Not every baseball team has, or needs, a captain. Currently only four of the thirty teams have captains: Derrek Lee of the Cubs, Paul Konerko of the White Sox, Jason Varitek of the Red Sox and Derek Jeter of the Yankees. The Mets haven’t historically needed to trump up the ego or perception of one of their players and proclaim him captain. In fact they’ve only had three in their history and two were co-captains. Keith Hernandez was named captain after the Championship season of 1986. Gary Carter soon joined him, and they were co-captains until 1989. John Franco, after the 2000 Pennant year, was named captain and served until 2004.
Is it time to name a new captain? Could the Mets benefit in 2010 from an on the field leader? There are arguments for and against, but I think it’s becoming more and more obvious that title or not, David Wright is a leader on this team. He’s hardly the only one: Carlos Beltran and Johan Santana both provide leadership as well, but the team might still benefit from an official captain.
Johan Santana is a cheery guy in the clubhouse, and he’s also a fierce competitor. He provides a nice mix of enjoying the game, yet still preparing and competing to the best of your ability. Francisco Rodriguez provides energy and passion at the end of the game, and is also a fiery guy. It’s generally assumed that a pitcher, despite John Franco, cannot be a captain because they do not take the field every day. I don’t really buy that argument. While there is a benefit to being a leader from the front of the lines every day, there are plenty of ways to lead from the dugout, between innings, and before and after games. Santana is on the mound 20% of the time and the pitcher is definitely front and center of the guys on the field batting for a win.
Still, it’s obvious to most observers that the guy most likely to be the Captain of the Mets is David Wright. He’s well-spoken, confident, and a star. He’s a fan favorite and one that will hopefully spend his entire career with the Mets. He’s never worn another uniform. He grew up a Mets fan. He’s a guy that’s willing to instruct, support and motivate his teammates and they respect him for it. David Wright can lead this team.
The 2010 Mets have a void in leadership with a lame duck manager. The players are now familiar with the plusses and minuses of the current management and it’s time for them to step up and provide for themselves. Whether this is David Wright walking out to the mound to talk to Pelfrey, or Johan Santana signaling to the infield what he’s going to throw so they can cheat and reposition themselves a little bit, 2010 is about moving forward, and it’s time to name a captain. The last two times the Mets named one it was after a pennant year and the team lost. Maybe it’s time to name a captain that will lead us to another championship rather than rewarding a player with a title afterwards. But one thing is certain whether it becomes official or not: David Wright is the captain of the 2010 New York Mets.
This post reblogged by Ceetar from Optimistic Mets Fan.
63 comments
Kingman 26
3/25/2010-10:15am at 10:15 am (UTC -4)
I agree 100% and was saying this last year.
Only four teams have captains…hmmm, and of those four, three have recently won the World Series, and account for four of the last 6 titles, each having won at least one. And the Cubs have been better over the last few years and made the playoffs two years in a row for the first time in, oh, about 100 years.
Wright’s getting in Pelf’s face in the dugout, calling out the team (and to me, clearly Jerry) for being unprepared, coming right back after getting beaned, etc, not to mention his overall 5-tool greatness, being homegrown, and being a total standup guy and solid citizen and human being make him captain.
And those of you who say he is soft, not clutch, etc, I respectfully ask you to please just shut up.
Great piece Ceetar.
trs86
3/25/2010-10:41am at 10:41 am (UTC -4)
Ah…. Fresh topic. Now I don’t have to defend my cautious position on Murphy anymore. Yeah!!!!
I think Wright should be named co-captain with Johan.
ceetar
3/25/2010-10:44am at 10:44 am (UTC -4)
Couldn’t hurt. Maybe they can win Co-MVPs too. You could make an argument that we have a bit of a void at pitching coach too, and Santana should impart as much of his wisdom to the rotation as possible.
trs86
3/25/2010-10:48am at 10:48 am (UTC -4)
I think at the start of last season Johan was doing a great job as a captain. Keeping the players loose and focused yet when all hell broke loose he kind of faded away.
GravediggerHebner
3/25/2010-10:59am at 10:59 am (UTC -4)
Happy birthday Ceet! Now you can finally legally drink that beer you brew.
ceetar
3/25/2010-11:07am at 11:07 am (UTC -4)
21 again? Nice..
