To say David Wright's tenure with the New York Mets has been a roller-coaster ride would be a huge understatement, but the captain is now World Series-bound for the first time in his career.
"This is one of the best days ever for me," Wright proclaimed following the Mets' sweep of the Chicago Cubs in the National League Championship Series.
Wright, who has played his entire 12-year career for the franchise, is the only player remaining on the roster since the club's last postseason appearance in 2006. He has since endured six consecutive losing seasons until the team's breakout in 2015.
"It's a long time coming," Wright said after the series-clinching victory. "We've been through some bad times. We've been through Septembers where you're just playing out the schedule, and that's no fun. To be able to completely reverse that - 180 - and now celebrate and get a chance to go to the World Series, I wish I could bottle it up. I really do. That's an emotion that I'll never forget."
Wright's personal struggles with a spinal stenosis condition kept him off the field for the majority of the season, but his veteran presence in the middle of the lineup this October has been a stabilizing force for the young, blossoming core of the club.
"We knew we had a good team," Wright added. "I hate playing that underdog role. And I never will. I guess I kind of will right now. But people kind of giggled at us and laughed at us when we proclaimed we were going to be a playoff team. I'm pretty sure that we were underdogs going into that L.A. (Dodgers) series. And I'm pretty sure that we were underdogs coming into the Chicago series. So to be able to go out there and win it with this group of guys and prove everybody else wrong - I hate to use that cliche, but it feels really good - because we knew we had a good team in spring training and backed it up."
Wright, a seven-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glover, hit .286/.444/.429 with five runs scored and walked four times in the NLCS.
The 2015 Mets are the fifth team in franchise history to reach the World Series.
