Whenever you consider nice gamers linked all through Mets historical past, you consider gamers who performed on the identical group. Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry as younger phenoms. Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling, teammates on the 1986 World Sequence squad and now teammates within the SNY sales space calling Mets video games on TV.
Tom Seaver might need retired properly earlier than the Mets even knew David Wright‘s name. Wright was only about a year old when Seaver last wore a Mets uniform, yet the two do share a link in a sense with their respective places in team history.
Fittingly, Wright will become the first player since Seaver to have his number retired and be inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame on the same day when the team honors the former captain in a dual ceremony July 19 at Citi Field.
“I love Tom,” Wright said Wednesday on a Zoom call. “When Jay [Horwitz] says that we had a lot of conversations about the history and Tom’s performances in a Mets uniform and baseball basically, it was much more of me listening to Tom inform me about his performances and his profession in a Mets uniform.”
Wright grew up in Norfolk, Virginia, at a time when the Mets nonetheless had a minor league group in close by Tidewater. His father Rhon, a retired police officer, would carry Wright and his three youthful brothers to video games whereas his colleagues have been working. The youngsters would get autographs from rising stars whereas their dad caught up together with his buddies.
That is the place his Mets fandom began to bloom. It’s how he discovered about gamers the gamers Rhon revered, like Gooden, Strawberry, Howard Johnson and Tim Teufel, who would later coach Wright within the large leagues.
However few gamers had the identical affect on Mets fandom like Seaver. The late, nice ace impressed the primary technology of Mets followers in a lot the identical approach Wright impressed a lot of the present technology. Seaver and Wright have been leaders and winners. They have been two of the perfect to put on the uniform. Their hyperlink was solidified in 2013 when Seaver threw out the primary pitch to Wright on the All-Star Recreation at Citi Subject.
“Tom literally adored David,” mentioned Horwitz, the Mets’ historian and vice chairman of alumni public relations. “He loved David’s sense of history. He loved that David knew about Tom’s place in Mets history. In 2013 when Tom threw out the first pitch at the All-Star game at Citi, Tom was thrilled that David caught the pitch.”
Wright, now 42, met Seaver properly earlier than the 2013 All-Star Recreation. The Corridor of Fame right-hander used to tug Wright apart earlier than video games to speak about life on the sphere and within the clubhouse. Seaver wished to know the way Wright was getting away from the sport after he left the ballpark. Quickly, the 2 have been swapping good-natured barbs at each other like they have been outdated mates.
It was comforting for a younger third baseman to know a legend like Seaver was searching for him.
“It was so cool to sit down with him and have those conversations,” Wright mentioned. “I truly mean that. It was so instrumental in my development to have a guy who was. not just for the Mets, but one of the best to ever put the uniform on kind of take me under his wing and try to show me the ropes a little bit.”
After retiring, Seaver and his spouse, Nancy, began a winery in Calistoga, Calif., simply outdoors of Napa. Wright was invited to work the fields, nevertheless it by no means got here to fruition.
“One of my biggest regrets to this day,” Wright mentioned. “Every year, he invited me to his vineyard up in Northern California. He told me to bring my boots because he was going to put me to work. But as a reward, he said that we drink some wine together and have dinner. And I never took him up on that offer, and to this day, I wish I would have taken him up on that offer.”
Wright wasn’t precisely a hometown child, however he was a Mets fan simply the identical earlier than he turned probably the most prolific hitters ever drafted by the Amazins’. When No. 5 is lifted to the highest of Citi Subject, it will likely be alongside Seaver’s No. 41, two gamers from two very completely different generations linked in historical past.
Again when Wright was watching the Tides together with his household, he may have by no means imagined he would have this type of profession, or that he would get tutelage from Seaver and different nice gamers.
However he’s pleased with the way it all labored out.
“It’s just incredibly crazy that I’m drafted by my favorite team,” Wright mentioned. “Our Triple-A team is in my hometown, I’m developed by some of my favorite players and my dad’s favorite players growing up. Whether it’s Hojo or Gary Carter, Tim Teufel, Straw was around, Doc was around, Keith was around — I mean, it’s crazy, the coincidence. Then, to spend my entire career with the Mets, I think that’s what makes this relationship so special, not just between me and the team, but between me and the city, and the fan base. It’s a genuine connection.”
