The New York Mets are going all out in an effort to ensure David Wright is voted in as the starting third baseman for the NL All-Star team this year. The Mets are hosting the Mid-Summer Classic at Citi Field next month, and they don’t want to suffer the embarrassment of having their franchise player outvoted by the San Francisco Giants’ Pablo Sandoval for the second year in a row, especially when Sandoval is on the DL.
With Wright trailing Sandoval by 200,000 votes, the Mets decided to get creative in an effort to tap every single voter market possible. As reported by Deadspin, they even reached out to dating site CougarLife.com about a potential partnership that would have encouraged women to vote for Wright.
The team acknowledged on Thursday that they approached the “cougar” dating site about partnering to push Wright for the All-Star Game. The employees who explored the partnership likely got the idea after Wright won a recent vote on CougarLife.com that asked women to name the “cub” they’d most want to “round the bases with.” Wright topped Cole Hamels and Matt Kemp in the poll.
“Cougar Life voted David Wright as the hottest cub,” the Mets said in a statement Thursday. “In our effort to expand All-Star balloting to wider audiences, so as to increase votes, we did reach out to Cougar Life. Last year there was a big swing of votes at the end that cost David the starting job. We decided to do everything to make sure that doesn’t happened again this year.
“We ultimately elected to pass. We thank whoever leaked this to Deadspin for increasing awareness of #VOTEWRIGHTNOW AT METS.COM.”
Though Cougar Life was receptive to the partnership, a possible arrangement was nixed by superiors in the Mets’ marketing department. Some apparently balked at the partnership, citing some MLB rules. Wright was also hesitant about the association with the dating site because he recently became engaged.
Wright told reporters on Thursday that he has actually asked the team to tone down the All-Star push because he feels uncomfortable being singled out while the team is struggling.
It’s nice when the organization is trying so hard to do something for one of their players,” Wright said, via ESPN New York’s Adam Rubin. “And I can’t thank them enough for that. At the same time, I’ve asked them to back it down a little bit, especially with the stuff in between innings.
“You appreciate what they’re trying to do, and they’re very good-hearted. At the same time, this is a team game. As much as I’d like to be here to represent this team in the All-Star Game, we can’t let this become an in-between-inning, one-player production. Especially with the way we’re playing as a team, I feel very uncomfortable being singled out for All-Star-Game-type stuff.”
Wright was recently named captain of the NL Home Run Derby squad, so he will still have a prominent role in the game even if he’s not a starter.