DNDJohan aka kistics
3/25/2010-11:11am at 11:11 am (UTC -4)
How did you pull that off? I wish I was 21 again….
ceetar
3/25/2010-11:13am at 11:13 am (UTC -4)
Maybe I celebrated all the birthdays in Vegas. After all, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
DNDJohan aka kistics
3/25/2010-11:31am at 11:31 am (UTC -4)
Happy B-Day!
metsfan4decades
3/25/2010-11:19am at 11:19 am (UTC -4)
Your Birthday? Best wishes to you today….
ceetar
3/25/2010-11:29am at 11:29 am (UTC -4)
Thanks. Not sure where Grave glibbed it from (not that it’s hidden anywhere)
GravediggerHebner
3/25/2010-11:33am at 11:33 am (UTC -4)
I always look at this page when I log in to see who else is online, and it lists birthday at the bottom (assuming you answered the birthdate question when you registered which I guess you did).
http://www.nleastchatter.com/forum/
Mr North Jersey
3/25/2010-11:34am at 11:34 am (UTC -4)
Never underestimate Grave’s sleuthing skills.
DNDJohan aka kistics
3/25/2010-11:01am at 11:01 am (UTC -4)
I know age is just a number and I agree with that except for this instance. Wright is only 26 and I think that’s relatively young age to become a captain of a ball club. I understand that he fits all the criteria, but I still think Wright is couple years away from being considered as a captain.
As great as Jeter is, he did not become a captain until he was 29/30. I just think this captaincy can wait couple more years for Wright.
ceetar
3/25/2010-11:07am at 11:07 am (UTC -4)
Wright is one of the longest tenured Mets though. He’s been here long enough to be considered a ‘Veteran’. He’s been to the postseason, he’s been to an All Star game.
Waiting until he hits an arbritarily ‘mature’ age is to award it as a title and a reward, not as a promotion.
metsfan4decades
3/25/2010-11:01am at 11:01 am (UTC -4)
I was on the fence about this all along. Now I’m leaning towards it being a good idea. However, you can be assured that if they named him official Captain now – at the start of the season after arguably the worst season ever – it would probably produce a storm of ‘what has he done for us lately’? type reactions. He hasn’t ‘won’ anything, he’s not considered a success until he wears that WS ring – blah, blah, blah.
But there might be something in the fact that the only two years the Mets have named a Captain and/or Co-Captains were after post season play.
I’m not sure I agree with the Johan as Co-Captain though. Don’t get me wrong, I love Johan and is one of my favorite current Met players. Right up there with Wright. But Wright is home grown, has been there since his ML debut and will likely be there until the end. That gives him the slight edge on being named solo Captain.
LOL – naming Wright Captain would likely give our friend ‘Alex’ a fit….
trs86
3/25/2010-11:10am at 11:10 am (UTC -4)
naming Wright Captain would likely give our friend ‘Alex’ a fit….
Well that’s enough reason right there?
metsfan4decades
3/25/2010-11:11am at 11:11 am (UTC -4)
LOL.
GravediggerHebner
3/25/2010-11:04am at 11:04 am (UTC -4)
I agree that Wright is the obvious choice. Given his tangibles of being an upper echelon 3B, and his intangibles of being a young homegrown yet established major leaguer, and the fact that he grew up a Met fan, I just think it makes sense on so many levels.
Since you note KRod in your post I’ll pass on some tidbit I heard the other day (can’t remember where, Coutinho maybe?) which was that KRod is, well not anti-social, but that he basically is isolated and keeps to himself. The way I recall it being portrayed was that he was a team player when with the team in baseball related situations but that after the post game shower he went his own way and did not participate in the off-field group activities such as watching curling or NCAA games.
Kingman 26
3/25/2010-11:06am at 11:06 am (UTC -4)
Do curling or NCAA basketball exist for Venezuelans?
GravediggerHebner
3/25/2010-11:52am at 11:52 am (UTC -4)
When the Venezuelan rivers freeze over in winter curling is huge man!
DNDJohan aka kistics
3/25/2010-11:07am at 11:07 am (UTC -4)
KRod sounds like Jeter
GravediggerHebner
3/25/2010-11:08am at 11:08 am (UTC -4)
I realize some recent stuff could be attributed to pink eye but whatever source I read/heard this from didn’t mention that.
Mr North Jersey
3/25/2010-11:06am at 11:06 am (UTC -4)
Yes Wright for Captain would be nice to see. Who makes that call again?
ceetar
3/25/2010-11:10am at 11:10 am (UTC -4)
I think anyone could make the call.
I know there was an article by Rubin saying Manuel wasn’t going to, and Wright responded with something along the lines of “It doesn’t matter if it’s official or not, I consider myself a leader.” I should’ve included the quote, but I left out the article because I was trying to make the point outside of Manuel bashing.
