New York Mets’ Jose Reyes (7) and David Wright celebrate scoring on a two RBI double off the bat of Mets’ Angel Pagan against the Cincinnati Reds during the first inning of play in their National League MLB baseball game at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Ohio, July 27, 2011. REUTERS/John Sommers II (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT BASEBALL)
ONLY IN AMNEWYORK
QUEENS, NY — For Jose Reyes, David Wright’s No. 5 jersey retirement on Saturday afternoon felt as special as if the Mets sent his No. 7 to the top of Citi Field, and rightfully so.
The shortstop was practically attached to Wright’s hip for the first eight years of the star third baseman’s career. They attended three All-Star Games together and were the foundational pieces of the Mets’ 2006 juggernaut, which won the National League East and fell just one win shy of a World Series appearance.
The speedy Reyes, who owns the Mets franchise record for stolen bases and triples, was never more than a few spots ahead of Wright in the batting order and often the table setter. Of Wright’s 970 career RBI, he drove in Reyes 124 times.
“It felt like I was hitting with him on third base with less than two outs every other at-bat,” Wright joked. “So it made my job of driving runs in incredibly easy.”
Even when their primes were long gone, and while Wright was facing the reality of his career mortality after spinal stenosis ended his playing days much earlier than expected, it was Reyes, who was next to him one more time in his final game on Sept. 29, 2018 — the ultimate destination after Reyes took a four-year detour to play with the Miami Marlins, Toronto Blue Jays, and Colorado Rockies before returning to Queens in 2016.
“I feel like they’re retiring No. 7 too because of all of the best moments that he had, I was there,” Reyes, whose 1,365 games rank third in Mets history behind Wright’s 1,585 and Ed Kranepool’s 1,853, told amNewYork. “When he finished his career, I was there. He’s like my big brother. I’m very happy for him. He was a great player, but he’s a better human being.”
So, it was only fitting that Reyes was just a few feet away from Wright as he accepted the highest honor the Mets could bestow upon him before Saturday’s matchup against the Cincinnati Reds.
“Jose’s getting emotional in his old age, and he’s going to start crying and he’s going to make me cry,” Wright said. “I told him this the other day, if I was going to create a baseball player in a video game, I’d create Jose Reyes. He could do it all. The energy, the enthusiasm. He certainly made me look better offensively and defensively. We knew each other.”
Ask most Mets fans 20 years ago, and a day like Saturday would have been expected. After the franchise’s swoon following their World Series appearance in 2000, Wright and Reyes were the homegrown products who were going to lead New York out of yet another dark age and into the light.
That expectation was put on them almost immediately. Shortly after being drafted in 2001, former Mets field coordinator Guy Conti called in a then-18-year-old Wright and 17-year-old Reyes into his office, where he told them that they would be the left side of the Mets’ infield for the next decade.
“We looked at each other, and we couldn’t be more different, and we almost took that as a challenge,” Wright said. “We challenged each other. On the field, one of the most electric, dynamic players you could ever think of. I knew where he was playing, I knew what he was capable of.”
After winning just 66 games in Reyes’s debut season in 2003, the Mets called up Wright in the middle of 2004. Two years later, and after other key acquisitions like Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado, the Mets won the NL East for the first time since 1988 and advanced to the NLCS.
“That ’06 playoff run was out of this world,” Wright said. “You know, when [Endy Chavez] made that catch [in Game 7 of the NLCS], you hear it all the time, but you look up and you see the stadium legitimately swaying, and that’s the loudest I think I’ve ever been on the baseball field. I can picture it like it was yesterday.”
It turned out to be the closest Wright and Reyes would get to winning a World Series together. The Mets collapsed in 2007 and 2008 to miss the playoffs. Reyes just finished up a short stint with the Rockies while a hobbled Wright, who battled back to play in 38 regular-season games, got to a Fall Classic in 2015, though the Mets were bested in five games by the Kansas City Royals.
When Reyes did return to the Mets in July of 2016, Wright’s season was already over. The spinal stenosis kept him out for the entire 2017 campaign before his two-day retirement tour at the end of 2018 — his last two games in the majors, and at least one more time to line up next to his old friend.
“It was tough watching him go through that,” Reyes said. “I went through a lot of injuries too in my career, but to see David try to come back for a few years and nothing happened, and nothing happened, I felt bad for him. He’s the hardest working guy. He worked so hard. I told him, enough is enough. Go home. You have a beautiful family. Enjoy your life. You did wonderful things for this team and for the whole city of New York.”
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