To the many Red Sox and Cubs fans in my life who have consistently spoken of their respective droughts between world championships that they had experienced in their younger years, I have two words. Shut up.
You at least have had titles at long last within the past decade. You Red Sox fans have had four in this century, which is more than you had in the previous one you played in–and this one is only 25 per cent done.
As a Mets fan, I’m approaching 40 years without one, and the heroes of the ones I do remember are aging and sadly dying off slowly but surely. Last year a quarter of the regular season roster of the Miracle Mets of 1969 met their demise; a sixth passed earlier this summer. As for the ’86 team; they’re mostly still with us but every night their games are televised we hear two of their more storied members, broadcasters Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling, talk about aging and grand-nephews. A reminder it’s been more a while.
And if you think I’m bitching consider that the heart of the generation in a position to afford tickets and Polar Burgers at Citi Field has NEVER known anything but outright failure and gut-wrenching heartbreak in their lifetimes, let alone the anointing of any of their heroes to the pantheon of those that preceded them in the Orange and Blue (and, more recently, Black). For them, yesterday was therefore their first chance to look back and honor someone who to them was revered but in the end fell just a bit short–THEIR Captain, David Wright.
As THE ATHLETIC’s Tim Britton described:
Wright became the eighth player in team history to have his number retired — and the first who never wore another uniform. Saturday’s party for 5 (and of a sellout crowd of 42,605) had been inevitable in these parts for years — dating to before the New York Mets relaxed their standards for retiring numbers, to his unforgettable last night at Citi Field, to before Wright’s playing career even neared its end. There was never going to be another No. 5 in blue and orange.
Those relaxed standards that Britton referenced were especially necessary because of this now nearly four-decade drought; the justification I suppose being Carl Yastrzemski and Ernie Banks got those honors from their teams. Wright was also robbed of what Yaz and Mr. Cub were able to get on their personal CVs due to some bad luck besides what he saw his team endure, a point that the NEW YORK POST’s Dan Martin drove home yesterday:
“David is one of the greatest players,” Billy Wagner said during a Zoom call in advance of his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame next weekend. If he’s not hurt, he’s probably gonna have a chance to be in the Hall of Fame,” said the former Mets closer, who spent parts of four seasons in Queens with Wright. “A great leader, a great person, a great teammate. I’m so excited because he deserves this. I think he is the face and captain of the Mets. We’ve had a lot of people go through the Mets like [Tom] Seaver [and others], and he’s just right there with the greats.”
Wright landed in New York during the summer of 2004 at the tail end of yet another relapse into irrelevance that took place after a single title and some near-misses, a pattern that began in the mid-70s following the 1973 surprise pennant and continued in the early 90s after the ’86 title produced nothing else as a followup other than a division title and a seven-game playoff loss to the Dodgers two years later. And continued again after the Mike Piazza trade in 1998 produced two consecutive post-season appearances for the first time in franchise history–both ending in soul-crushing losses to the rival Braves and Yankees, respectively. Meanwhile, those Yankees were in the midst of a run where they won four titles in five years and continued to win division titles, adding a pennant in 2003. With a Captain of their own who was Hall of Fame in both skills and looks.
Wright’s earliest and healthiest years were aligned with another rise back into prominence but yet again a series of gut-wrenching conclusions. The 2006 NLCS loss to St. Louis where Carlos Beltran is still waiting for his pitch to hit. The 2007 collapse where they were up on the Phillies by seven games with 17 to play that saw Philadelphia fans finally experience the other end of what they felt in 1964 when they allowed the Cardinals to lap them in the last two weeks of the season. A similar trajectory in 2008 that saw Shea Stadium close with a loss that eliminated them from any post-season play on the season’s final day, making that day even more funereal than it otherwise would have been.
Hope was at least alive when the Mets opened Citi Field the following spring, a spring after Wright came to national prominence with a stirring performance in the first World Baseball Classic where he earned the nickname “Captain America”, prompting the Mets to give him that title eventually. But those 2009 Mets crashed and burned from the get-go at Citi, and then Wright’s health issues aligned with yet another awful meld. Finally, in 2015 the stars aligned, Yoenis Cespedes was acquired and Wilmer Flores stuck around, and Matt Harvey and Noah Syndegaard became the 21st century answer to Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman. And Wright finally got healthy enough for at least a couple of truly conquering moments, as Martin recounted:
Wright missed more than four months of the 2015 season, diagnosed with spinal stenosis, before he returned to the lineup in late August, with the Mets holding a healthy lead in the NL East. (2015 skipper Terry) Collins recalled Wright telling him he didn’t expect to hit in the middle of the lineup when he came back or disturb the way they were performing. But instead of listening to Wright’s lineup advice in his return in Philadelphia on Aug. 24, 2015, Collins penciled Wright in the cleanup spot, and he responded in style to lead off the top of the second inning. “What does he do?” Collins said. “He hits a homer his first time up. … He came back and did that and then hit that World Series home run [against Kansas City].”
That home run against the Royals on a frigid Friday in Flushing gave the Mets what turned out to be their only victory in that series and their last post-season win in Wright’s career. But he did stick around long enough to be an influence on the team that broke that October schneid last fall, as THE DAILY NEWS’ Abbey Mastracco wrote:
(Brandon) Nimmo is the only current member of the Mets who had the chance to play on the same team as Wright.
An illustrious career that ended in 2018 after years of battling back, neck and shoulder injuries, Nimmo saw the less prolific parts of Wright’s career during the time they overlapped in 2016. The once-prolific third baseman was only able to get into 37 games during Nimmo’s rookie season and he wasn’t able to play at all in 2017 or 2018, save for his two-game send off at the end of the season.
Still, it was enough time for Nimmo to understand what made him so great during his 14-year Mets career. “I really admired the way that he worked and the way that he led by example,” Nimmo said. “So for me, that’s where I try to be the most like him. It’s the enjoyment of the game, life, and being a genuinely pleasant person to be around most of the time. Also, trying to also not take for granted any moment here.”
Maybe Nimmo will ultimately get a chance to play in a World Series of his own. After yesterday’s disheartening 5-2 loss to mediocre Cincinnati, guaranteeing the season’s second half will begin with a series loss, all of a sudden even the strong start and high expectations of this year’s team make that possibility seem all the more distant. (Meanwhile, the Red Sox won ten in a row to end the first half and the Cubs have the best record in the National League–though, to be fair, they’re getting a stiff challenge of late from Milwaukee).
So I repeat to those teams’ fans: Shut up. Allow me to suffer myself. Or at least help me congratulate Captain America.
Courage…