Wright, deGrom had hair-razing bond in NY: 'This is going to sound ridiculous'
Anthony DiComo
@AnthonyDiComoPORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Among the accolades David Wright earned during his career were seven All-Star appearances, two Gold Gloves, two Silver Sluggers, the captaincy of the Mets and plenty else -- including one previously unknown, unheralded title.
For a period of time, Wright was Jacob deGrom¡¯s barber.
¡°This is going to sound ridiculous,¡± Wright said in a recent telephone interview, ¡°but Jake, when he needed a haircut, he¡¯d hand me a pair of scissors, and he¡¯d go dip his hair in the hot tub, and he¡¯d be like, ¡®Hey, take off a few inches.¡¯ And I¡¯d literally cut his hair. After he dipped his hair in the hot tub, I¡¯d cut a few inches off the back of his hair.¡±
Eventually, deGrom tired of this arrangement, so he asked Wright where in Manhattan he went to have his own hair cut. Wright made appointments for both of them, and as the 2017 season ended, they went for what became a rather famous shear.
In each of the next two years, deGrom won the National League Cy Young Award.
Consider that episode one of the more overt ways in which Wright influenced deGrom during their shared time in New York -- but far from the only one. For years, Wright served as deGrom¡¯s mentor, spending countless hours trying to help him ascend to a leadership role in the clubhouse. Wright had three motivations for all the time spent with deGrom. First, he genuinely liked his teammate and considered him ¡°a great friend.¡± Second, he believed deGrom was ¡°a terrible card player¡± and enjoyed taking money off him in their free time.
Third, and most important, Wright wanted to make sure he could have a positive impact on the generation of players behind him. That instinct, which was crucial to Wright becoming captain in the first place, is a significant reason why the Mets will retire his No. 5 this July 19 at Citi Field.
¡°He was a big influence on me of how to be a professional,¡± deGrom said in a recent telephone interview. ¡°I don¡¯t know if I quite did as good a job as him with the media and stuff, but he told me to be accountable for it ¡ whether you did good or bad, stand there and talk about how things went. So he was a huge mentor.¡±
Often, Wright and deGrom would sit for hours in the home clubhouse at Citi Field, chatting about everything from haircuts to pitching strategy to life itself. Unlike Wright, a first-round Draft pick who was accustomed to attention and typically comfortable with it, deGrom was a small-town Floridian who didn¡¯t take naturally to the off-field responsibilities of a Major Leaguer. As deGrom ascended to become one of baseball¡¯s best pitchers, those demands only intensified.
Enter Wright, who did what he could to ease the younger player¡¯s path.
¡°Guys looked up to him,¡± said Wright, who will be in Mets camp next week as a special instructor. ¡°I wanted him to be a positive influence on the next Jacob deGrom or the next batch of young players, because I knew that my time was coming to an end.¡±
Along the way, there were plenty of light moments, such as the time Wright forced deGrom to wear Daisy Duke jean shorts back from the stadium in Cincinnati, or the time deGrom drove 5 mph up the FDR Drive in Manhattan, flashing his hazard lights the entire way to ¡°protect¡± Wright¡¯s surgically repaired neck.
There was also lots of heavier talk about leadership and responsibility. Even after moving to the Rangers on a free-agent contract, deGrom maintained a close relationship with Wright. Recently, he¡¯s drawn on Wright¡¯s experiences as an injured player while rehabbing from his second career Tommy John surgery.
If Wright could put in all that work just to stand on the field one last time at the end of his career, deGrom thought, surely I can give the same sort of effort.
¡°As he said, you¡¯re fortunate every day you can put the uniform on, so treat it like it¡¯s your last day and enjoy it,¡± deGrom said. ¡°Learning that kind of stuff was huge for me early in my career. Who knows how it would have been different if he wasn¡¯t there to kind of show me the way.¡±