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Jorge Castillo in the Star-Ledger gets to the bottom of this David Wright thing.
Word of a clubhouse meeting trickled through the group of downtrodden players as they walked from the home dugout at Citi Field.
The Mets had just lost, 5-2, to the lowly Cubs. They were 24-39, already 15 games under .500 on June 15. They had lost 10 of 12 games. The season, barely a third complete, was spiraling out of control.
The players did not know who arranged the meeting. When they gathered in the middle of the clubhouse, David Wright stepped forward. There were no coaches in sight.
"He had enough," reliever LaTroy Hawkins said. "He was sick of the (crappy) act."
A composed Wright addressed his teammates for less than five minutes, warning of possible perils ahead.
We’re better than our record, but if we keep playing like this the season is going to be a nightmare. Come to the ballpark prepared every day. Do whatever it takes.
If not, the long season will only become longer.
Wright asked Hawkins, a 19-year veteran, if he would take the floor. He was the only other player to speak.
"It’s okay to hear from T.C.," Hawkins said, referring to manager Terry Collins. "It’s (all right) to hear from LaTroy. But to hear from D, it was powerful."
No longer is Wright a young talent surrounded by more experienced, and expensive, players. At 30 years old, he is the franchise’s cornerstone investment; the image, voice and role model, on and off the field, enjoying the prime of his career in the country’s largest media market.
The closed-door meeting that Saturday afternoon was the natural next step in his evolution from ancillary performer to team leader, a role solidified when he was officially named the fourth captain in franchise history on March 21.
"It’s something I had never seen before from David," said pitcher Dillon Gee, Wright’s teammate for four seasons. "He’s taken on the leadership role well."
The Mets are 17-11 since that players-only gathering. Of the 11 losses, only one was by more than two runs.
"Meetings are stupid. They’re just dumb in general," the reserved Wright contended. "I think the only thing is sometimes it’s good to get together and let people air out because you’re around the same group of guys for so long. Sometimes it’s necessary to have an open forum where guys speak their mind about how they feel."
MUCH IN DEMAND
Under the assumption that he would be voted to start in the All-Star Game, Major League Baseball appointed Wright the ambassador for Tuesday's exhibition months in advance. He starred in the promotional campaign, participated in press conferences and became the game’s central figure.
On Monday, when the sport converged on Citi Field for All-Star Game festivities, the duty amplified for the admittedly exhausted Wright, who started 90 of the Mets’ 91 games that included 42 extra innings of play and a slew of weather interruptions.
On Monday, he satisfied his media obligations, national and local, across platforms. At night, he captained the National League entry in the Home Run Derby. Making his second career appearance in the event, Wright hit just five home runs.
On Tuesday, he will make his sixth All-Star Game start at third base for the Senior Circuit, an accomplishment made possible by his franchise’s voting campaign.
"Obviously, you’re somewhat hesitant because you never know how your season’s going to go," Wright said of the additional responsibilities and spotlight. "You never know if you’re going to be an All-Star."
The relentless effort to ensure fans vote Wright in as a starter exemplified his place in the organization. He is a homegrown talent, a supplemental first-round pick in 2001 that shot through the farm system to make his debut as a 21-year-old in July of 2004. In the nine years since, he has become a mainstay on the roster and in the record books.
Wright is the franchise’s all-time leader in hits (1,531), doubles (343), runs batted in (862), total bases (2,573) and extra-base hits (584). He is second in games played (1,352), third in home runs (217), tied for third in slugging percentage (.506) and fifth in stolen bases (181). Defensively, he is a two-time Gold Glove winner.
The accomplishments were not without hardship. In 2009, the Mets’ first season at cavernous Citi Field, Wright hit a career-low 10 home runs. The next year, he batted a then-career-worst .283.
Then in 2011, he labored through the most difficult of his 10 major-league seasons. Playing with a stress fracture in his back, Wright was hitting .226 on May 17 when he was placed on the disabled list for just the second time in his career.
Days later, an article published in New Yorker magazine quoted Mets owner Fred Wilpon declaring Wright was "not a superstar."
"I never had any doubts," Wright said of his return after the back injury. "There was never any question in my mind that I would be able to come back."
He reverted to form last season and carried the Mets to a surprising start.
This season, he leads all National League third baseman in batting average (.304), on-base percentage (.396), hits (105), doubles (21), triples (five), walks (49), total bases (175) and stolen bases (15). He compiled the numbers despite playing with a minor foot injury, Collins revealed yesterday.
"David Wright is a player’s player," Collins said. "He’s the man’s man in our clubhouse. He personifies exactly what you want a major league player to be. Not just talent-wise, but his leadership."
