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It's Jake's year. We're just voting in it. Love the capless crusaders.

On this 40th anniversary of the 1977 blackout, Vice Sports tracked down six guys who were at Shea when the lights went out, including my brother-in-law, a.k.a. The Disgruntled Employee. "They made us come back! It was a hot, humid day and I basically walk through Flushing to Shea, and I'm thinking, 'Why are they doing this? You can't play a baseball game without power,'" Trost says. "So I get there, and there's a fair number of concession people and ticket takers who made the trek, and they don't let us in the ballpark. We stood outside baking for a while and they just sent us home. Of course, the lights came on that afternoon and they could have played."

Tom Boswell wrote a roundup of MLB ballparks, ranking Citi Field in the "very good" category (No. 19 overall, though he seems like almost everything). This was the summation. Nice rotunda. An ex-Mets manager, who still loves the Mets, said it all after he saw the new digs for the first time: "Could they possibly crap it up any more with all that signage everywhere? It hurts your eyes to look at the darn place. But, yeah, it's a real nice park, otherwise. And it sure beats the heck out of that [dump] Shea." The street of crummy auto chop shops 30 yards from the park is a touch. Oh, and the jets still scream over it. Wondering who his source is. My first guess is Davey, since he and Boswell both worked in Washington at the same time. I remember Davey's quote circa 2012, something to the effect that his shower had hot water, and that's all he cared about. "Still loves the Mets" seems to apply more to Bobby, maybe (maybe) Willie. I guess Mike Cubbage could've checked in with Tom. Contemporize, Boswell. The chop shops are mostly gone.

Ceetar wrote: it's only been half a season and he's a 25 year old rookie, it's not like he's a phenom. Plenty of time for the league to figure him out and him become an Adam Dunn type. Yankees are working on the collapse thing. Comforting appraisal. Thanks for talking me down. Go Ghost of Kevin Maas.

Newsday's Lennon, who has become kind of a hack (or maybe he was and I just never noticed), paints a portrait of our All-Star representative as the outcast child nobody wants to play with. Michael Conforto was seated at his own podium, one of more than two dozen representing the National League that ringed the outfield warning track at Marlins Park. Surrounded by fellow All-Stars during Monday’s workout news conference, Conforto probably never felt more alone. Despite the personal triumph and all the perks that come with being an All-Star, Conforto seemed like a kid at a birthday party that none of his friends showed up to. As the Mets’ only representative at the Midsummer Classic, he didn’t have any teammates as podium neighbors to joke around with and share the experience. “I was hoping some other guys would make it,” Conforto said. “I was hoping Jay Bruce would make it. That Jacob deGrom would make it.” [...] Now that he’s fine physically, Conforto has some catching up to do at the plate, as the shiny new All-Star pick lost some of its luster in the weeks leading up to the game in Miami. He earned his selection during the first two months, when he batted .316 with 13 home runs, 34 RBIs and a 1.054 OPS through the first 47 games. There was a time when Conforto’s own torrid start was compared to that of Aaron Judge’s path of destruction across town, but that talk obviously has disappeared entirely. Since June 1, a span of 23 games, Conforto is batting .209 (14-for-67) with one homer, seven RBIs and a .690 OPS. Not exactly an All-Star month, and his troubles were compounded when he got drilled on that left hand by the Giants’ Matt Moore on June 25. Maybe these two days in Miami can give Conforto a boost heading into the second half. Have some fun, possibly contribute in the game itself. Given the Mets’ frustrating season, it might be a little difficult for him to completely clear his mind of that, but a mini-vacation from that daily aggravation certainly won’t hurt. “Me being the only guy from the Mets makes it all the more special for me, but a number of [teammates] did deserve it,” Conforto said. “That would have been great, but it’s just me.” After reading that, I was honestly relieved when I saw him sitting among his temporary teammates and laughing it up during the Derby. Yay, Michael made a friend!

Maybe it was the lack of regulation regalia, but goddamn it, I didn't hate Judge -- and I fucking hate every goodamn one of them going back to my first exposure to them via Tom Tresh and Ruben Amaro cards. I completely avoided him through the first half so assumed he was another pinstriped automaton, except on something, thus explaining the overblown statcast nonsense. Alas, he seems actually likable. Between that and this home run thing he seems to have down pat, that will make him and his team (pending their not totally collapsing in the stupid American League) very popular to impressionable children in the greater Metropolitan area. And this is irritating indeed, for unless the Mets get their spit together, we're gonna go through another endless cycle of MFY this and MFY that. I really thought we had this thing licked for a few years.

I wasn't at SABR when Bouton spoke, but they posted audio from the panel here. The Times article was very moving. Also recommending Keith Olbermann on baseball cards here.

Gene Conley, a champ in two sports, 86. Took a memorable trip with future Met Pumpsie Green.

