Now that the New York Mets have missed the playoffs for the second straight year, what does star third baseman David Wright do with his free time? He could be drowning his sorrows in some trendy bar in  Manhattan. Or the all star could hop a jet and fly to far off lands and chase skirts into the wee hours of the morning. Sounds good, but that’s not D. Wright’s style. If its Friday night, Wright is in the stands or on the sidelines for high school football here in Hampton Roads.

Yes, the face of the Mets organization was back in Chesapeake recently to see the Hickory-Western Branch football game. Wright was front and center to cheer for his brother Daniel. “I wish I was playing right now, but to be able to come back and see my brother play in his senior year is pretty special. He comes to New York as much as possible, so I enjoy coming out and supporting him and Hickory.”

Daniel Wright is a senior middle linebacker for the Hawks. He’s the captain of the defense and in big brother David’s opinion, “He’s the tough one in the family!” Daniel does not play baseball, but instead of swinging a bat, he swings a mean lacrosse stick.

Big brother David has plenty of time to reflect on yet another season that ended up down the drain, but he told me that things will be different next year. ” Its tough. Hopefully it makes winning that much more special when we finally do. We have the right tools, we just have to put them together. We have to go out and make some changes. We all need to do things individually to get better than I’m sure Omar Minaya and the front office will go out and make some changes and get some good players again.”

But havent we learned that going out and getting, “some good players” doesnt always work? Look at the Mets, Yankees and Tigers. How did going out and getting ”some good players” help them? More often these days, the youth movement seems to be working. Smart drafting and development in the minors could be a better rout than breaking the bank on some free agent. 

But getting back to Wright. How did he asses his season. ” Thats the thing about baseball. your never satisfied. It’s a game of failure. I left a lot of runs out there. Your just never satisfied. So I’m doing everything I can this offseason to make sure next year we go out there and win the division.”

That means you probably will not catch Mr. Met in that trendy New York night club or chasing skirts with the rest of his teamates. He’s enjoying seeing brother Daniel play out his senior season at Hickory and work hard at perfecting his craft. “I get a chance to play a game every day that I love, so I go out there and play like its little league, to have fun, smile, laugh and joke. To be able to do that in New York for a championship caliber team, I love it.”

The New York Mets are lucky to have a player like David Wright, so hopefully one day in the not too distant future, David can drop the “caliber” preface and play for a real championship team.