3rd Annual Do The Wright Thing Gala

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2007, HARD ROCK TIMES SQUARE With Special Honoree Peter Liguori, Chairman, Entertainment, Fox Broadcasting CompanySpecial Musical Performance by Benji & Joel Madden of Good Charlotte Doors Open at 7 pm, Rock and Roll attire is best.

$350 per person: Includes admission, unlimited food and beverage and gift bag. $200 per person is tax deductible. Must be 21 years old to attend.

To purchase tickets go to davidwrightfoundation.com. VISA, MasterCard, American Express or Discover accepted. Checks payable to David Wright Foundation (Tax ID# 20-3642458) send to:

David Wright will appear tonight at 10PM EST on CNBC’s The Big Idea with Donnie Deutsch.

The David Wright Foundation is hosting their Third Annual Do the Wright Thing Gala on November 15 in New York City.

For more information or to purchase tickets, go here.

I will be posting more information about the Gala later today.

In an article in today’s New York Daily News, Mets brass has told David Wright to be tight lipped regarding the prospects of Alex Rodriguez in Queens.

While Wright has expressed a willingness to switch positions if the Mets could land A-Rod, he wants to be kept in the A-Rod loop. Mets VP Jay Horwitz called Wright Monday and asked the third baseman to stay mum.

Mums the word. Sounds like prudent advice, the Mets don’t want to show their hand and while there will be tons of speculation, theres no need to have David being in the eye of the storm.

David Wright will be making an appearance at Niketown in NYC at 1pm on October 20th.  Doors open at 10am, assume the line will start somewhere around….October 19th.

And if you see my brother wish him a happy birthday. If you don’t, well, just tell David I say hi.  

The Mets will again grace the cover of Sports Illustrated.  This week's issue will feature a story on general manager Omar Minaya and how he “welcomed one and all into his ever-expanding circle.”

Check it out here.

I am excited to grab this off the newstands and frame it next to last year's article on the Mets.  Of course, David Wright, Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes, Paul LoDuca, and Carlos Delgado were on the cover of that issue.

David Wright has been scratched from tonights game, with back spasms.  Julio Franco will play 3rd. 

We need to invest in bubble wrap, and just cover everyone in it post game.

Jeff Passan over at Yahoo Sports looks at who baseball is shelling out too much for, and who is a steal at twice the price.  The good new? Passan sees young Mets Wright and Reyes as bargains based on their current salary.  Both signed new contracts last season that extended their time with the Mets well into the future. Passan's feelings on these two can easily be summed up with this little quote:

No arguments here. Reyes has improved drastically as he's matured, and as long as he stays healthy is easily on pace to rack up better numbers than he did last year. We've seen how nervous he makes pitchers, and his increased patience has resulted in him reaching first safely at least once in all but four games so far this season. He'll never be a homerun guy, but considering his speed he'll have plenty of doubles and triples, not to mention infield singles.

On the other side of the coin, his most overpaid athletes include Carlos Delgado, who just recently seems to have broken out of his slump.  Delgado struggled for…seemingly forever. Of course, he hit two homeruns in one game just days ago, so he's back in all of our good graces. He's even broken back out his diary. I mean umm….at bat statistical journal.  Ex Met Armando Benetiz gets the nod for relief pitching.

It was a long slump, and even the elder statesmen in the Mets blogosphere were starting to queston Carlos. So I guess we can't hold it against Passan.  I know he did this by position, but for this one instance perhaps he should have started with the man the overpaid list should be named after: Carl Pavano.  Delgado wasn't hitting, but he was at least out there every day, chasing down pop fouls and providing calming words of advice to young Met pitchers in need, and probably tips on good places to by Cigars to left side infielders. 

At his blog for the NY Times, Ben Shpigel asks how concerned should we be over the power outages experienced by Delgado and Wright so far this season.  After all, the Mets are still scoring

Its a good point. Beltran seems to be getting his power, plus the surprisingly surge of Castro, on top of every one else connecting well (Alou, Green, Reyes), the fact that Delgado isn't connecting, and Wright isn't conecting for power shouldn't really be a major cause for concern.  We saw similiar events last year: one or two players would slump, and someone else would carry the weight. Would it be nice Delgado send a few past the outfield wall? Sure. And some more Wright extra base hits would be great too. But considering lopsided scores such as last nights 11-3, being concerned by it seems like we're just being greedy, and that makes us seem more like the fans of our cross town rival. Wright and Delgado will hit their power stride in due time, but until then a Mets win is still a Mets win.  Whether it be from the speed of Reyes, the defense of Stache, the power of Beltran or a sacrifice from Lo Duca, as logn as the team is doing what it needs to, I see no reason for us as fans to fret over Wright and Delgado needed a little more time. After all, its still only April.

