I bought this commemorative Mets Magazine on my last visit to Citi Field. I’m hesitant to take it out of the plastic but I do want to read it.

I haven’t had very many favorite baseball players in the years since Gary Carter retired (1992) who I followed as closely and as passionately as I did Kid.

Certainly not anyone at a Hall of Fame level like Gary Carter.

I liked Mike Piazza. I didn't LOVE Mike Piazza.

I liked John Olerud a lot. I didn’t LOVE John Olerud.

I like Pete Alonso well enough. I don’t LOVE Pete Alonso.

There have been temporary favorites on terrible teams: Anthony Young, Rick Brogna; temporary favorites on good teams: Cliff Floyd.

But no one had the staying power or put up the numbers to be an all-time favorite…until David Wright came along.

David Wright is unique in that I didn’t just follow him for his entire major league career - I followed him throughout his time in the Mets organization.

Mets fans knew about David Wright from the jump.

As he made his way through the minors, we had the idea that a franchise savior was on the way.

When he got to Triple-A Norfolk, I started to track his performance, eagerly anticipating his call-up. I wrote about the Mets pretty much every day back then - we’re talking 2004 here - and I included a WRIGHT WATCH with every post. (I tried to link to an old post but for some reason blogspot seems to have been taken over in a way that makes it inaccessible? See what happens when you try to go to johnnymets.blogspot.com. It’s too bad. I hoped that would be archived forever. There’s some good stuff on that site.)

In July of 2004 (I think it was the 22nd but I’m not looking any of this up to prove I know it by heart and show you that’s the way I followed David Wright’s career so pardon any mistakes lost to time) he made his debut against the Expos, and within two years the Mets were National League East champions. (Sigh. It should have been much more. That year and in the ensuing years.)

I LOVED David Wright. (I’m not alone in this department when it comes to Mets fans. Although it is notable that, for me, David Wright was my first favorite player who I was older than.)

He was everything you want a favorite player to be.

His baseball story is tragic. He was headed for the Hall of Fame - I don’t think there’s an argument about that - and then a degenerative back issue slowly ended his career.

He had brief dramatic comeback moments in the Mets’ run to the pennant in 2015…but he was pretty much finished and retired shortly thereafter. (He played 37 games in 2016, and then just 2 in 2018 to prove he could come all the way back and retire on his terms. That I looked up.)

He retired as the all-time team leader in a number of categories, some of which are being passed or will be passed because Wright didn’t play long enough to finish with them at the impressive levels they should have been after a full major league career.

The Mets are retiring David Wright’s number 5 Saturday afternoon, and inducting him into the team Hall of Fame.

The only nice thing about this situation is that Wright is 42 years old, and the Mets are taking care of business quickly. Sometimes teams wait too long to honor those that deserve to be honored, and guys pass away or are shells of their former selves and it’s hard to enjoy.

While there’s a lot of sadness around the way Wright’s career ended, there is almost complete agreement amongst Mets fans that this recognition is incredibly well-deserved.

And that is an occasion for happiness.