He only played 1/3rd of the 2016 season. He only played 1/4 of the 2015 season, including the World Series. His home run helped the Mets win Game 3 -- 1 of only 2 World Series games they've won since 1986 -- but his 14th inning error helped to cost them Game 1.
He will probably never play in another postseason game -- unless he both comes back and gets traded. He may never play in another regular-season game.
Wright is 7 years younger than Alex Rodriguez. Guess which one played in a regular-season Major League Baseball game more recently.
A-Rod's last game was on August 12, 2016.
D-Wright's last game was on May 27, 2016 -- 12 weeks earlier.
He went 1-for-4. The Mets beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-5 at Citi Field. His last hit was a home run off Chris Hatcher in the 4th inning, his 1,777th career hit (all with the Mets, and a franchise record) and his 242nd career home run. His last at-bat was a strikeout against Louis Coleman in the 7th.
May 27, 2016. That's 459 days. How long has that been?
*
The Mets have gone from defending National League Champions and serious World Championship contenders to their perennial status as one of the joke franchises of baseball. Never mind 1969, 1986, 2000, or even 2006: 2015 now seems like a long, long time ago. It seems like further back than the Yankees' last Pennant, in 2009 -- and they won the World Series.
Of the 13 players the Mets used in that game, 5 are no longer with them: Curtis Granderson, Neal Walker, Eric Campbell, Addison Reed and Ty Kelly. And that's not counting Wright.
The Chicago Cubs have won a Pennant. That hadn't happened in 71 years. The Cubs have won a World Series. That hadn't happened in 108 years. The Cleveland Indians have won a Pennant. That had only happened 5 previous times in 115 years, and only 3 in the preceding 62 years.
The Atlanta Braves, Minnesota Vikings, Sacramento Kings and Edmonton Oilers all opened new venues. Soon, the Detroit Pistons and Detroit Red Wings will move into a new arena together. The Milwaukee Bucks began building a new arena. The San Diego Chargers have moved to Los Angeles. The St. Louis Rams, who had already been announced as moving back to Los Angeles, completed that process. And the Vegas Golden Knights have been announced.
The defending World Champions in the "Big 4" sports were the Kansas City Royals, the Denver Broncos, the Golden State Warriors and the Chicago Blackhawks. The Heavyweight Champion of the World was, ah, who even knows how many "heavyweight champions of the world" there were then, or are now, let alone who they who were, and are?
The Giants, Knicks, Islanders and New York City FC have since changed head coaches. The Olympics have since been held in Brazil. The New England Patriots have cheated their way to another Super Bowl, the Pittsburgh Penguins to 2 more Stanley Cups, Chelsea FC to another Premier League title, Manchester United to another FA Cup, and Real Madrid to 2 more UEFA Champions League wins. The Cavaliers won Cleveland's 1st World Championship in any sport in 51 1/2 years, before the Warriors took the title back.
The President of the United States was Barack Obama, and the idea that Donald Trump could beat Hillary Clinton was only slightly plausible, but less ridiculous than the idea that Russian hackers could steal the election for him, or that Bernie Sanders supporters would stay home on Election Day, or vote for 3rd-party candidates, resulting in the "election" of the most un-Bernie-like President ever. We didn't think they could be that selfish, or that stupid. But they were both.
We have since seen Britain vote to leave the European Union, and its Prime Minister resign because of it. We have since Brazil impeach and remove its President. We have seen the Colombian Civil War end.
We have seen a man murder 49 people in a nightclub in Orlando. We have seen admitted Confederates and Nazis march in Virginia, and seen them murder a woman (white, and not a Jew), and seen 50 of them chased out of Boston common by 40,000 counter-protestors. And we have seen a larger crowd hit Washington, D.C. to protest a new President than attended his Inauguration the day before -- and that was before he said there were "good people" on both sides of that Virginia march, appointed a corporatist to the Supreme Court, and pardoned a convicted felon who admitted his was running a concentration camp behind his badge.
