Mike McCann's Field of Fotos

Jason Castros came through in crunch time Thursday night. With the Angels and Astros still scoreless with two runners on in the bottom of the 9th inning, his three-run homer (off Fernando Salas) gave Houston a three-game series sweep and a two game lead over L.A. in the American League West. More than halfway through the season, the Astros have gone from upstarts to a legitimate power -- especially after beefing up their roster with deadline deals for Scott Kazmir and Carlos Gomez. When I saw Houston at Yankee Stadium last August, I caught this shot of Castro about to make a fan in the field boxes really happy -- someone's about to get a "game-used" souvenir.

If you grew up in the '60s, you remember Casey as the comic front-man selling the Mets to a whole new generation of National League fans in New York. Cleverly bamboozling the local sportswriters -- while all too aware of this ballclub's limitations -- he made the lovable losers almost as compelling a story as the Yankees, whom he managed to unprecedented success for a dozen years before. This page is from the 1963  New York World Telegram & Sun series "Meet a Met a Day." You bet it's worth saluting one of baseball's greatest characters, who was born on this date 125 years ago.

The Mets' past meets its future. Taken during the final season of Shea Stadium, the brick exterior of Citi Field captures your eye just beyond center field.

The selfie phenomenon rolls on. From last Thursday night at Citi Field, a fan takes a selfie with Mister Met.

Give credit where credit is due: Alex Rodriguez (seen here July 3rd, at home against the Rays) set a record Monday. On his 40th birthday, the Yankees DH became the first ballplayer ever to homer on six of his birthdays. This is a bit of a fluke, as many of the game's greats -- such as Hank Aaron (born on February 5th) Babe Ruth (February 6th) and Ken Griffey Junior (November 21st) -- never had the chance to play on their birthdays, simply because their birthdays fell in the off season. Still, it's a fascinating achievement -- especially when you can also now add Alex to the elite circle of Rusty Staub, Ty Cobb and Gary Sheffield as the only players to hit home runs before their 20th birthday, and after they turned 40.

Alex Rodriguez turns 40 today -- and remains one of the most talked about and controversial figures in all of baseball. Saturday night, he delivered his most impressive game of the season with three home runs that erased a 5 - 0 Yankees deficit in Minnesota, before teammate John Ryan Murphy's blast provided the winning margin. A-Rod finished the game with 23 home runs in not much more than half a season. Let's be honest, did you expect this kind of performance after he sat out a year-long suspension for PED use? And just two years after his second major hip surgery. One of the most naturally gifted athletes to play baseball in the last 50 years, we'll always wonder what might have been: what would his numbers have been had he not dabbled in performance enhancers. How would his career have progressed had he remained in Seattle -- or Texas -- or if the proposed 2004 trade to Boston had gone through? There's a lot we can praise -- or question. But one thing is clear,

It was quite a week for Michael Conforto. Monday night (and Tuesday and Wednesday, as well), he was playing in New Britain with the Binghamton Mets -- and impressing everyone. Finally, after Thursday night's embarrasing loss to the Dodgers, with the Mets showing the offensive punch or Rip Van Winkle, GM Sandy Alderson finally reversed course and summoned Conforto, hoping he might help provide a spark to the slumbering team. #30 in Mets pinstripes, Conforto went hitless in first game Friday night. But Saturday was a different story, for him and the club. In the bottom of the 1st inning this swing produced an infield single.  And the center field video board offered congratulations for the rookie. That broke the ice. Conforto -- and his teammates -- produced the Mets biggest offensive output of the year, crushing the western-leading Dodgers 15 - 2. This 5th inning double split the outfielders and rolled all the way to the center field wall. Later in the inning, Conf

About an hour before gametime last Saturday, Joe Girardi emerged from the tunnel behind the Yankee dugout to sign autographs. These kids, who came with balls, hats and sharpies, came home with a memory that should help bond them as fans for life.

New York (and nationally, thanks to MLB Network) got a chance to see Clayton Kershaw at his best last night. It was a dominating performance as he tossed a complete game shutout, striking 11 and walking no one.   The Dodgers ace and three-time NL Cy Young Award winner extended his consecutive inning scoreless streak to 29. He make it look almost effortless, breezing through the Mets and averaging around 12 pitches an inning. And while few remember the losing pitcher, give credit to New York's Bartolo Colon, who was breezing right along nearly matching Kershaw. The difference in the game was Jimmy Rollins' solo homer in the 3rd off the Mets veteran. Even with a top of the 9th inning, where the Dodgers tacked on a couple of runs, the game ran just 2 hours and 27 minutes. Kershaw carried a perfect game bid into the 7th inning before Mets leadoff man Curtis Granderson drove a hard single into right field. The Dodgers ace gave up another pair of hits, but was never really

2015 has been a renaissance season for Albert Pujols. Leading the majors with 29 homers, the 10-time All Star has passed some pretty imposing names on the all time power list during 2015. Hall of Fame names such as Mike Schmidt, Mickey Mantle, Jimmie Fox, Willie McCovey, Frank Thomas and Ted Williams. This blast came against the Yankees back on June 14th and brought on this round of high-fives once he returned to the Angels dugout.

