Willets Pen: The Ebook

Willets Pen will be an ebook about the Mets, by an All-Star team of writers who just don’t happen to be Mets Writers.

To put it together, we want to make sure that everyone - writers, editors, artists, everyone - is paid what they're worth. Our goal is $15,000 for the project, and we have longer-term goals once we get there, so we plan to stick around a while.

We're taking preorders for the book, and to give you something while you wait, we're doing a newsletter and podcast. Each preorder will get you access to WIllets Pen on Substack, as well as a code to join our Discord community.

Who are we? Glad you asked.

We're the best lineup this side of Flushing Bay, is who we are.

Ellen Adair is primarily an actor, with recurring roles on The Sinner, Homeland, and Bull, among many others. They also enjoy playing the role of baseball analyst, appearing numerous times on MLB Network, plus podcasts on Pitcher List, Fangraphs, CBS, the Athletic, Baseball Prospectus, SABR, and their own podcast, Take Me In to the Ballgame. They are also the author of Curtain Speech, a book of poems about the theater, and write for FanBuzz. They’ll be illustrating the Willets Pen ebook.  

Addy Baird is a political reporter and union organizer who made a quasi-religious conversion — after never once caring about sports before in her life — to die-hard Mets fandom in 2015. It was, yes, bandwagoning. She has spent the last seven years learning her lesson, and the last five in enemy territory, rooting for the Mets from our nation's capital. She currently works for BuzzFeed News, and previously worked for ThinkProgress and Politico New York. Most importantly, though, she is an enthusiastic (if not particularly talented) left-handed catcher for the One Hitters, a slow pitch softball team sponsored by a local medical marijuana dispensary. Noah Syndergaard once blocked her on Twitter.

Steph Driver is the Senior Hockey Editorial Manager for SB Nation and a long suffering Philadelphia Flyers “fan,” in that she hates them but also wants them to win more than anything. She lives in Marietta, Ga., which makes Truist Park her natural enemy, because the traffic keeps her from her twin nephews. She writes for Broad Street Hockey and hosts their flagship podcast, and is proud of being perpetually On Line.

Rob Gunther is a writer and audio journalist who has worked in daily news radio and podcast production at WNYC and Apple News. When he was a one-year-old baby, he bit his dad in the arm so hard it broke skin at the exact moment the Mets won the World Series in 1986.

Thornton McEnery is…let’s say “a financial columnist,” but more importantly a lifelong Brooklynite whose first live baseball game was Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. Since then, he has experienced a lot of pain as a Mets fan and a season ticket holder in the final years of Shea. He has had some jobs at MarketWatch, The New York Post, Dealbreaker.com and Crain’s New York Business. At the Post, he somehow ended up covering the sale of the Mets to Steve Cohen and caused a ruckus, which taught him what it felt like to be a mediocre white guy hated by Mets fans, i.e. Jason Bay. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two sons and dog…like a true media stereotype.

P.E. Moskowitz runs the newsletter Mental Hellth and is the author of the forthcoming book Rabbit Hole, a druggy journey to mental liberation (Atria/Bloomsbury). They grew up in New York City and have a tattoo of Mr. Met holding a gun on their left arm.

Rich O'Malley is an author, editor and communications specialist living in Manhattan with his pooch, Alfie, and kit-kat, Mr. Boo. After departing the New York Daily News as Executive Editor in 2016, he published his first book, One Lucky Fan: From Bleachers to Box Seats, Chasing the Ultimate Sports Dream to Visit All 123 MLB, NBA, NFL & NHL Teams in 2019. He grew up a diehard Yankees fan, but the Mets’ constant "Metsing about" amuses him to no end. He does not care for Boston or Atlanta though. Like, in any way. Adopt, don't shop.

Allison Robicelli is a James Beard-nominated food/humor writer, a Publisher's Weekly starred author, and the mind behind the NSFW food-centric erotic Substack soap opera The Edible Erotic Adventures of Esmerelda Poppingcorn. She's written about urinals for Bon Appetit and Hot Pockets for The Takeout, done sacreligious things to bagels for Serious Eats, and made a chocolate cream pie you'd gladly stick your dick in for The Washington Post. When she's not writing recipes or pornography, she's laughing at her die hard Mets fan husband and his futile World Series dreams, and living the dream in beautiful, sunny Baltimore. 

Jesse Spector was not paying attention in kindergarten when they said that these marble notebooks were for writing, and amazed his teacher when he filled his up in a couple of days… with drawings of the Mets. He has since become a writer, covering baseball and hockey for the New York Daily News and Sporting News, and a smorgasbord at Deadspin. He is the father of two Mets fans, despite having warned them about how that goes. He’s also an amateur photographer, going pro at Triboro Photo.

Colleen Sullivan is good at many things, but writing bios isn’t one of them. She is a Chicago-native Mets fan, who followed Robin Ventura from the White Sox to the Mets. She co-hosts the Estrogen Power Hour podcast and contributes to South Side Sox. She frequently tells people that no choices the White Sox make can hurt her because she is a Mets fan, and makes it a point to see the Mets when they are within driving distance, even if it does mean going to Wrigley.

Linda Surovich is a full-time librarian and beleaguered Mets fan. She is one of the co-hosts for the all-female podcast A Pod of Their Own and writes for Amazin' Avenue and Just Mets. She can usually be found at Citi Field as the Mets drive her crazy.