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Coleman: David Has The Wright Approach

By Ed Coleman
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Mets fans just watched one of their supposed franchise players return to Citi Field wearing the uniform of a different team. They should hope that for the sake of a better future, the other franchise guy sticks around sporting his trademark # 5.

David Wright became the Mets' all-time leader in RBI, passing Daryl Strawberry, during the 3-game sweep of Jose Reyes and the Marlins. He did it in typical Wright fashion as well, turning a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead with a two-run HR in an eventual 5-1 Mets win. Baseball is very much an individual sport within a team concept, and individual records are nice, but it's certainly not what drives Wright or makes him tick.

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Wright - thankfully to me - is a throwback player. There are so many statistical variables these days that we can numb ourselves with numbers. But Wright is old school - give him the runs he knocks in and the runs he scores - hopefully a lot of them - and he's happy.

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Old school, new school, teacher, rather manager Terry Collins knows he has himself a very special player.

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Collins was pretty sure that Wright would be a much different player this year after he spent so much time reviewing what went wrong in 2011 and made changes during the off-season.

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From the biggest stars on the team all the way down to the guys at the end of the bench, you hear the same things about Wright - here's some admiration from reserve outfielder Mike Baxter.

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Speaking of admiration, Wright has plenty of that for the World Champion 1986 Mets.

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Even through all the ups and downs that he and the organization have encountered over the years he's been here, Wright still considers it an honor to wear his # 5 for the Mets.

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And what does Wright think about now that he's passed Strawberry and will continue to add to his record RBI total? Well, not numbers, but rather being the man to lead the resurgence of the Mets in the years to come.

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In other matters, Mike Pelfrey will travel Monday to see Dr. James Andrews for Tommy John surgery. Pelfrey felt he still could have pitched this year if it had been decided to go a more conservative route, but with a big downside 1070-1. Collins felt bad for Pelfrey, who was rapidly rounding into form, and ultimately for the team.

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C U soon

Eddie C.

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