Mr North Jersey
3/25/2010-11:15am at 11:15 am (UTC -4)
Well I think he is the Captain he has done everything a captain is expected to do it is just that he has no C on his Jersey.
You think players would fall inline with him being made officially Captain?
I would hope so right?
ceetar
3/25/2010-11:17am at 11:17 am (UTC -4)
I think so. The media already treats him as a kind of captain, guys like Bay, Barajas, Castillo, etc haven’t been here long enough to have a lot of sway. When they c ame here, they understood that it was “David Wright’s team” to some degree. The two ‘big presences’ would be Beltran and Santana, and I don’t think they’d have a problem with it.
stickguy
3/25/2010-11:18am at 11:18 am (UTC -4)
Someone has to dissent, so I will vote No.
I just don’t think BB should have formal captains. If a guy is a leader (for whatever that is worth), then he will naturally have a following. And if he doesn’t already, pinning a C on his chest isn’t going to change anything.
So it really only makes sense if the guy is already the defacto captain/leader of the team (like Jeter or Veritek were), in which case it is really just a formality (perk?)
I just don’t see what tangible difference it is going to make to a team (or they would all have one) if the leader is already leading.
ANd for sure, given the recent spate of Met bashing, it will strt out with snide comments, and god forbid the season goes awry. The onslaught of crap will be tremendous.
ceetar
3/25/2010-11:27am at 11:27 am (UTC -4)
Well, i disagree that Jeter already was (or is now)
I don’t know if it’ll have a lot of difference. Or maybe it’ll have some of the fringe type guys look more towards Wright than towards Manuel.
I don’t know if it’d be met with many snide commments. Present it as a ‘moving forward’. ‘we believe in comebacks’. that kind of thing. Treat it as an inevitability. I think it might even help focus on the position and may distract from some of the bashing.
trs86
3/25/2010-11:20am at 11:20 am (UTC -4)
As a side note I think captains are very underrated. A lot of high school basketball coaches never officially pick captains, maybe because they are afraid it would cause friction. I pick them early and rely on them heavily all year. They become like 2nd and 3rd coaches for me and I am always quizzing them on team issues.
ceetar
3/25/2010-11:28am at 11:28 am (UTC -4)
That’s how I thought 2009 should’ve gone. They should’ve brought in a fresh manager, and named Wright Captain. Then Wright would be the 2nd or 3rd coach guy that’s been here a while, but is still a player, help get the coaches used to how the players are and help the players settle in because they’d be used to Wright anyway, so it’d bea buffer against the manager change.
Mr North Jersey
3/25/2010-11:32am at 11:32 am (UTC -4)
I wonder what Joe Janish of Mets Today would say about Wright being named Captain?
ceetar
3/25/2010-11:36am at 11:36 am (UTC -4)
I have no idea.
CaseStreet
3/25/2010-11:24am at 11:24 am (UTC -4)
IDK. I served five years active duty in the Marine Corps and two years as a Program Manager for a national service program. In both places I learned alot about leadership.
A title, in name, won’t make David more a leader than he is now. If David is respected and his opinion is valued, the team will go to him for guidance and listen to him when he has something to say.
Now, if the title of Captain comes w/ some extra duties, resposibilities, authority, and the team looks up to David, then yes, naming him Captain could benefit the team. I would advocate for a NFL style Captain position.
I think the team should vote for one pitcher’s captain and one hitter’s captain. That way you have player buy-in.
trs86
3/25/2010-11:30am at 11:30 am (UTC -4)
Agreed Case and then you do what every coach in the world does. Throw those votes away and pick who you want, telling the team they won the vote. LOL.
gipperpdx
3/25/2010-3:46pm at 3:46 pm (UTC -4)
LOL @ TRS86, well played! I agree with Case…the “C” is window dressing if DWright is already the leader we all hope he is. If he isn’t such a leader already, the “C” will just be an empty gesture to please the fans.
Thanks for your service, Case. Semper fi!
trs86
3/25/2010-11:37am at 11:37 am (UTC -4)
Side note with random stats about TRDM (grave got me thinking)
66,000+ comments and almost 2,000 post. Wow, not bad for 10 months.
ceetar
3/25/2010-11:38am at 11:38 am (UTC -4)
I always like peaking at which google search terms get people to my site. haven’t done it in a while.
trs86
3/25/2010-11:42am at 11:42 am (UTC -4)
Yeah, wordpress makes that easy. LOL, grave did a great job for us posting the Mona Lisa with bubble gum. It continues to get hits almost a year later. Type in Mona Lisa and for images it’s usually on the first page. Type in ML with bubble it’s the first one.
ceetar
3/25/2010-11:45am at 11:45 am (UTC -4)
I’m using google analytics for it, not sure how WordPress’s works.
