The Next Wild Thing?!!!

Remember in Major League II when Rick Vaughn's shrink snapped at him?

"How can you throw him an 0-2 fastball when you know he'll swing at the ball in the dirt?"

For six months in Cleveland, Rick Vaughn had lost it. The year before he averaged 96 (mph), but this year he would reach back and it just wasn't there.

Vaughn got the big contract and rose to superstar status and he just got lost. He lost his moxie, his mojo, his panache. He lost whatever it was that he had in the first installment of Major League.

He needed to get it back.

A trip to the barber for his old school Vaughn haircut and a couple of minutes in his closet finding his old leather vest and Vaughn was back. He came back at the end of ML II to strike out Jack Parkman and save the day.

I tell you this story because we at Shea have a guy in need of a haircut and his old leather vest. A kid like Vaughn who exploded onto the scene, had the girls in love with him and the guys wanting to be him. Like Vaughn, he had a speedy lead off man as a running mate (Willie Mays Hayes/Jose Reyes) and like Vaughn he came into 2007 with lofty expectations.

This one shouldn't be a shocker to you. It's our old friend and fan-favorite, David Wright.

D Wright hasn't been the same since last year's home run derby. He had 6 homeruns in the second half of '06, struggled through his first postseason and has been a blackhole for RBI opportunities in '07, filling up the early stat sheets with 0 HR and 6 RBI.

There is only one word to describe his play. It's "sad."

We all love D Wright. He is our kid. He was the first Mets prospect to make it since Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry. He is a clean-cut class act, who may be the only person in the world to love the Mets more than AFOMG. Which is why it's so disheartening to see this kid struggle.

You know it's driving him nuts. He has watched Derek Jeter's Hall of Fame career unfold in the Bronx and knows that he is expected to fill those same shoes in Queens.

It's way too early to panic. A good month of May and everyone will forget the first 25 games of the season.

But whatever it is that he had, he needs to get it back.

I'm gonna call my barber Franco and see if he can do something different with D Wright's fade.

I'll call a few of my favorite fashionistas back in NYC who might be able to find a nice new leather vest for D Wright.

Whatever it is I can do from the west coast, I will try my best. I ask that you guys all do the same. We need this kid back.

Vaya con dios,

Sip

(Pics courtesy of Steelertribute.com, allposter.com, fridaysundae.com)