The Department of the Obvious confirms this game sucked, this trip sucked, this roster sucks and this half-season was abysmal. Mets will trail the Rockies by 10 1/2 games when Colorado comes to town on Friday for three. Putting aside how many teams are between them and us, the slightest of slight second-half chances comes down to sweeping them next weekend to put us 7 1/2 back...but five in the loss column. Yes, very slight. Delusionally so. If somebody decides to start trading veterans for prospects (even suspects) between now and then, that's OK, too.

Carpenter 2B Piscotty RF Pham CF Gyorko 3B Molina C Voigt 1B Grichuk OF DeJong SS Wainwright P

Curtis Granderson – CF Asdrúbal Cabrera – 2B Yoenis Céspedes – LF Jay Bruce – RF T.J. Rivera – 3B Lucas Duda – 1B José Reyes – SS Travis d’Arnaud – C Zack Wheeler - RHP Conforto off the DL. Nimmo on it (partially collapsed lung...not THAT serious, says his manager).

Bartolo. Twinkies. Now it all makes sense.

Wheeler. Wainwright. Win. No, not you. You. 4:10 start.

These a-holes... Carpenter 2B Piscotty RF Fowler CF Gyorko 3B Fucking Molina C Voit 1B Grichuk LF DeJong SS Martinez P

They're back! Curtis Granderson – CF Asdrúbal Cabrera – 2B Yoenis Céspedes – LF Jay Bruce – RF T.J. Rivera – 3B Lucas Duda – 1B José Reyes – SS Travis d’Arnaud – C Jacob deGrom – RHP

We just passed the 19th anniversary of the day Angel Hernandez became Angel Hernandez and, to a certain extent, the day Turner Field became Turner Field, the effing play at the plate Hernandez probably got wrong to end an extra-inning debacle and wrong-way sweep by the Braves of the Mets in Atlanta. That was Bobby V and Johnny F going ballistic over what the manager called Michael Tucker's "lousy, illegal slide" into Mike Piazza's lap. For Mike's part, he believed Hernandez made a safe call so he could get going on his All-Star break vacation not one minute later. Good times. We (meaning fans) believe we get jobbed by umpires on the reg, but Hernandez's incompetence stuck out from that day forward and has reinforced itself dependably since.

As the old-timey tune goes, Meet me in St. Louie, Jakey. He'll be taking on Cardinal All-Star Carlos Martinez. I was going to say "fellow All-Star". I should be saying fellow All-Star. Anyway, deGrom needs to pitch like that he was not dubbed. He's certainly performed as such. The Mets will have gone more than 72 hours without playing by Friday night 8:15 EDT. One assumes Terry will bemoan his team having too much rest, which in some ways is as bad as not enough, it's hard to stay loose when you're not getting your innings in, which explains all the cramping the Mets went through when they took the field at Busch Stadium. Ah, enough worst-case scenarios. They tend to take care of themselves without us inventing them in advance. #LGM.

Rainout. No makeup date announced. Even the Nationals' weather is lame.

Edgy MD wrote: It's 4:14 and no lineup. #intrigue Per DiComo, they're waiting on Grandy's hip. Cespy is in the lineup, he adds.

An unflattering Smith report, passed along by veteran MLB reporter Danny Knobler. Dominic Smith? "Overweight, out of shape, moves like he's 50 [years old]." Hope it's revealed as a a Freezing Cold Take soon.

Jake vs Roark. Win. Otherwise, the string we play out fully and completely unfurls before us...if it hasn't already...and it pretty much has.

For the record: Reyes SS Cabby 2B Bruce RF T.J. LF Duda 1B Flores 3B R. Rivera C Nimmo CF Seth P

Grandy sits, it turns out. T.J.'s the left fielder. And Jose Reyes is a highly rated morning man.

Who's playing in the "A" game over on the main field at one o'clock?

I'm happy for Conforto, a fine young man who will not be traded at the deadline, a player who should keep improving and be an important building block for the Mets' future. But if one Met and one Met only is to be chosen, it should be deGrom. As 41F says, perhaps he will still get the call. Conforto was phenomenal through his first 41 games (.341/.437/.712) and decidedly less so in his last 28 (.202/.360/.303). Without picking apart the rosters and taking into account who had to represent who, I don't think it adds up for Michael over Jacob. Again, good for him, I will applaud heartily when he tips his cap on the foul line at Marlins Park (assuming he doesn't reaggravate his thumb in the cap-tipping warmup) and I hope it's the first of many selections in his burgeoning career. But deGrom's the best and most valuable of Mets in 2017, someone who has established himself as one of the top pitchers in the league. I'm honestly miffed -- in the baseball, if not the "there are so many bigger problems in this world" sense -- that he wasn't taken.