob deGrom-less rotation. Good to get a lefty on board. (Also, I had a whole rant teed up if the Yankees managed to blow it with Aaron Judge, but they didn’t… so there will be a more reasonable analysis in a future newsletter.)

Anyway, Quintana will be the second Q-surnamed player in Mets history, joining Omar Quintanilla. So for today’s trivia: which letter is the only one that has never started a Mets player’s last name, which letter is Q now one away from “tying,” and who are the three players with that letter to start their surname? Answer below this tweet about our hat drive and today’s WCPIO cover art…

Willets Pen @WilletsPen

For every hoodie we sell at willetspen.com this month, we're donating a winter hat to newly-arrived families in Queens for their first NYC winter, as part of @jessicaramos' ongoing welcome wagon. So get a comfy hoodie, and feel just as warm inside! Happy holidays!

Trivia answer: While Xavier Nady is remembered as the X-Man in Queens, obviously his first name, not his last, starts with X — the letter no Mets player has ever had to start their last name. The only X player to reach a major league level was Leovigildo Xiqués, an outfielder for the Cleveland-Indianapolis Clowns in 1947, which obviously is 15 years before the Mets came around.

Thanks to The Ultimate Mets Database, the tricky trivia answer is the letter U, and the players Del Unser, Lino Urdaneta, and of course, Juan Uribe.