If the Mets were smart, and with Jeff Wilpon and Omar Minaya in charge I believe they are, the Mets would sit down and lock up David Wright for the next 100 years. Not only is he one of the most talented players to come out of the Mets farm system, but this kid has an uncanny ability to rise to any occasion. David simply does not have the word pressure in his vocabulary. He took center stage at this week’s All Star event. Monday evening he swatted 16 home runs in the first round of the derby. What I found significant about this was not the number of home runs which happened to be third highest ever in one round, but that ESPN actually bleeped him because he said “Damn it” a couple of times when he made an out. The reason I mention this is because he was so focused on hitting home runs, he blocked out the fact that he was wearing a mic. It’s the intangible of great talent. In addition to his tremendous baseball skills, he constantly demonstrates the ability to lock in and discard all extraneous stimuli. This is the trait of a winner. Athletes refer to it as being in the “zone”. There are other baseball players with better skills and better stats than Wright but often fail when most needed. Wright on the other hand thrives in those situations and he does so in New York, the most pressure packed sports venue in the country if not the world.

In Wright’s first at bat during the All Star game, he hit a home run to tie the game further exemplifying the point. If there were any doubts that this kid is an All Star, that one swing of the bat proved otherwise. In less than two years at the Major League level, Wright has shown that he is one of the elite players in the game.

David Wright will be to the young generation of baseball fans growing up in the New York area what Tom Seaver was to me when I was a kid. He will be the reason kids hassle their parents to take them to Shea Stadium. David will become a huge endorsement figure because of his good clean looks, his humble attitude, and of course his great baseball ability. Most importantly, he will generate huge revenues for the Mets. He’s the kind of player any franchise would love to have to be their poster boy. Therefore David Wright must be a Met for life. There can be no dickering around when it comes time to pay this kid. The Mets should do the right thing and sign David to a long term contract now that will keep him in New York and a Met for years to come. When all is said and done, David Wright has the potential to be the greatest Mets player of all time. He should be treated as such.

The same could be said for Jose Reyes, I certainly did not intend to exclude him. He too has tremendous talent and also should be signed long term. I’m focusing on Wright here because of what he just did this week in the All Star game. Unfortunately, Reyes’s injured finger kept him from showing his great baseball skill to the world. After all, the runs that Wright drives in are in proportion to Reyes getting on base and causing all kinds of havoc. The fear of signing these players long term I guess is if the carrot is no longer tangling in their faces, these young players could become complacent with all that money. In watching David Wright’s and Jose Reyes’s game and seeing what drives them, I don’t think the money will change them one bit. They play to win.

Notes: The Mets get an extra day off this year. The second half begins for them on Friday in Chicago at 2:00PM. It’s the Mets first meeting with the Cubs this year. The Cubs are 34 and 54 but have won three in a row.

The Mets have 73 games remaining on the schedule. They have 39 games left against the East, 21 against the Central, and 13 against the West. They have 36 left at home and 37 away. The Mets longest road trip remaining is 7 games in the middle of August. All other trips are six games.

With the 36 home games remaining and if all goes according to plan there are only 198 regular season games left to play at Shea Stadium before it is torn down.

David Wright is a guest on David Letterman tonight.