If he duplicates his average yearly stat line a few more times, he could make the Baseball Hall of Fame. If that happens, he would be the second player to have a Mets cap on his plaque in Cooperstown.
But perhaps most impressively, Wright has remained loyal — some would argue to a surprising extent. Last December, days before his 30th birthday and as the final year of his contract loomed, he signed an eight-year extension worth $138 million. The deal nearly ensures he will spend the prime of his career playing for an organization that has advanced to the postseason just once in since reaching the 2000 World Series and is toiling through an obvious rebuilding phase.
Wright did not make the decision blindly. Understanding his status and options, he met with Mets ownership and front office personnel over the offseason. He asked questions. He researched. He did not want to waste the remainder of his career without another foray into the postseason. He has experienced the playoffs just once (in 2006) and the spectacle was, he described, "addicting."
The Wilpons and general manager Sandy Alderson presented a blueprint and stated their case. Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler and a slew of other young arms were on the way. The team’s finances were improved and they would be players on the free-agent market. The Mets would surround Wright with substantial talent soon enough, as there had been earlier in his career.
Wright bought in. He felt at home with the Mets. They are all he has known since he was 18 years old. But he was realistic. He did not expect the Mets to compete for a playoff berth this season. He just didn’t expect the team to start as miserably as it did, which led him to address the team that Saturday afternoon.
"I knew that it was going to be difficult," Wright said. "It wasn’t snap your fingers and all of a sudden you become a World Series contender. It’s a process. Still, I was hoping for maybe little better results than what we got earlier in the season."
FAMILIAR FOCUS
John Buck played with one other official captain in his first nine major-league seasons before he joined the Mets. The player, Mike Sweeney of the Royals, shared the same agent he and Wright did.
In July 2004, when they were teammates on the Royals, the two phoned Wright the day he was promoted to the big leagues to send their congratulations. Buck had made his debut a month earlier.
The agent explained to Sweeney, a five-time All-Star, that he and Wright exuded similar traits, beginning with their tranquil demeanors. Like Sweeney, Wright harbored an intense focus and was a "true professional."
It’s "to an annoying degree," said Buck, the Mets’ starting catcher. "And Sweeney was the same way. I look for flaws with (Wright) because he’s so perfect just so I can point them out to him."
Wright says his first nine major league seasons, which included two epochs of veteran talent, molded his leadership style. When he joined the Mets, Mike Piazza, John Franco and Al Leiter were around. He kept his mouth shut.
When the second wave of Paul Lo Duca, Carlos Delgado, Tom Glavine and others arrived, he became more vocal.
And with Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and R.A. Dickey discarded over the past two years, Wright is now the lone established star on the roster.
So when the Mets acquired players over the offseason, Wright made it a point to call and welcome them to the team — even if they were just signed to minor-league contracts.
"It’s been a process where you feel more and more comfortable," Wright said. "It’s not like a lot of other sports. If you’re a first-round quarterback, all of a sudden you’re anointed, and you need to step up. It’s not like that. In baseball, you develop into it and I think I’ve had a pretty good development."
Wright keeps a little notebook with him. In it, he scribbles down what needs to improve and what is going well, both individually and as a team. He strives to update it once a week. Sometimes a thought comes to him after a game and he jots it down. Sometimes it happens when he’s in a hotel room watching a movie.
He tries to avoid minutia and focuses on the grand plan. Every month or six weeks or so, he goes through the list with teammates.
"I’ve been here long enough to see things that we’re weak at, things that we’re strong at," Wright said. "It’s good to have that type of reinforcement every once in a while."
Wright avoids grandiose sermons. He has coordinated big dinners with teammates and picked up the tab, as he did on the team’s trip to Chicago last month. But he usually opts to approach teammates individually, as he did with Wheeler in the wee hours of June 18.
The Mets had just lost to the Braves, 2-1, on a walk-off home run following a rain delay of 3 hours and 43 minutes. Wheeler, just 30 miles from his hometown, was set to make his highly anticipated debut the next night in the second leg of a doubleheader.
Exhausted, Wright sat with the rookie pitcher for dinner at around 2 a.m. in the visitors clubhouse at Turner Field. He offered bits of advice to the 23-year-old prospect the Mets brass used as part of their sales pitch to Wright last December.
Stay within yourself. You’re better than them. Just do what you’ve been doing. It’s good enough.
"He’s definitely not what you would think coming into the big leagues, what a big shot would be, a guy that walks around without saying anything to anybody," said Wheeler, who tossed six scoreless innings in his debut. "He goes out of his way everyday." |
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