An Ode to the Captain
Today, my favorite baseball player, David Wright, celebrates his 34th birthday. And today I thought, since the baseball world has seemed to have forgotton, that I would express just how much David Wright has meant, not only to me, but to the New York Mets and Baseball as a sport.
Lets start off with some statistics. Throughout his 13 year MLB career, David Wright has drivin in 970 runs, swatted 242 homers, and stolen 196 bases. He has compiled 1777 hits, all while maintaining a career .296 batting average. He and Braves Hall of famer Eddie Mathews are the only third basemen in history to hit 10 or more homers in each of their first 10 seasons. Impressive, however, David is the only third basemen with 10 straight seasons of 10 or more steals. He and Albert Pujols are the only two Major leaguers in history with 4 straight seasons of 25 homers and 40 doubles. Then add Davids minimum 15 stolen bases to the mix and he stands alone in the trifecta of power and speed. Not to mention David is the Mets all time leader in Hits, runs batted in, doubles, runs scored, walks, extra base hits, sac flies, total bases, games played, at bats, and runs created. The only other third basemen in history to lead their teams in one of these categories are, Mike Schmidt and George Brett. David is a 7 time all star, and has won 2 silver sluggers and 2 gold glove awards, Not to mention he was shafted by the voters for both awards in 2012 when he lost to Chase Headly. Lastly, there have been 10 total MLB seasons where a third basemen hit 40 doubles, 20 homers, and 15 steals. David Wright has been the author of 5 of those seasons. *mic drop*
These stats are impressive for any player, but even more so for a player that has played his whole career in the big apple. In 2013 David Wright was named the captain of the Mets after signing an 8 year contract extension. Now before you Yankee fans get all riled up, I am in no way saying David Wright is Derek Jeter, so don't even start. It is, however, alright to accept the fact that other teams have classy players who shine both on, and off the field, which is exactly what David does. He embodies everything a baseball player should be, he is a leader on the field, a leader in the clubhouse, and not to mention he is a darn good baseball player. Not once throughout his entire career did we hear anything about any scandals, clubhouse incidents/altercations, or any off the field issues, much like Mr. Jeter. While David may not have the hall of fame stats Jeter does, he possesses the same class attitude and plays the game the (w)right way.
Recently we have been seeing less and less of the David Wright from the past. In the past 2 seasons combined he has played in only 75 regular season games due to injury. After the 2011 season which was cut short due to a stress fracture, with the exception of 2012, he has not played in 150 games. As a Mets fan, I watch David Wright play hurt. After the 2011 season ended and we lost Reyes, and then later we lost Beltran, David Wright had no choice, he became the Mets. The Mets were consistently a basement finisher in the NL East and David Wright was the one who kept Mets fans from completely giving up. While many criticized giving him that big deal in 2013, the Mets had to do it (I was NOT one of those people). David has been dealt a bad hand as of late being diagnosed with spinal stenosis in 2015 and then the very next year having surgery to remove a herniated disc in his neck that resulted from his changed throwing motion to accommodate his spinal stenosis. You may ask, how can he be a team captain if he is always hurt? Glad you asked. In 2015 after he was diagnosed with spinal stenosis, David began a riveting rehab plan which involved up to 3 hours of stretching per day. On top of that, David still traveled with the team to most of the games so he could be present in the clubhouse and on the bench. And last year when David went down with a herniated disc, he watched games from the bullpen until his neck was healthy enough to sit in the dugout (his neck wasn't quick enough to be able to move out of the way of potential foul balls).
David Wright is, and will always be my favorite baseball player. David Wright showed me how to make a sidearm throw on the run, he showed me how to drive the ball to right field, how to crush lefties, and how to always have your tongue sticking out while hitting and throwing. David Wright showed me how to play the game the right way, give back to my community, be a leader, and be a good teammate. David Wright showed me how to pick myself back up after an injury, he showed me that no matter how many people tell you that you are done or you will never be good again or let alone play again, that you still pick your head up and you grind. But most of all, David Wright made me love baseball, the game which has ever since taken over my life and gave me purpose in everything I do. I will never forget watching, with tears in my eyes, as he circled the bases after his 2 run home run in game 3 of the World Series in 2015. After all he had been through that year, just watching him fulfill his lifelong dream of playing in the World Series made me emotional. I still get chills to this day just thinking about it. So for all that I thank the greatest Met of all time, and my all time favorite player, the captain, David Wright.
