Mets have the perfect day to retire David Wright’s number 5

Keith Hernandez will have his number retired by the New York Mets in 2022, an honor only Tom Seaver and Mike Piazza had earned for the franchise for their playing days until Jerry Koosman joined them in 2021.

The next logical player to have his number retired is David Wright. A guy who spent his entire career with the Mets and epitomized all of the aspects one could want from an athlete on and off the field, number 5 will soon join the others. It’s only a matter of time.

Thank the Romans because the perfect day is already on the calendar.

The best day for the Mets to retire David Wright’s number 5 is on July 21, 2024

The Mets should take a year off from retiring numbers in 2023. Otherwise, we’re going to start running out of numbers. Wright is one of those guys I think it’s impossible to argue against. If not for injuries, he was going to be in the Hall of Fame.

His career began on July 21, 2004. Wouldn’t you know, July 21, 2024 falls on a Sunday.

Bring your friends, your family, and neighbors for a fun weekend at Citi Field. The Mets are retiring Wright’s number, officially hanging it up before Sunday’s game versus the Washington Nationals—the franchise Wright debuted against in 2004 back when they were the Montreal Expos.

We already know how the weekend will go. Players from Wright’s past will reunite with him. Jose Reyes will give him a huge. Michael Cuddyer will show up with some very mixed reactions, including confusion from those who don’t remember his brief time with the club.

Wright’s career, which began in 2004 and went on through 2018, included two very memorable seasons. The 2006 Mets got the team back into contention again. It appeared the 2015 squad was going to do the same. Fans soon realized this wasn’t the case. The team wouldn’t make the postseason at all between those two seasons, undergoing a massive rebuild at one point after multiple failures to create a contender.

But enough about the bad times. There are plenty of good ones to remember about Wright’s career.

There is no shortage of content for the tribute video that will play for the sellout crowd. Culminating with his World Series home run and the final bow he took in 2018, it would be a fitting day to have Wright’s career come full circle with it all beginning on July 21, 2004, and his number 5 hanging up forever exactly thirty years later on July 21, 2024.