From Monday night's game at New Britain, here's a good indication of how hard the young Mets outfielder hits the ball. It's not just that he smacked it into deep center, but it kept moving away from Rock Cats centerfielder Mike Tauchman.   Look carefully at that "ice cream cone" catch by Tauchman! Impressive last year at short-season Single-A Brooklyn, Conforto has been just as good this season at St. Lucie and now Binghamton, where he's hitting well over .300. While the Mets could certainly use a strong bat, GM Sandy Alderson has been reluctant to rush Conforto's timetable to the majors. Does gambing on an inexperienced prospect make sense for a club that seems to waste several great pitching performances a week? That's the choice the Mets upper management will hav to make before the trade deadline just 10 days from now.

Robinson Cano single-handedly defeated the Yankees on Saturday. The ex-Yankee enjoyed his biggest game of the season, driving in all of Seattle's runs with a pair of two-run homers in the 1st and 6th innings of the Mariners 4 - 3 victory. Here's Cano's swing -- and trot crossing 3rd base from the top of the 1st inning. Later in the game, fans got a look at the beaming smile that had been a Yankee Stadium presence for nine productive years, before Cano left for a 10-year contract with Seattle.

Despite being in first place at the All Star Break, it's no secret that the Washington Nationals underachieved in the season's first half. Max Scherzer has lived up to expectations, Bryce Harper has exceeded them. But shortstop Ian Desmond had an awful first half, while Jayson Wert h, another player manager Matt Williams planned to lean on, played just 27 games and contributed little. Now rehabbing from his latest wrist injury, Werth could be a week away (or less) from returning to the Nats. If there's one player who needs to have an impact if Washington wants to pull away from the 2nd place Mets, it's Werth, He put up big numbers as a Phillie, as well as 2013 and '14 with the Nationals. But he needs to be a difference maker if the club lives up what many of us predicted back in March.

...you share it with longtime major league 3rd baseman and coach Terry Pendleton . After playing on a pair of Cardinals pennant winners in 1985 and '87, he really came into his own after signing as a free agent with the Braves. The 1991 National League batting champ (at .319) and MVP in his first Atlanta season, he put together two more strong seasons in '92 and '93. All told, he played 15 years in the majors, and appeared in five World Series (three with Atlanta) -- oddly, none of those five teams were able to defeat their American League opponent.

Mike Trout has put himself in some very exclusive territory. He led off last night's All Star Game with a home run, to match something just a handful of others -- all legends -- had accomplished. (The last was Bo Jackson in 1989; the first was Frankie Frisch in 1934) And he hit it off Zack Greinke, who came into the night with a 35-2/3 inning scoreless steak! Of course, Trout knows about hitting 1st inning home runs. Below, he circles the bases after connecting in the same situation back in June against the Yankees Masahiro Tanaka. That home run, plus the run he scored later in the game after reaching on a walk, earned Trout game MVP honors. That meant more history: he's the first player ever to be named Most Valuable Player in consecutive All Star Games. That's why, as the broadcast neared its end, you kept hearing how Trout was now "The Face of Baseball." A dominating star at age 23, the sky's the limit for the onetime New Jersey high school standout.

His 8 - 2 record with a microscopic 1.39 ERA made him the logical choice to start tonight's All Star Game in Cincinnati. How dominating has Greinke been? In the two games he lost this season, he gave up just one run each. That's Bob-Gibson-1968 territory! Coming on the heels of 15- and 17-win seasons, the sky could be the limit when his 31-year likely opts out of his contract this winter and seeks a new and more lucrative deal.

Kirk Nieuwenhuis made headlines and history on Sunday, becoming the first Met ever to hit three home runs in a home game. But, wait a second, wasn't this the same player both the Mets and Angels DFA'd this season? The guy batting around .100? Same guy. Different results. The best game of his still brief major league career -- and something no Mets player had ever done in the franchise's 54-season history. (This image is from last September, before the Mets retired their pinstripe-less home uniforms.) While the Mets have spent all but their first two seasons playing in "pitcher's parks," it is fascinating to note that the previous nine three-homer games were all on the road. Here's the list: Jim Hickman (1965), Dave Kingman (1976), Claudell Washington (1980), Darryl Strawberry (1985), Gary Carter (1985), Edgardo Alfonzo (1999), Jose Reyes (2006), Carlos Beltran (2011) and Ike Davis (2012).

Thursday, New York reconnected with a fascinating memento of its rich baseball history. The John T. Brush Stairway, which gave easy access from the Hamilton Heights neighborhood to the ballpark that, over eight decades, three New York baseball teams and two pro football teams called home. The Polo Grounds was torn down and replaced by public housing in the 1960s, as the Mets and Jets moved to Queens.  But the Stairway remains, newly restored in a joint effort of the city and the five franchises that played there. Thursday, this unique relic of another era was rededicated and honored as a symbol of history and active part of the urban landscape -- its steel and concrete function and beauty restored. Traveling from San Francisco to her ballclub's ancestral home was Giants vice president Staci Slaughter. (Below) Representing the Yankees, who went from the Giants tenants in the 1910s to their bitter cross-rival rivals in 1923, Yankees COO Lonn Trost. New York native Le