For those who haven't heard yet, the final ten songs for Wrights batting music have been selected.  If you head on over to mlb.com you can vote, and the top four will be used in rotation. All ten have been David Wright approved, so there's no worry about any NHL style shennanigans going on if Wright doesn't like the way the vote is going.

The ten songs:
Born to Run - Springsteen
Fame - David Bowie
I'm Not a Player - Big Run
Me and You - Cassie
NY State of Mind - Nas
Paradise City - GNR
Right Now - Van Halen
That Was a Crazy Game of Poker - OAR
The Second Coming  - Juetz Santana
Theme from the A-Team

And just a heads up to our older readers: Nas' NY State of Mind has nothing to do with Billy Joel.

Personally, I like the cheese factor, and am going 80s hair music all the way.

Awhile back it floated around the metsblogosphere that David Wright was looking to replace his previous at bat music (Brass Monkey by the Beastie Boys) for this upcoming season.  If you head on over to the team's official webpage, you can continue help Wright out by selecting one of the listed songs or writing in your own.  In April he'll narrow down everyones picks to his 20 favorites, and again put it to a vote, with the top four then being used during the season. Voting is open till 5pm next Wednesday.

There's some interesting options already up on mets.com, from the obvious puns of Van Halen's Right Now to standard fair like Pearl Jam to stuff thats just…well, the theme to the A-Team.  Oddly enough, no Beastie's.  It being his previous choice I assumed he was a fan. It should be interesting to see how this works out.

You would think a 24-year old millioniare would find time to enjoy the fruits of his labor.  Not David Wright.   Despite signing that $55 million deal last summer, Wright still approaches spring training the way he always has:  make the team.

“I'm not at the point where I can assume anything. I have to win a job,” Wright said to Craig Barnes of the Florida Sun-Sentinel. “I need to be more consistent. At times last year, I was inadequate in providing what the team needed. It was a roller-coaster.”

This is what I have always liked about Wright.  He's never satisfied with his performance, or convinced he's a full-timer.  Meanwhile, everyone and their mother knows that Wright will be at third base for the future.  

It makes it easier to bear that this team once had Bobby Bonilla and Vince Coleman, the classic me-first players.  Oh, man… I shouldn't have even brought that up!

As Wxstevo noted, Mike Pelfrey has significantly improved his chances on being in the Mets starting rotation this year.  As successful as Pelfrey has been, John Maine has done just as well.  Each surrendered only one run in Wednesday's 2-0 loss to the Detroit Tigers.  Their teammates are impressed with how both have pitched.

“I'm glad we didn't go out and spend an exorbitant amount of money on free agents when we have the arms,” David Wright said.

You can read more in Adam Rubin's story in the NY Daily News.

Nothing excites me more than seeing the Mets groom home grown pitching.  I grew tired of hearing how the Mets didn't improve their rotation and that it is old.  Glavine and El Duque are over 40.  But, three, four, and five could potentially be younger than 28.  Sure, OPerez still has much to prove, and so does Pelfrey.  But, the way Maine, Pelf, and Perez have pitched this spring gives me plenty of hope. 

Eli Greenspan at MLB Rumors reveals that the Mets made Jose Reyes available during the Roberto Alomar trade but the Indians chose Alex Escobar instead.

If you remember, we reported last summer that Bob Elliot of the Toronto Sun revealed that Steve Phillips offered up David Wright for Jose Cruz Jr.

The New York Mets said they would take Cruz, offering a minor-leaguer playing his first full season at class-A.

Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi decided against taking the minor-leaguer for Cruz…

That class-A kid? … You may have seen him at Tuesday's
all-star game — and on a hundred or so highlight clips — as he grew
up to be all-star third baseman David Wright.

What was that you were saying Steve? Third place? Something tells me I shouldn't rely too much on your intuitions.

Bob Klapish of NorthJersey reports that David Wright said that he is willing to give up third base to make room for A-Rod should the Mets sign him before the 2008 season.

After 2007, A-Rod has a opt-out clause in which would give him the ability to sign with another team.

“Are you kidding me? As great a hitter as Alex is, I'd definitely do it,” Wright said. “Tell him to come over, tell him to do it.”

When asked where would he play if A-Rod is playing third base….

“Anywhere,” he said matter-of-factly.

“What other player hits 30-something home runs, drives in 100, hits .280 and calls that an off year?”

“Case closed,” Wright said.

Honestly, im actually for bringing A-Rod to the Mets should he opt-out of his contract after 2007. Think about how great of a lineup and infield that would be with Reyes at the top of the order and Beltran, Delgado, A-Rod, Wright in the midde of the lineup. Im not sure i really like the idea of moving Wright, maybe to second, but if he is serious about switching positions then the Mets might have to think about going after A-Rod.