At the end of the 2014 season, Modells had a sale to clear out some of their baseball inventory.  As luck would have it, there was a children’s David Wright jersey on sale for $15.  As I left Modells that way, Wright jersey in hand, I never imagined my son may not have an opportunity to wear the jersey.

At the conclusion of the 2012 season, with free agency on the horizon, Wright had signed a seven year deal that effectively was going to make him a Met for life.  When his contract expired, Wright was going to be the all-time leader in nearly every offensive category there was.  At this time, Wright was really transitioning from the young superstar Cliff Floyd took under his wing to the mentor of a new crop of Mets players he was going to lead to the World Series.  It was his destiny much in the way that it was the destiny for Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry in the 80’s.  As we saw with Doc and Darryl, life gets in the way.  The things outside baseball can take everything from you.

For Doc and Darryl, it was substance abuse.  Both of them have missed out on the Hall of Fame, and God knows what else, because of these issues.  It may not have robbed them of their careers, but it did rob them of their greatness.  It robbed them of their seemingly assured path to Cooperstown.

For Wright, his body is failing him.  While Wright has lost some time and some great seasons to injuries, no one expected the spinal stenosis.  The spinal stenosis has robbed him of his ability to truly be an everyday player.  It may have robbed him of his chance to put up the numbers he needed to get inducted into the Hall of Fame.  However, through almost sheer grit and determination, Wright wasn’t going to let the spinal stenosis rob him of his chance to win the World Series.  Seeing Wright play this year was to be all the most impressed and amazed with him.  No, he wasn’t the Wright of old.  No one expected that.  Instead, he was an effective major league player.  He was hitting .226/.350/.438 with a 115 OPS+.  He had eight doubles and seven home runs.  More impressively, he homered in each of his last three games.

There was almost a certain beauty to what Wright was doing.  He was taking everything he had, and he was willing himself to be great again.  He was able to combine his experience with what physical tools he still had to be an effective to very good major league third baseman.  While many feared he might be a drain on the Mets, he actually proved to be one of their better everyday players.

Then, because life is not fair, disaster struck yet again.

In addition to Wright’s spinal stenosis, he is now dealing with a herniated disc in his neck.  Initially, he wanted no part of surgery.  He wanted to return this year.  He wanted to help the Mets win the World Series.  He wanted to hit another home run at Citi Field.  He earned that right, and he was going to do everything he could do to experience it this year.  As we learned yesterday, the chances of Wright’s return became all the more remote.  Yes, he still wants to rehab and try to avoid the surgery in his neck.  However, almost tellingly, Wright is now speaking with doctors about certain surgical options.  A surgery on his neck would almost assuredly end his 2016 season.  After that, who knows?

Now, as we saw last year and this year with Wright, we can never count him out.  He is going to do what he can to be on that field to lead the Mets to the World Series.  There is still hope he can return.  He should return.  He deserves to leave that field not just with a World Series, but on his own power.  He should be able to make his own decision.  It shouldn’t be forced upon him.  However, the more time passes, the more you question if that is going to happen.  Sometimes baseball can be cruel, and right now it is being about as cruel as it can get for David Wright.

Whenever Wright’s career is over, he will have retired as the greatest homegrown Met’s position player.  He will be the greatest Met to spend his entire career with the team.  As time progresses, Mets fans will talk about him in the way that Yankee fans talk about Don Mattingly, which would be all the more fitting as both players had their Hall of Fame chances and their careers taken away from them due to back injuries.

Selfishly, I just want Wright to hold on just a little longer.  I want to see him win that World Series.  I want my son to have some David Wright memories of his own.  I want him to be able to wear his David Wright jersey to something other than David Wright Day.