CMS Grants “My Wish” To Fan - Allows Them To Profess Their Love For David Wright

To a legend to an icon to my baseball hero David Wright.

Hey folks, it’s Rieth here, making a celebrity appearance once again. This one comes with a broken heart as I am writing this from a hotel room in Bridgewater, New Jersey, some 64 miles south of Citi Field. It is with a heavy heart I announce I will not be in attendance of David Wright Day at Citi Field due to a family obligation that could not be avoided. But I felt it was my responsibility to log in and wright (see what I did there) a blog thanking my childhood baseball hero David Wright for an amazin’ career.

David Allen Wright was born on December 21st, 1982, in Norfolk, Virginia. Growing up just a stones throw away from the tidewater tides—the Mets triple an affiliate for many years—Wright was born to wear the orange and blue. The Mets made that dream a reality when they selected him with the 38th overall pick in the 2001 MLB draft thanks to Mike Hampton preferring the school system in Colorado over the school system in New York. Yes folks, it was the school system that lured Hampton to the very hitter friendly Coors Field, not the 9 figure salary the Rockies guaranteed him.

Upon being drafted Wright ascended through the Mets minor league system in rapid fashion before being called up to the big leagues for good on July 21st of 2004 at the ripe age of 21 years old. Wright would hit the ground running and would never look back until a career altering diagnosis of spinal stenosis robbed all of us of witnessing a hall of fame third basemen.

My point of this blog was not to bore you with the accolades of what should have been a hall of fame career. We’re going to look past the 30-30 seasons, the gold gloves, the silver sluggers, the countless big hits, the World Series homers, and the heroics of Captain America. The point of this blog was to just say thank you to my baseball hero.

For a baseball obsessed 12 year old the debut of David Wright came with mixed emotions, as his call up would mean that my at the time favorite player Ty Wigginton would be replaced. I did not know what to make of this Wright character. It did not take long for a David Wright jersey to be at the top of my Christmas. I quickly wanted nothing more then to be just like David Wright, just like most baseball obsessed teenage Met fans. David swung a DW5 white wash Marruci wood bat; Rieth swung a DW5 white was marruci wood bat. David wore high socks with eye black and flip up sunglassses for day games and pants tucked under his cleats for night games. Rieth wore high socks with eye black and flip up sunglassses for day games and pants tucked under his cleats for night games. David wore Nike shox cleats. Rieth wore Nike shox cleats. David used a Wilson A2000, and as a prolific Rawlings guy Rieth had to buy a Wilson A2000 glove for when he played third base. I wanted to be David Wright, I wanted to emulate David Wright, he could do no wrong. I got into countless arguments and disagreements defending David Wright. My brother centered his best man speech at my wedding around my wife knocking David Wright out of the top spot in my life. I was at the game when David Wright became the all time leader in Mets history in hits. I was at the game in Philadelphia when you made your return with thunder from spinal stenosis. I was at the game—Wright hit his last walk off hit. And I spent the last week in September at Citi Field in 2018 trying to catch one more glimpse at my baseball hero. It kills me to not be at Citi Field tomorrow, but I will be watching from afar. I know this type of post is not the norm from cube monkey, but I asked young horn to acknowledge the captain on his day and he said Rieth there’s no one better then you to handle this situation. I know my words may be jumbled and if you have made it this far I appreciate you for sticking with me. I could keep wrighting (did it again) for days on what David meant to me and my baseball career but I’m trying to keep it somewhat short. So cap, you’ll probably never read this and you’ve probably heard a similar story millions of times, but thank you for everything. Thank you for the memories, thank you for the hits, thank you for the bare handed plays, thank you for the World Series run, thank you for all you did for the community, thank you for putting your body on the line every day for young kids like me who looked up to you. Thank you thank you thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything.

Signed 12 year old Tyler Rieth