David Wright, 18, was counting down the hours and days until spring training and the accompanying early morning practices were finally over at 7 a.m. on a late spring morning in Port St. Lucie when he heard something coming from the major-league back fields.
“I peeked back there and saw Mike Piazza working on his catching and throwing,” Wright, now 41, remembered over the phone last week. “That really stuck with me. He’s going to be one of the best catchers to ever do it, first-ballot Hall of Famer. If this guy is putting in work to get better, who am I, as an 18-year-old, to complain about doing some early work?”
That was the first thing Wright learned from a former Met. Not the last, either.
It was twenty years to the day when Wright made his major-league debut in the summer of 2004 two weeks ago. It happened against a team that is no longer in existence in a stadium that is no longer in use. However, Wright’s journey from highly anticipated prospect to All-Star and MVP contender—assisted by a friendly experienced clubhouse—remains pertinent to the Mets today.
“I couldn’t wait to get to the stadium to see what uniform number I was going to be,” Wright said of that July 21 day at Shea Stadium when he went 0-for-4 against the Montreal Expos. “In spring training, I was 72. As soon as I saw No. 5, I put the jersey on. I was one of the first ones there and I remember standing in front of the mirror and just staring at this jersey in almost a pinch-me moment.”
David Wright looks around at Shea Stadium before batting practice after being summoned from the minors for his MLB debut on July 21, 2004. (Julie Jacobson / Associated Press)
In 2004, the Mets were a team undergoing change. Wright became the newest member of José Reyes’s core group, which was underperforming, after Reyes was called up the previous year. Wright, however, perceived only comfort where there might have been bitterness.
“The veterans were incredible toward me. They gave me a hard time, which made me feel like I fit in,” he said. “It was a neat team to be around, a very veteran team. A lot of the lessons I learned that half-year stuck with me the rest of my career. I got a chance to pick a little from each veteran and apply to my game.”
Even Ty Wigginton, whose job Wright was essentially seizing, gave him support.
“There were stories when I got called up that he was yelling that he deserved to play third base. But the minute I saw Ty, he pulled me aside and said, ‘Hey, this has nothing to do with you. I’m rooting for you. I want you to succeed,”’ Wright said. “It was really cool that he did that. It could have been intimidating but he welcomed me.”
By the first week of August, Wright was clicking and was the only bright spot for a squad that had lost 16 of their last 17 games. After batting third at the end of the season and seventh in his debut, he finished 69 games with a.293 average, a.857 OPS, and 14 home runs. The difficulty, according to Wright, is maintaining one’s position in the majors after one has established it, as opposed to becoming complacent or finding comfort in the first success.
“There was a lot of self-doubt that always motivated me,” he said. “There’s always something that fuels that fire — this need to prove to myself and everybody else that this All-Star appearance or this season wasn’t a fluke and that it was the type of player I’m going to be.”
Wright ended up being the most accomplished position player in the team’s history. Wright finished as the all-time leader in the Mets’ history in a number of categories, including hits, runs, walks, RBIs, and total bases, despite injuries that limited his performance in his 30s. This winter, he will be voting for the Hall of Fame for the second time.
The Mets have two promising young third basemen: Mark Vientos and Brett Baty. This year, Vientos has made the most of his first extended opportunity at big-league playing time after spending portions of four seasons in Triple A. It has come at Baty’s expense, as his problems have forced him back to Syracuse for a second consecutive year.
“The expectations are enormous on these young guys when they get called up, so I want to be there for them — not so much for fielding and hitting but more so off the field,” Wright said. “If they struggle a little bit in New York, it’s like the world is falling.”
Because of this, he is especially grateful for Vientos’ rise this season, considering how many times the Mets passed him by.
“Dealing with those moments, overcoming them and turning out to be the player he’s shown this year is pretty incredible,” Wright said. “A lot of young players can learn from that.”
Wright, a team ambassador for the Mets, will be back at Citi Field on September 12 for the FDNY vs. NYPD annual Battle of the Badges charity game. Wright will emcee the event and pay tribute to the warriors on both sides.
Wright has a special place in his heart for this occasion because his father served in the police for almost thirty years.
“When the Mets approached me about this idea, I jumped at it,” he said. “These men and women are the true heroes in the community. There’s not too many people you can find where, when there’s trouble, they run towards it. I can’t wait to be around and thank them and be in the dugouts. I want to talk their job, they want to talk my job, and it’s just fun interacting. I really like showing my appreciation for what they do on a daily basis.”
(Top photo of David Wright from his debut season: Rich Pilling / MLB via Getty Images)
