By Josh Finkelstein

There was a time where Ryan Zimmerman and David Wright were taking the field together for their travel baseball team in Virginia, dreaming about the experience of becoming professional baseball players.

As they continued to grow, it was clear that both of them had a strong chance of making that dream become a reality.

Wright decided to forego a college experience to reach that goal, a decision that he would not regret, going 38th overall in the 2001 MLB Draft. Flash forward three years, and he instantly became a star for the team and was heralded, similar to that of Nolan Arenado today.

One year later, Zimmerman joined his friend in the pros, being drafted fourth overall by the Washington Nationals. He chose to wait to play professional baseball until after attending the University of Virginia.

In terms of time it took to get to the majors, Zimmerman would beat Wright, making it to Washington after only 67 minor league games.

Early on, it was Wright who received all the accolades, finishing top-10 in MVP voting from 2006-2008 and besting Zimmerman at the hot corner with NL Silver Slugger and Gold Glove awards in 2007 and 2008.

In 2009, they finally co-existed and both made the All-Star Game, with Zimmerman actually besting Wright for the Silver Slugger and Gold Glove awards.

The 2010 season would prove to be another standout season for both players, but it would also be just ahead of injuries that got the best of the pair.

In 2011, the 28-year-old Wright suffered a stress fracture in his back that limited him to 102 games that season and would, unfortunately, prove to be foreshadowing what was to come.

Meanwhile, Zimmerman played in one less game that season due to a shoulder injury that also would prove to be impactful long-term.

The shoulder injury took notice much earlier than Wright’s back ailments, with Zimmerman starting to really struggle to make the throws necessitated by playing the hot corner.

Nonetheless, both would remain relatively healthy for the 2012 season and ink long-term extensions with their respective clubs. That would be the last season, though, in which things would remain normal for the two of them.

Over the next two years, Wright would miss 78 games and appear in only 112 in 2013, while Zimmerman would no longer prove capable of playing third base, making the transition across the diamond to first base.

In 2012 and 2014, Zimmerman would at least get to appear in two playoff series, as the Nationals won the NL East in back-to-back seasons.

Wright, however, had not seen the postseason since 2006, mired in a playoff drought lasting nine years too many. Things would change massively for Wright in 2015.

Entering that season, the team saw the makings of an elite pitching staff with Matt Harvey returning from Tommy John surgery and Jacob deGrom coming off a stellar 2014 season in which he won Rookie of the Year. With Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz set to eventually join the two aces atop the pitching staff and Wright ready and healthy, what could go wrong?

Well, David Wright not being healthy.

The third baseman went down in mid-April with a hamstring strain, which was expected to only sideline him for a few weeks. However, what started as a hamstring injury all of a sudden became much worse and the term “spinal stenosis” came to be among Mets fans’ vernacular for the next three years, as Wright’s back issues acted up on him badly.

Zimmerman, meanwhile, was playing for the heavy division favorite Nationals who were led by the likes of Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, and Bryce Harper. However, he was playing at a diminished level personally while also dealing with injuries, only appearing in 95 games that season.

Of course, that almost was triple what Wright would play that season (37 regular-season games).

That being said, Wright would be the one with the more fulfilling season in 2015, returning to a magical Mets’ team that was sitting in first place in the NL East.

Wright would get to be part of a miraculous playoff run in which he would get to appear in his first, and only, World Series, completing the prophecy of 2006 in which the team fell one game short.

And, on this day four years ago, Wright had what I could only imagine was one of the best days of his life.

With the Mets trailing 1-0 to the Kansas City Royals in the bottom of the first inning, Wright sent chills throughout the entire ballpark as the team captain took a 0-1 fastball to deep left field that scored both himself another fan favorite, Curtis Granderson, to give the Mets a 2-1 lead.

Later that night, he would come up to bat with the bases loaded in the sixth inning, with the Mets up 6-3. Wright would break the game wide open with a single up the middle that would score two, helping the Mets win their first World Series game since 2000.

The magic, unfortunately, wore off quicker than fans were hoping as the next two games would be engulfed by feelings of defeat and disappointment. The Mets lost the World Series in heart-crushing fashion.

Sure, there were moments here and there that were fun to see from David Wright, but not any as spectacular as October 30, 2015. It was the day that one of the best people in the sport got to live out his dream after fighting through adversity to reach that moment. All was Wright in the world that night.

I’ll forever be grateful that my favorite player at least had that moment, but wishing that it would’ve been on the way to him making a speech at a Mets’ World Series parade in early November.

And somehow, just by sheer coincidence, Ryan Zimmerman looks to live out the dream that Wright never had the chance to, by winning a World Series on the exact same day as Wright lived out his best moment on the national stage.

Zimmerman kept going for four more years to get to this very moment at 34 years old, looking to finally secure a first World Series title of his own.

I know it’s probably weird to say this as a Mets fan, but I am very much rooting for the Washington Nationals on Wednesday.

Seeing Ryan Zimmerman live out the dream David Wright once had would seem only deserving, and probably would be what the friends and former teammates from Virginia would want for each other.