Goodbye David Wright

Damn.

It’s been a few days and all I’ve done since is rewatch the video where he walks off the field one last time in the 5th inning last Saturday night. Anytime I see it I watch it. David Wright, the guy I unsuccessfully modeled my baseball career after, is retired.

I’ve been to many Mets games in my life. Pretty much 3 or 4 a year. It’s a great place to get sloshed at underage since you don’t need to find someone’s house to do it at and you can take the train to/from. You’re willing to pay $12 for a can of bud light? You can be 7 years old for all they care. I’ve been to 3? Mets games this year, one I honestly couldn’t tell you who they played at the first one and the other we showed up with 1 out in the top of the 9th. We were surprisingly let in, and this is another game I couldn’t tell you who they played. But the last Mets game of the year I attended was the penultimate (680 on the reading part of the SAT #kachow #Harvard) game of the season. 2 weeks ago you could’ve bought $6 tickets to the game, as Steven Matz (who quietly had a strong finish to the season) was lined up to start against TBD Marlins pitcher. That all changed at the 1:45 press conference in mid September. I remember the time because I was having a good productive day at work, grinding away saving cities like I do. I see a notification from Instagram that the Mets are going live, and I knew it was about Wright due to a tweet from the day before. I fully expected him to be announcing he’ll be active the final two weeks of the season, after his seemingly successful minor league rehab assignment. The press conference loads and it’s my man David Wright, but much to my dismay the grim reaper Jeff Wilpon 🤮 is sitting besides him. This could only mean bad news, because Jeff Wilpon is the epitome (#680) of bad news. David’s crying, Jeff is being a douche like usual, and I’m sitting at my desk completely ignoring my work that I obviously can’t do the rest of the day. I rush to stubhub knowing I’ll never forgive myself if I don’t go see the captain odd one last time. $12 tickets, upper deck by third base?!? What a score, I enter my credit card number (compare mine with your number and security code and expiration date in the comments below) and just like that, BAM!… they’re already sold. I rush to get another set of $15 tix, and poof they’re gone too. Stubhub is losing its mind trying to handed the influx of traffic, saying tickets are available when they’re not or saying the game is sold out, just really stressing me out when all I want to do is see the captain and go back to my job saving the city. Finally I buy 2 tix for $35 each, row 5 of the promenade in the wheelchair row (which was beyond great, more on that another time). Cha boy is going to Citi Field.

Game day rolls around, and tickets in my section we’re going for $300, 10x (710 on my math SAT #kachow) what I paid for them. Couldn’t sell out the captain like that though, plus it’d give the Wilpons more money, so I kept them and embarked on my trip to Flushing (which began with the 🍊 losing to the 🐯 RIP). We arrive at 6:15, almost an hour before first pitch, and the whole parking lot is full. I knew it was a sellout but didn’t actually expect it to be a full sellout. But everyone showed up, wether by car or train or parachute.

The concourse inside is mobbed with people, David Wright jerseys as far as the eye can see. We have time to kill so we walk around the long way to our seats, crossing the Shea Bridge and past shake shack which was busy as always. The typical problem with Citi Field is that it’s so nice and so easy to walk around is that it’ll look more empty than it really is, because people want to see the different parts of the stadium. But once 7:00 rolled around and they began announcing the starting lineups, there wasn’t a soul walking around anymore, everyone was in their seats. They announce the Marlins players of whom I knew maybe 3, then they start announcing the Mets. Jose Reyes, an equally popular and huge part of Mets history, leads off. He gets a very solid ovation, and they pause for a few seconds to let him take it in. Next is Jeff “East Coast Mike Trout” McNeil, who quietly finished the year with a .329 average in 63 games. Then the music stops and Citi Field gets as loud as I’ve ever heard it, rivaling the 2015 NLCS game I attended. For one last time, David Wright was announced as the starting 3rd baseman, batting third. A solid full minute of cheering and ovations, then the rest of the lineup is announced. David’s 2 year old daughter throws out the ceremonial first pitch (of which there were an absurd 3 ceremonial first pitches before this, and the 2 year olds was by far the best) and the place goes bonkers. This is followed by the Mets letting David take the field by himself, getting yet another well deserved ovation.