We have seen the release of the last of J.J. Abram's blasphemous films undeserving of the Star Trek label, and the 1st of his Star Wars films, Episode VII, which was essentially Episode IV redone, just as his 1st "Star Trek" film was, except neither was anywhere near as good. We have also seen the release of the 1st Star Wars film outside the episodic sequence.
We have seen the premiere of Stranger Things. We have seen Match Game rebooted, with current celebrities as panelists and a considerably looser language policy, and it (blank)s. And we have seen Natalie Portman, Kim Allen and, sort of, Kim Kardashian play Jacqueline Kennedy.
The Number 1 song in America was "One Dance" by Aubrey Drake Graham. And we have seen Drake start dating Robyn Rihanna Fenty (who also uses only her middle name as her stage name) and feud with Meek Mill. We have seen a song titled "Black Beatles" hit Number 1, and we have seen Kendrick Lamar hit Number 1 with a song whose title describes few performers today: "Humble." We have seen Lady Gaga troll Donald Trump at the Super Bowl halftime show in every song she sang, without mentioning his name once. And we have seen New Jersey native Ashley Frangipane, a.k.a. Halsey, become a superstar.
Actors Anton Yelchin, David Huddleston, Kenny Baker, Fyvush Finkel, Gene Wilder, Robert Vaughn, Ron Glass, Alan Thicke, Miguel Ferrer, John Hurt, Mike Connors, Barbara Hale, Richard Hatch, Bill Paxton, Don Rickles, Tim Pigott-Smith, Powers Boothe, Roger Moore, Adam West, Stephen Furst, Martin Landau, Jerry Lewis and Jay Thomas have since died. So have actresses Gloria DeHaven, Alexis Arquette, Florence Henderson, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, Mary Tyler Moore, Barbara Hale, Erin Moran, Glenne Headly and Jeanne Moreau. So have directors Michael Cimino, Garry Marshall, Jonathan Demme, John Avildsen, George Romero and Tobe Hooper.
So have music personalities Ralph Stanley, Scotty Moore, Marni Nixon, Neville Marriner, Bobby Vee, Leonard Cohen, Leon Russell, Greg Lake, George Michael, Al Jarreau, Chuck Berry, Chris Cornell, Greg Allman, Prodigy, Chester Bennington and Glen Campbell. So have writers Edward Albee, Nat Hentoff, William Peter Blatty, Derek Walcott, Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Sam Shepard. So have Nobel Peace Prize winners Elie Wiesel and Shimon Peres. So have Kings Rama IX of Thailand and Kigeli V of Rwanda. So has Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. So have astronauts John Glenn and Gene Cernan.
And so have sports legends Muhammad Ali, Gordie Howe, Pat Summitt, Nate Thrumond, Věra Čáslavská, Arnold Palmer, David Herd, Carlos Alberto, Sammy Lee, Miruts Yifter, Milt Schmidt, Graham Taylor, Piet Kiezer, Raymond Kopa, Jim Bunning, Darrall Imhoff, John Kundla.
Obviously, nobody famous in their own right has been born since then, but children have been born to Mark Zuckerberg, George Clooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, and to Russell Wilson & Ciara.
May 27, 2016. David Wright hit a home run for the New York Mets. He hasn't played in a major league game since.
Will he ever play in another? It is looking increasingly unlikely. His career may be over.
If it is, he will have played his last game at age 33. Not even 33 1/2.
I wonder if Met fans would give that 2015 Pennant back to have the "rest of his career" that Wright was supposed to have.
UPDATE: Wright was activated for the Mets' final homestand of the 2018 season, September 28 and 29, making it 854 days between games for him -- or 2 years, 4 months and 1 day. On the 28th, he grounded out as a hitter. On the 29th, he started at 3rd base, fielded a ground ball, made an out, and drew a walk, before being removed in the 5th inning to a standing ovation.
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