This story was excerpted from Anthony DiComo’s Mets Beat newsletter, written this week by Bill Ladson. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

NEW YORK – No one was happier than Jay Horwitz, the Mets’ historian and vice president of alumni public relations, after the team announced Monday that it was going to retire David Wright’s uniform No. 5 and induct him into the Mets Hall of Fame on July 19 at Citi Field.

Horwitz sounded like a proud father watching his son reach greater heights in baseball. During Wright’s 14 years as an active player from 2004-18, Horwitz was the team’s PR director and saw Captain America become one of the best position players in Mets history.

Wright hit 242 home runs, drove home 970 runs and compiled 49.2 Wins Above Replacement over a 14-year career in New York. He established a Hall of Fame arc in his 20s before succumbing to the back, neck and right shoulder injuries that ultimately ended his career. From 2015-17, Wright played in only 75 games. He returned in 2018 to appear in two final emotional games -- the last of them before a sold-out crowd at Citi.

But the impressive stats Wright put up don’t tell the whole story. Starting when he was in the Minor Leagues, Wright always wanted to do things the right way on and off the field, according to Horwitz.

“Anything he did, he was thorough,” Horwitz said. “I’ll give you an example: In July of 2004, David was in the Futures Game in Houston. He wanted to get into the Major League locker room the next day to meet some of the Major League players to find out what it was like to be a Major Leaguer.

“So I made out a fraudulent press pass to get him in the locker room to meet Scott Rolen, who sat with him for a good hour, telling him how to treat people in the media and what’s the best way to get started in the big leagues. David just got it. He was nice to the fans. When there was a catastrophe with [Hurricane] Katrina or [other tragedies], David always asked, ‘What can I do to help?’”

Though he missed a lot of playing time over the last four years of his career, Wright was always mentoring young players. One player he took under his wing was right-hander Jacob deGrom. When the latter was unhittable during his first Cy Young Award season in 2018, he often went to Wright for advice.

“Jacob was a quiet guy,” Horwitz said. “He did everything I asked him to do, but he didn’t like doing it. A lot of times, when David would see me approach Jacob during his Cy Young year, Jacob would look at David and David would wink his eye and say, ‘Do it. If Jay asked you to do it, it has to be the right thing.’”

It’s now 2025, and Horwitz can’t believe Wright is 42 years old. For Horwitz, it seems like yesterday when Wright made his Major League debut at the age of 21.

“He is one of a kind,” Horwitz said about Wright.