The rest of the night anytime David is within 50′ of the ball the whole crowd stands and cheers. Given his health he joked after that he’s “guarding the line” and Reyes will have to get everything else, which is basically what happened. In the field he got a sweet easy hop to throw out their catcher to retire the side, with the crowd sounding like it was a late inning playoff race vintage bare handed play by the captain. His two turns at bat were less than ideal, but they were exciting to watch nonetheless. Peter O’Brien giving us Irishmen a bad name by not “losing Wright’s pop up in the lights” but Wright doesn’t need meatballs grooves down the middle to go out in style #subtweet.

Top of the 5th comes along, kiss cam is doing its usual awkward romance making, and everything is good. Wright and Reyes were even put on the kiss cam where they hugged for the 2,000th time that night. Then a rush of disbelief overcame the 43,000 strong in attendance as Mickey Callaway comes out of the dugout, lineup card in hand. A hushed noooo fills the stadium, with a brief “let him play” chant before everyone finally realizes its a done deal. This is it, you won’t see David Wright on a baseball diamond ever again. Waterworks city from everyone, standing and clapping, cheering for the face of the franchise. The would-have-been hall of famer were it not for injuries gingerly walks off the field serenaded (#680) and with tears in his eyes. Captain America is done.

The only reason any of us were there was to see David, so him leaving after 4 innings kind of forced everyone to entertain themselves until Wright’s post game speech. Hey maybe a baseball game that we paid hundreds of dollars to see can entertain us until then! No sir, just 4.5 hours of horrific baseball on a chilly meaningless September night. Just pure torture, and I’m not kidding when it might arguably be the worst baseball game I’ve ever been to. 12.5 innings and a 0-0 tie. How these guys actually kept trying at this point is beyond me, I would’ve for sure let a few grounders roll on by because of a “bad hop.” But through the grace of God the game ended thanks to Austin Jackson’s walk off, and the Captain gave his final speech.

All in all for sure the best Mets game I’ve ever been to, and will only be rivaled by 6 time Cy-Young Winner/ 4 time World Series champion Jacob Degrom’s final game in 10 or so years.

Taking out an injury plagued 2012 season and not including his last few even more injury plagued seasons, Wright’s lowest average was .283, with every other year above .300. The guy was a hitting machine, smacking oppo field homers to right center off of any lefty they dared have pitch to him. A member of the 30/30 club, who routinely had 100+ RBI, the guy was on the fast track to the hall of fame. This obviously got derailed by his spinal stenosis, among other debilitating (#680) injuries. Will he get into the hall of fame? I say almost no chance, as his numbers were borderline to begin with, but who knows how they’ll view player trajectory and how much they did for their organization and community. Lesser players statistically are in, but his sample size might just be too small. Regardless he’ll be a Mets hall of famer and his number will be retired with Tom Seaver and Mike Piazza as Mets legends.

Special shout out to Jose Reyes as well, who despite walking away from the Mets (who in fairness never offered an actual contract to him) and his domestic violence issues, was just as big a star as David Wright was back for that 2006 team. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was a gigantic Jose guy since I was smaller and played short and won road runner at the youth baseball league all star game (yes that = big deal). The guy who turned doubles into triples and hands down the most exciting player I’ve ever seen is probably done with the Mets as well, really marking the end of an era. As in typical Mets fashion, 2006 should have been the beginning of an era that enjoyed success for a very long time, but sadly 2006 was the peak. Getting Wright to a World Series in 2015 (albeit losing it to the Royals) and having Wright go yard in his first home at bat in the fall classic is an all time Mets moment, an one of his best achievements.

I can’t wait for the Captain to manage/become GM/do whatever for the organization as they win the World Series in 2019, beginning the next New York Mets dynasty.