When you think of great players linked throughout Mets history, you think of players who played on the same team. Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry as young phenoms. Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling, teammates on the 1986 World Series squad and now teammates in the SNY booth calling Mets games on TV.
Tom Seaver might have retired well before 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 in general, it was a lot more of me listening to Tom tell me about his performances and his career in a Mets uniform.”
Wright grew up in Norfolk, Virginia, at a time when the Mets still had a minor league team in nearby Tidewater. His father Rhon, a retired police officer, would bring Wright and his three younger brothers to games while his colleagues were working. The kids would get autographs from rising stars while their dad caught up with his buddies.
This is where his Mets fandom started to bloom. It’s how he learned about players the players Rhon revered, like Gooden, Strawberry, Howard Johnson and Tim Teufel, who would later coach Wright in the big leagues.
But few players had the same impact on Mets fandom like Seaver. The late, great ace inspired the first generation of Mets fans in much the same way Wright inspired much of the current generation. Seaver and Wright were leaders and winners. They were two of the best to wear the uniform. Their link was solidified in 2013 when Seaver threw out the first pitch to Wright at the All-Star Game at Citi Field.
“Tom literally adored David,” said Horwitz, the Mets’ historian and vice president 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 well before the 2013 All-Star Game. The Hall of Fame right-hander used to pull Wright aside before games to talk about life on the field and in the clubhouse. Seaver wanted to know how Wright was getting away from the game after he left the ballpark. Soon, the two were swapping good-natured barbs at one another like they were old friends.
It was comforting for a young third baseman to know a legend like Seaver was looking out for him.
“It was so cool to sit down with him and have those conversations,” Wright said. “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 wife, Nancy, started a vineyard in Calistoga, Calif., just outside of Napa. Wright was invited to work the fields, but it never came to fruition.
“One of my biggest regrets to this day,” Wright said. “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 exactly a hometown kid, but he was a Mets fan just the same before he became one of the most prolific hitters ever drafted by the Amazins’. When No. 5 is lifted to the top of Citi Field, it will be alongside Seaver’s No. 41, two players from two very different generations linked in history.
Back when Wright was watching the Tides with his family, he could have never imagined he would have this kind of career, or that he would get tutelage from Seaver and other great players.
But he is happy with how it all worked out.
“It’s just incredibly crazy that I’m drafted by my favorite team,” Wright said. “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.”
