During Sunday’s game on ESPN I was trying to drown out Joe Morgan and crew but one thing did get my attention was their talk of leadership. It’s something that we on this site have talked about for years now. In my mind and other Met fans the leader of this franchise is David Wright. He might not wear a “C” on his jersey but he is the captain of this ship and he needs to right it once and for all.
Wright is the guy who talks to the media following every Met game whether it’s a great game or if it ends the way it did last night. The Mets have made David the face of this franchise and he has embraced it. When David struggles he’s right there in the clubhouse ready to talk to the media. He takes every loss personal. Last year as the Mets were once again struggling to hold onto the division it was made public knowledge by Gary Cohen that Wright was not sleeping nor eating well worrying about the teams performance.
I understand that there are seasoned veterans on the team such as Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado and it’s not easy for Wright to take the reigns of leadership on this club but the aforementioned players on the team don’t want to be the leaders. I’m not holding that against Beltran and/or Carlos Delgado. They come to the ballpark, play their respective positions, drive in runs and get on base. Beltran and Delgado do their jobs and they do them well. That is nothing to be upset with. Some players are leaders and others are not. Wright is the former. He can be the captain on the team but doesn’t need the “C” on the jersey to get the respect the captain deserves.
Wright has the ability to lead this team to greatness. He is passionate, makes baseball his top priority and he cares about this team and it’s future. This season Wright has started to show some leadership. We see Wright going out to the mound and talking to his pitchers. Wright needs to go to Beltran and Delgado privately and tell them that he wants to be the leader of this team and ask them to support him. I believe that Jose Reyes would support him as well as guys like Santana and K-Rod so that the guys who are not superstars on this team will follow Wright. Management has laid the groundwork for Wright to lead this team, David now has to take the reigns and lead this team to a championship!
