of the New York Mets. The posterboy third baseman has won the hearts of
diehards from the days of yore as well as the teenie-bopper pink hats
of today, who think Darryl Strawberry is a flavor at Pinkberry Frozen Yogurt and Howard Johnson is a the name of a hotel in Penn Plaza.
Citi Field’s hot-corner tenant has been happy in Flushing, posting a
.311 career batting average in 789 games since first donning the
Amazin’s uni back in July of 2004. A pair of second-place finishes in
2008 and 2007 following a first-place finish in 2006 has given him
plenty of reason to want to stick around — and that’s just what Wright
told Kevin Kernan of the New York Post on Tuesday in St. Louis at Wright’s third straight All-Star Game appearance.
The Mets have Wright locked down for another three seasons and even
have an option for the 26-year-old for the 2013 season, but for Wright,
he’s already looking for something a little more long-term.
Perhaps a lifetime deal?
“I would love that if they want me, but you never know what the
organization is thinking. I’d be willing any time they would want to
start talks,” Wright told The Post.
“You never know what plans they have, especially being a big-market
team, they can sit back. It’s not like they need to get guys on
discounts like a lot of the small-market teams.”
Despite a rocky first half to the 2009 season, the Mets have plenty
of firepower to turn things around. Injuries have hampered the NL
East’s fourth-place squad but they trail the division’s top team by
just 6 1/2 games.
“I’ve made it very clear to those guys that I enjoy being there,” he said. “I’ve
been through some ups and downs and I kind of want to see it through to make
sure that I get the chance to finish the job that I kind of started. . . . It
means a lot to me to be able to finish the job and do what I think the New York Mets
are capable of doing. I don’t think we’ve done that yet.”