I get the most hits, which isn’t that many, via searches for thigns like GTS vineyards, and phillies suck.
Mr North Jersey
3/25/2010-11:39am at 11:39 am (UTC -4)
Any updates about the move?
trs86
3/25/2010-11:40am at 11:40 am (UTC -4)
SLOW/
metsfan4decades
3/25/2010-11:44am at 11:44 am (UTC -4)
Oh dang….’Cause you know I was looking forward to an in game chat like we had last year with the Real Dirty Dugout.
Speaking of which, where has Dirty Sanchez been? Hope everything is O.K. and he’s just busy.
ceetar
3/25/2010-11:46am at 11:46 am (UTC -4)
That dugout is still there. Kinda lonely in there alone all winter though.
dirty’s been doing the monday fantasy updates, must be around somewhere.
trs86
3/25/2010-11:48am at 11:48 am (UTC -4)
Yeah we gotta put the page back up.
metsfan4decades
3/25/2010-11:49am at 11:49 am (UTC -4)
Great – thanks! Looking forward to it.
ceetar
3/25/2010-11:50am at 11:50 am (UTC -4)
in the meantime could always use mibbit.com to get there on the web.
Embedding it is not difficult at all though.
think I’ll change the link on mine and embed it and whatnot.
trs86
3/25/2010-11:54am at 11:54 am (UTC -4)
Just reposted it but the code did not work. If you know how to solve that let me know. Otherwise I will have to wait on Dirty.
ceetar
3/25/2010-12:06pm at 12:06 pm (UTC -4)
Well, I can’t see the code behind pages. But, not working for me either, don’t see any obvious problems,maybe whereever the embed code comes from has been tweaked slightly since october and not loading now.
ceetar
3/25/2010-12:26pm at 12:26 pm (UTC -4)
Eh. easy enough fix. I’ve got the link working on my site now on the sidebar for access.
metsfan4decades
3/25/2010-11:50am at 11:50 am (UTC -4)
That’s right – forgot he’s doing that.
Mr North Jersey
3/25/2010-11:47am at 11:47 am (UTC -4)
For that matter where is MRose?
trs86
3/25/2010-11:40am at 11:40 am (UTC -4)
Threaded comments and multiple authors are the big things that have to be done before I OK the move.
Mr North Jersey
3/25/2010-11:46am at 11:46 am (UTC -4)
Oh well, it’s not like I am eager to move anyway. I’m sure once all is done it will be well worth the wait.
GravediggerHebner
3/25/2010-11:54am at 11:54 am (UTC -4)
The only time I feel strongly pro-move is when the servers crash, the longer they go without doing that the less I think about the move.
If that’s not a server crash curse, nothing is!
Mr North Jersey
3/25/2010-11:55am at 11:55 am (UTC -4)
lol Quick, back up all the data!!!
metsfan4decades
3/25/2010-12:01pm at 12:01 pm (UTC -4)
How did the Mets screw up the fanwalk they just added on who actually got the win in that 1986 WS game 7?
Gotta love my Mets – LOL…….
ceetar
3/25/2010-12:07pm at 12:07 pm (UTC -4)
yeah. rough, that. I imagine it’d because whoever wrote it did it from memory. Not that that excuses not fact checking.
gipperpdx
3/25/2010-3:51pm at 3:51 pm (UTC -4)
Gotta love the comment from the guy on Mattsblog….of course the Wilpons got it wrong, the Dodgers weren’t even in the playoffs that year, so they didn’t pay much attention to that postseason.
DNDJohan aka kistics
3/25/2010-12:06pm at 12:06 pm (UTC -4)
Hey I’m only a single A prospect
GravediggerHebner
3/25/2010-12:08pm at 12:08 pm (UTC -4)
You have to make X number of posts in the forum specifically to move up in the system. Comments here don’t count toward that, otherwise you’d be at worst a Quad A player
DNDJohan aka kistics
3/25/2010-12:13pm at 12:13 pm (UTC -4)
LOL.. Are you comparing me to Figgy?
GravediggerHebner
3/25/2010-12:48pm at 12:48 pm (UTC -4)
Upon further review, in the context of number of comments, you’re definitely a major league veteran, and possibly that guy who is the last one voted into the All-Star game