{"id":591,"date":"2010-03-25T08:55:56","date_gmt":"2010-03-25T13:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/?p=591"},"modified":"2011-01-16T10:25:31","modified_gmt":"2011-01-16T15:25:31","slug":"david-wright-captain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/2010\/03\/25\/david-wright-captain\/","title":{"rendered":"David Wright Is, and Should Be, The Captain of the New York Mets"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Not every baseball team has, or needs, a captain.\u00a0 Currently only four of the thirty teams have captains:\u00a0 Derrek Lee of the Cubs, Paul Konerko of the White Sox, Jason Varitek of the Red Sox and Derek Jeter of the Yankees.\u00a0 The Mets haven\u2019t historically needed to trump up the ego or perception of one of their players and proclaim him captain.\u00a0 In fact they\u2019ve only had three in their history and two were co-captains. Keith Hernandez was named captain after the Championship season of 1986.\u00a0 Gary Carter soon joined him, and they were co-captains until 1989.\u00a0 John Franco, after the 2000 Pennant year, was named captain and served until 2004.<\/p>\n

Is it time to name a new captain?\u00a0 Could the Mets benefit in 2010 from an on the field leader?\u00a0 There are arguments for and against, but I think it\u2019s becoming more and more obvious that title or not, David Wright is a leader on this team.\u00a0 He\u2019s hardly the only one: Carlos Beltran and Johan Santana both provide leadership as well, but the team might still benefit from an official captain.<\/p>\n

Johan Santana is a cheery guy in the clubhouse, and he\u2019s also a fierce competitor.\u00a0 He provides a nice mix of enjoying the game, yet still preparing and competing to the best of your ability. Francisco Rodriguez provides energy and passion at the end of the game, and is also a fiery guy.\u00a0 It\u2019s generally assumed that a pitcher, despite John Franco, cannot be a captain because they do not take the field every day.\u00a0 I don\u2019t really buy that argument.\u00a0 While there is a benefit to being a leader from the front of the lines every day, there are plenty of ways to lead from the dugout, between innings, and before and after games.\u00a0 Santana is on the mound 20% of the time and the pitcher is definitely front and center of the guys on the field batting for a win.<\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s obvious to most observers that the guy most likely to be the Captain of the Mets is David Wright.\u00a0 He\u2019s well-spoken, confident, and a star.\u00a0 He\u2019s a fan favorite and one that will hopefully spend his entire career with the Mets.\u00a0 He\u2019s never worn another uniform.\u00a0 He grew up a Mets fan.\u00a0 He\u2019s a guy that\u2019s willing to instruct, support and motivate his teammates and they respect him for it.\u00a0 David Wright can lead this team.<\/p>\n

The 2010 Mets have a void in leadership with a lame duck manager.\u00a0 The players are now familiar with the plusses and minuses of the current management and it\u2019s time for them to step up and provide for themselves.\u00a0 Whether this is David Wright walking out to the mound to talk to Pelfrey, or Johan Santana signaling to the infield what he\u2019s going to throw so they can cheat and reposition themselves a little bit, 2010 is about moving forward, and it\u2019s time to name a captain.\u00a0 The last two times the Mets named one it was after a pennant year and the team lost.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s time to name a captain that will lead us to another championship rather than rewarding a player with a title afterwards.\u00a0 But one thing is certain whether it becomes official or not: David Wright is the captain of the 2010 New York Mets.<\/p>\n

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This post will also be visible at The Real Dirty Mets Blog<\/a> for vibrant discussion and debate.\u00a0 Come join the fun!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not every baseball team has, or needs, a captain.\u00a0 Currently only four of the thirty teams have captains:\u00a0 Derrek Lee of the Cubs, Paul Konerko of the White Sox, Jason Varitek of the Red Sox and Derek Jeter of the Yankees.\u00a0 The Mets haven\u2019t historically needed to trump up the ego or perception of one … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “David Wright Is, and Should Be, The Captain of the New York Mets”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[809,19,3],"tags":[2968,924,927,923,929,926,4,462,928,143,400,925,14],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":596,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591\/revisions\/596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}