G-Fafif

BUT WAIT! They took Cabrera's double away and mark him 0-for-0 in the first; Bruce is 0-for-1.

Clarification: Bruce was supposed to bat third, which is why Gonzalez, the fifth batter, led off the second. Bruce was apparenlty called out; Cabrera's double stands.

Centerfield wrote: Is this for real? I don't even know where to start. Which means you, too, can manage the Mets!

In the top of the first, no runs, no hits and one clerical error.

bmfc1 wrote: [tweet]https://twitter.com/TimBritton/status/994247376054480896[/tweet] Was something in the air last August? Bruce must have been extra excited to be traded to the Indians.

From Healey of Newsday: Yoenis Cespedes has been playing hurt, Mickey Callaway said. His right hamstring issue has affected mobility and cost the Mets on defense the past couple of days. Hip to quad to hamstring. May he still be mobile by next week. Healey issues correction: Yoenis Cespedes has been playing hurt, Mickey Callaway said. His right QUAD** issue has affected mobility and cost the Mets on defense the past couple of days. (**fixed body part)

From Healey of Newsday: Yoenis Cespedes has been playing hurt, Mickey Callaway said. His right hamstring issue has affected mobility and cost the Mets on defense the past couple of days. Hip to quad to hamstring. May he still be mobile by next week.

Hoping Cespedes not playing is just a wisely chosen day off.

Flores second, Conforto seventh. Worth a try.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Well, as you've demonstrated, you have a notoriously poor memory regarding Mets history. It can be weirdly spotty as the picture adjusts.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: You just made George Foster and Carlos Beltran pout. To be honest, the first 15 that popped into my head was Val Pascucci.

Will wear No. 15, last worn by Jerry Grote as far as I'm concerned.

1,051. Devin Mesoraco

Luis Guillorme has indeed been called up; Tomas Nido has been optioned not to Binghamton but to Las Vegas.

Ken Rosenthal has his sauces, and they give our Devin a less than tangy scouting report: Mesoraco's defensive skills are diminished; one scout says, "Good luck with him trying to catch Syndergaard, Matz and Wheeler." Still, worth a shot for both clubs. Both players were sunk costs.

This game story from the AP, July 21, 2013, reads not just like a time capsule, but as a bulletin that things were changing even as we were cheering. Matt Harvey knew of one way to quiet all the talk about his off-field activities being a distraction: dominate on the mound. The young ace did just that Sunday, striking out 10 in seven overpowering innings to lead the New York Mets past the Philadelphia Phillies 5-0. The 24-year-old Harvey has embraced his fame in his first full major league season, dating a Russian supermodel, appearing in a sketch on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" that poked fun at his sudden popularity, and posing nude in a sports magazine. He also told another publication that Derek Jeter was the player he wants to "model" his dating life after. Much of it drew criticism from the New York media. "I read the articles and obviously I was embarrassed by them. The way I was portrayed is not who I am and not the person who I am," Harvey said. "I'll deal with it on the field and fortunately I was able to do it today." Said Mets captain David Wright: "If this is the most he's going to have to deal with in his career, it's going to be smooth sailing." [...] In his first outing since starting the All-Star game on his home mound, Harvey (8-2) hit a batter with a pitch in the first inning -- just as he did Tuesday night when he nailed Yankees slugger Robinson Cano. But plunking Chase Utley with a 99 mph fastball was about the only mistake Harvey made until Utley singled with one out in the fourth. Harvey also allowed a single to Michael Young in the sixth and a double to Delmon Young in the seventh inning of his 30th career start. "I think Matt was on a little bit of a mission today to silence all of the other stuff that's going on and let everybody know he's here to pitch and here to play baseball," Mets manager Terry Collins said. "I think today he went out there with a little anger." Scott Atchison gave up a single in two innings to complete the Mets' fifth shutout of the year. The Phillies have been blanked eight times. At the All-Star game, Harvey said he was looking forward to meeting Lee. Whether or not the two pitchers spent any quality time together at the chaotic Midsummer Classic, Harvey certainly impressed Lee, who was making his 300th start. Repeatedly reaching 99 mph on the scoreboard radar on Dwight Gooden bobblehead day, Harvey struck out the side in the third and fifth and threw a 100 mph pitch during a strikeout of Domonic Brown in the fourth. Harvey struck out Brown three times, the final one his 10th of the day. The big right-hander has six games with double-digit strikeouts this year. He had his fourth game of at least 10 strikeouts without walking a batter. I was there that Sunday. It was fantastic despite being essentially par for his course. It was everything we could have wanted from a Harvey Day. It was the season to date in a microcosm. The 2013 Mets who were going nowhere didn't exist when Harvey pitched. They were on another plane. Doc being in the house, featured on the video board waving to the crowd, made it even more special. It was a benediction from one Met pitching deity to another. And yet. Those quotes, not even in retrospect, hinted at paradise on shaky ground. Everything with Harvey had been nothing but positive clear up to the All-Star Game. Whatever extracurriculars made it into the press only enhanced his reputation as bigger than life. Suddenly, though, he had to be "embarrassed" and "angry" and have things to "deal with" and "silence" criticism. What criticism? Matt Harvey, from the moment he rose to the majors almost exactly a year earlier to the moment he left the mound that day, was infallible. Yet somehow trouble shared the postgame talk with brilliance. The two would never quite untangle again, at least not until brilliance fell away altogether. Six more starts followed in 2013. Two were close to as wonderful. Three others were a little off. Not terrible, but not brilliant. Maybe fatigue was setting in. Then, the sixth start, against the Tigers, thirteen hits in six-and-two-thirds (yet only two runs, because Harvey knew how to pitch even without his best stuff). Within a few days of not fully shutting down Detroit, we got the word about the elbow. That was the physical flashpoint. I don't know that I've ever been so deflated by a Mets injury. It was like "what's the point anymore?" Of course he came back. Of course he pitched some fine games in 2015, the year the rest of the team caught up to him and the overall results were transcendent. But it was never the same as in 2013, and maybe the downfall was inevitable. The later injuries couldn't be predicted, but the sense that something was off could be felt coming that sunny Sunday after the All-Star break when he toyed with the Phillies like he'd toyed with virtually everybody. I barely connect the Harvey from then with the Harvey of now. I just as soon keep them separate.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I don't see anywhere on that 2002 cover, by the way, that indicates the purchase price. New York at the dawn of the new millennium was a place where if you had to ask, you could just keep walking.

Rally 'round the flag, boys! Can't take my eye off it 44 years later.

One of the most impressive assemblages of frontline talent the Mets ever assembled on a yearbook cover, but they're overwhelmed by a single kid and 50,000 of his friends. They are, after all, the most.

Vargas has gotten an out. They take the ball out of play.

David Wright moving to the 600-day DL.

Ahem.

Will wear 29, which never made it to Conlon's back. Or front.

Mark Feinsand says the infielder everybody loves and everybody will forever love until he has a few bad games is on his way.

For now, three Met catchers, which almost equals one.