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9/18/18

Mack On: David Wright

PC - Mack Ade 


I knew this day would eventually come. I knew that David would eventually play his last New York Mets game and I would write something about it. What I didn’t know was the conditions in which these events would transpire.

It is hard to find someone that has said something bad to say about this guy.

I’ve told this story before. I was given my first clubhouse passes in 2008 for the spring training season in Port St. Lucie. I was writing a full page a week for a Hardeeville, S.C. newspaper, that was in Jaspar County, a county that bordered Savannah, Georgia.
The A-level minor league baseball team had become a Mets affiliate (Savannah Sand Gnats) in 2007 and I wrote for a year before submitting a request for a field and clubhouse pass. I was granted it and attended my first spring training beginning when pitchers and catches reported in April 2008.

I was pretty much lost in the clubhouse. The beat guys wanted nothing to do with me. Jay Horwitz never invited me to join the gaggle he would bring from locker to locker to ask specific player’s questions. And the few players I did know in the front line of lockers were too intimidated to do more than nod to me.

Back then, the Mets used to play and intra-squad game the day before the first spring training game. They would raise money for good causes and this particular year the cause was for the family of ex-Mets prospect  Brian Cole the best player you never saw play for this team. Cole was killed in a horrific auto crash he had in 2001 while leaving spring training and before reporting to Binghamton (please read the story using the link above). He was projected to be Mike Trout before there was a Mike Trout.

I wanted to do a story on Cole but couldn’t find anyone that wanted to talk to me. Everybody started heading out to the field to get ready for the game and it looked like the moment to create this story was being lost.

And then David Wright walked towards me.

He seemed to know I looked a little lost and asked me if he could help. Here was the captain of the New York Mets asking me if he could help me! I told him what story I was trying to write about and I asked him if he could give be a quote. I turned on my tape recorder and he did about 3-4 minutes on Cole.

My final question to him was what was it like to play with him and David paused. At that point he had to expose my lack of research on the subject and he told me that Cole had come and went before Wright joined the team (Cole died in March 2001; Wright was drafted in June 2001). He knew going into this interview that I was talking to the wrong person but instead of making me feel like as ass, he carried me through to the eventual last question.

I really felt stupid when this was over (I never used the interview) but there was a lesson learned and a fact confirmed when this was over.

Do your research was the lesson. Wright is a class act was the fact.

11 comments:

  1. One advantage in doing pre-game interviews is that the players are in uniform. I was doing post-game interviews when they were in street clothes coming out of the locker room and unless the player emerging had a very distinctive look (such as the wild hair and beanpole physique of Gerson Bautista), they all just looked like a bunch of 20-something bearded baristas.

    In a sport filled with "show me the money" types (Jose Reyes, for one), class acts like that are few and far between. Prior to Wright there was Rusty Staud, too.

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  2. He really stood out Reese, especially in the clubhouse.

    He wasn't loud and overbearing like Reyes and he wasn't sullen like Beltran.

    He was just the guy in the last locker on the left side of the back row of the clubhouse. Standing, smiling, having a one on one conversation with someone.

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  3. Mack, may I use this story on my Facebook page?

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  4. Great Story Mack:
    Sad we never got to see David play healthy near the end.
    I will always remember taking my kids to Shea.
    To see the old stadium in2008, before it was gone.
    I was excited to see Santana pitch. There was two young players called up a couple weeks before we went? Nick Evans and Daniel Murphy. The game was Santana pitched he left with a lead, coughed up by Scott Schoenweiss. Went tied to the 9th inning. When David came to bat and hit a walk off Homer.
    I remember thinking wow that was great to see, my son has a couple David Fatheads his favorite player hits a walkoff.
    When we got to our hotel and turned on SNY they were talking about how that was Davids only walkoff ever!!!
    Including the minor leagues little league and HS ball.
    I always figured there would be more ?
    But to my recollection it was still his only one, against the San Diego Padres

    Steve

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  5. Wright was great, and is a true gentleman, a great combo.

    Read the Brian Cole article and realize we missed out on what would have been the Mets' greatest player ever, and changed the course of the franchise's history. Cole, Wright, Reyes, Piazza? Wow.

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  6. Yes -

    Tom is right

    Read the Brian Cole story.

