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David Wright Has One Leg Up in Mets History As His Number 5 is Retired 7-19-25 · OneLegUpAlex Media

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Here's your host, Alex Garret. Well, something very special happened
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: today at City Field as the Captain David Wright was
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: immortalized among the greats. As announced by the legendary Howie.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Wrote, Okay, David, it's time. In a few moments, you
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: will enter the pantheon of legends, legends who have helped
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: mold what it means needs to be a New York Men,
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  Speaker 2: you will forever be etched next to Mets icons, names
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: like Stengles, Hodgesdges, Seever, Piazza, Kuzman, Hernandez May's good in
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: and He's Roberian.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Hearing Howie's voice, knowing Howie and then of course meeting
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: David Wright multiple times during his Met tenure. Today's emotional,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: and I wanted to share these stories. I shared on
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  Speaker 1: Instagram and X today that my dad and I had
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: the very good fortune of getting to see David a
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: couple of times during his years as a Met and
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: as the captain of the Mets. What's on Instagram now
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: is the picture with David on the field that Chase
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Stadium at the Mets dug out after the very very
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: honored and very cool privilege to throw out the first
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: pitch thanks to GHI health at the time. Well, David
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: was sitting there at the railing as I threw the
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: first pitch out and we got a picture. This was
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: about his first or second year into the league, by
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: the way, And I remember David being such a nice
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: guy and a great player. And I also remember him hitting
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: those homers the opposite field. In fact, I looked it up,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: two hundred and forty two home runs as a Met,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: the most accomplished position player in Met history, they write.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: In addition, in addition, he would go on to get
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: the most hits in Mets history against the Pirates back
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: in twenty twelve. The spinal synosis that cut his career
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: short is still devastating to me because he could have
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: played so many more years. And there were times I've
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: bet you know he had adapted to that spinos He
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: couldn't even get up at times and walk around. He
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: wasn't that much pain. Yet he fought his way back
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: to be in that final game finally back in twenty eighteen.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: That's special. But as captain of the Mets, he not
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: only did his job on the field, he also was
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: the drive between the Mets winning the nleast in two
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: thousand and six, a year that included that walk off
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: win against Mario Rivera and the Yankees, and then of
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: course the World Series in twenty fifteen. He was a
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: big part of that as well. And my stories I
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: want to drop here on the podcast. I know we're
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: going to talk about adaptability more and news in the
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: disabled community, but this sports story, I feel is so
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: important and at its home because David was so nice
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: to my dad and I. He even gave us a
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: bat outside the Yankee Clubhouse, a visitor clubhouse in two
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: thousand and seven. I remember he was just that awesome
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: a person, and I see it today too. He never
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: forgot the fans as he got more and more famous,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: or ingratiated with the Mets and just became an elite
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: player with the New York Mets, but he never forgot
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: the fan base. And I saw that with coaches collectibles
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: just about a couple of weeks ago, all the fans
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: lining up to see him. Took time with every one
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: of them, as he always did, and even today outside
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: the stadium, I saw him see some fans before he
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: went to the ballpark to get his number retired. He
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: stopped to take some photos and shake some hands. Thanks
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Terry Collins for documenting that. Of course, Collins was the
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: manager for David over those years. That's what Willie Randolph
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: and Jeremy Anuell and I've actually reached out to coaches
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: collectibles to maybe get him on to talk about his journey.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: I mean, pre spinals knows that David Wright first post
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Finals as David Wright. His personality never changed. Yeah, he
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: had this debilitating injury, but he was still the captain.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: He was still David Wright through and through. And then
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: I think about when I think about today watching that
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: left side of the infield race and right with the
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: high tops on the left side of the field, it
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: just is a striking image you'll never forget. And the
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: duo was incredible. And then I think about how David
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: was there to man and man the team, man the four,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: lead this team from Chase Am to the City Field
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: in two thousand and nine, and of course, as I mentioned,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: lead him to the World Series. You know, I know
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Daniel Murphy got old homers, but but right was there
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  Speaker 1: as a leader, a leader in twenty fifteen, the captain
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: and as I said I mentioned, I remember his swing.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: It just was such a natural swing, whether it was
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: to the pull of the ball into the picnic area
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: or opposite field home runs. Mainly if I remember correctly,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: to the scoreboard out of Chase Stadium in right center.
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  Speaker 1: I remember that very vividly. And I know there's now
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: questions of who else will join right up in the
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: ranks of rafters of Cityfield. I think you gotta go
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Johnny Franco side retired pod Askelets. I think you gotta
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: go with Johnny Franco. Next, Queen's Icon, Saint John's University
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: alum still involved with the Mets organization, gotta be the
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: next guy up to be retired by the Mets. And
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: again kudos to Jay Horwitz. We mentioned him earlier in
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: the week, but Jay's been orchestrating that since he took
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: the helm in the alumni department. Oh my god, Hernandez
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: has gone up there, Jerry Kuzman, Dwight Gooden, uh, Darryl Strawberry,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: and of course William Mays, who Joan Payser wanted up
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: there many many years ago, but there he is now
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: up in the rafters with these other Mets and of
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: course Mike Piazza all since Jay has moved from from
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: the PR department to the alumni. Pretty moving stuff to
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: watch your childhood go up in the rafters one by one,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: icon by icon, player by player. And it is good
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: to see how he rose up there doing the announcements,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: because I know we've he's had some health stuff, but
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: he's still there. He sounds strong as ever. Fifty years
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: plus in radio, many years as the Mets announcer, he
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: still got it and he's just the announcer. He's such
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: a fan of the Mets, such a fan of the game,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: that it's only right that he keeps doing these as
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: long as he can. But David, congratulations. I just want
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: to say thank you, if you get a wind of
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: this podcast, for the kindness you show my dad and
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: I twice and other times over the years, whether it
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: was that signed baseball bat or that picture at the
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: dugout of Chase Stadium or other times around the ballparks.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Thank you for always stopping and chatting with us for
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: a little bit and being as great a person as
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: you were a player. And now you also have one
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: leg up in New York Met's history with your number
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  Speaker 1: five retired on July nineteenth, twenty twenty five,