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  7. Thanks for the article, Mack.....especially the Brian Cole reference. He reminded me of another "great" player in Tim Raines and it is sad that didn't get the chance to prove it to everyone (there is also an article in your archives about BC that further referenced his potential).

    Moving on to David.....what can you really say? In a weird way, he was also denied an opportunity to display his full potential due to his stenosis, etc. Yes, he had more of a career, but he should still be an impact player and he contract would be looked back upon as a smart move and not an albatross.

    If I had a son, you would be hard pressed to find a better role model then DW.

    He is/was the Mets' version of Derek Jeter.

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  8. Mike, good comp of Cole to the great Tim Raines - but from the article, it seems Coles had unique power that Raines did not. Sadly, we'll never know.

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  9. Around the Acorn - Nuts of Oaks

    1. What about Andres Gimenez for third base in 2019, either starting or in a platoon with Tom's River ToddFodder? In this way, none of the other starting infielders are disturbed atoll.

    2. Hyun Jin Ryu. I hope this is the right way to spell his name because my only South Korean friend to ask is dead now and I simply refuse to channel. Anyway, in the event that not a single NY Mets MiLB starter is anywhere near ready to start here in 2019, and the Mets could probably use another lefty starter of worth and merit, then what about Dodgers' free agent Hyun Jin Ryu, Mr. Pennyworth?

    Ryu has a winning career record. Is 31 years old and not yet decrepit (that I can tell) and he had a respectable 2018 season, although shortened not in height. His 6 year/$36 million dollar contract ends after this 2018 season. May want to check it out. Then the Mets could have three above average righty starters, and two solid lefty starters as well. Balance. It's all about the balance.

    3. Noah Syndergaard's last start. Two words, "whip him", too funny. Just a matter of four things really, I at least think. A. Locating the fastball better and keeping the pitch down in the strike-zone. B. Relying a little more on his secondary pitches to get mph separation away from the 99 heater everyone is expecting. Good for befuddling batters also. C. Getting a lot more strikes on pitches just outside the strike-zone. When a pitcher packs 99 mph heat, you'd be surprised how many batters will swing at crap. Why? Because they are trying hard not to look bad against a fireballer and it makes many nervous batting. The smarter pitchers all do this. It's almost an art form. Like nobility even. D. Getting a haircut, so that "john mane" doesn't keep hitting him in the hinder-binder sitdowner. There. Simply stated. Should all work. He already knows this stuff anyway. He is smart and resilient.

    4. We need a catcher who can hit homeruns. So Jacob deGrom can win a few more games next season and not shoot "the evil eye" anymore. Send for help, maybe on Craigslist? Actually, Tasmanian Grandal should do. I hope I have his name right this time. It isn't Yo'momma like I said it was the last time.

    5. Tomas Neato. I watch Neato bat and I say to myself a lot, "My God, what's with the front crippled looking left leg thing in the box? Can a human being even hit like that?" It's thankfully not my call on how players bat. I sukked and couldn't make the bigs even if Bill Gates paid people off for me to be up there. But I do wonder sometimes what would happen if the Mets batting coach straightened Tomas up a little more, brought his legs a little bit closer together for like balance purposes, and let him swing away more easily at the pitches in his wheelhouse?

    I do get the feeling that somewhere within Tomas' present batting stance and arguably confined batting mechanics due to it, lays a really, really good hitting young catcher. Just me. Maybe this is how they teach players to bat coming up in Puerto Rico or something? They probably call it "the leg shackled approach" who knows. But Tomas does have pretty decent catching skills and the Mets could use all the good hitting catchers they can get.

    6. I think that Tyler Bashlor is right on course now. He is getting the separation on his secondary pitch that he needs in order to optimally throw his 100 mph heater for the K's. The better he makes his secondary pitch, they better reliever he will be. Eventually, he could be getting as many K's on that pitch as his heater. Do the math.

    7. Gerson Bautista. He maybe needs to be tutored this off season on his pitches, a little bit more. I think with something like that, he could become an awesome reliever quicker. What's Roger McDowell (the old Mets goat) doing this off season? Roger would be perfect for this assignment if in. But there are others out there too.

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  10. On tonight's game...

    Vargas against Scherzer. Too close to call. Go away, come back tomorrow for another pearl of wisdom.

    The Crystal Ball Has Spoken.

    Off to the woods now with the flying monkeys. Should be fun!

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