It is no secret that I bleed orange and blue for the New York Mets, but back in 2008, I pretty much bled a week's worth of green for David Wright.
As the annual All Star Game voting push comes around Major League Baseball, I'm reminded of the 2008 season and my ignorance at the time.
In 2008, the Mets were coming off a total failure of a season, fresh off the heels of a historic collapse that has only begun to exit the back of our minds in wake of their recent success. Of course, my passion for the team absolutely had exploded on a new level in that year, rather unfortunately. I had turned eighteen in April, attended my first Mets Spring Training the month before that, and was now permitted by my parents to head into Flushing with friends (and without a parent, mind you) for games. It was also the last season that Shea Stadium would be around, due to be torn down in the shadow of Citi Field at the end of the year. So of course I took advantage of my freedom as much as I could that summer, fueled by all of the memories of Shea Stadium I had cataloged as a kid, and spent as much time possible at good ole Shea.
My adoration for David Wright, who I had the chance to meet and get the autograph of in Spring Training, also skyrocketed and I created my now popular fansite, The-Wright-Stuff.com, which would later help me receive a job offer from the team I'd loved all my life. So with the site newly-launched and David on the cusp of failing to make the team for the first time since he became eligible, I had to take action.
In the end, I trying to garner as many ballots as possible to help procure the wild card spot on the roster for David. For those of you who aren't big MLB fans, there are two men voted in for each position in each league. One is the starter and one is the backup, who will eventually get some time in the game, but not have his glory during the announcement of the starting lineup. However, one spot is reserved on the roster for what is essentially the wild card spot, meaning a player of any position can be voted onto the team. That year, Pat Burrell, Corey Hart, and David were vying for that last minute honor in the NL, with Jason Giambi, Evan Longoria, and Jermaine Dye. Worst of all, the game would be taking place at Yankee Stadium and without Wright there, Billy Wagner would have been the lone Mets representative in the Bronx.
I took all of the relatively obvious routes, I voted online as much as I could, posted banners and links to the online voting, and tried to strike deals with members of other teams' fandom to try and push David over the top. To this day, when ASG voting comes around, Mets fans can count on the members of the Tampa Bay Rays message boards to help vote our boys in, especially over the Phillies, as a result of our deal to squeeze Evan Longoria in for the AL at the 11th hour.
I even went as far as to offer prizes for the person who created the best, and most-publicized, banner in David's honor. Had I tried the same tactic this year, I'd be waiting to see a submission on a billboard somewhere.
But at some point along the line, I'd picked up the brilliant notion that I should just text bomb voting in the last 24 hours. It was pretty easy to do. All I had to do was continually resend the message, a task that took the pressing of a total of three buttons. Within ten minutes of starting (with two hours left before the deadline window closed), I could resend the text without even looking at my clamshell cell phone. Shortly thereafter, I had grown so skilled at text bombing, I was able to watch TV while doing it.
Hours later, I was disappointed to find out that Corey Hart of the Milwaukee Brewers was selected as the final addition to the team and while it was quelled the following day by Rockies manager Clint Hurdles decision to replace the injured Alfonso Soriano (OF- Chicago Cubs) with David, it still wasn't the same as being voted in. However, I'd take it.
A little over a week went by and the All Star Game arrived. I watched the Home Run Derby with mild interest, only enough to ensure that Chase Utley was eliminated, and was glued to the TV screen during my perennial favorite, the Legends and Celebrity Softball Match, which is so ridiculous at times, it can't be anything BUT funny.
David had played incredibly well in the game itself, which ran for fifteen innings and featured an at bat of Wright versus Scott Kazmir, who by all rights, should have been his teammate instead. Hurdle was due to run out of National League pitchers following the fifteenth and Wright was his intended choice for the bottom of the sixteenth. He was even getting ready in the bullpen, having picked up tips on the bench from the likes of Tim Lincecum and Dan Haren. But the American League wound up winning in the fifteenth inning and my fangirl moment was postponed indefinitely.
Flash forward two weeks later, when the season is back in full swing, and the phone bill arrives at my house. Looking at the bill, I proudly boasted that over the course of two hours, I had managed to vote approximately 3,524 times. Apparently, I had neglected to realize that since the text voting was sponsored and recorded by Cingular (now AT&T again), standard messaging rates of $.10 per text applied ("so that's what that means..."). I wound up owing my parents $352.40 for my voting initiative and I hadn't even gotten Wright into the game on votes.
Luckily, they took pity on a soon-to-be college freshman and split the texting bill with me. But I won't make that mistake again, reading the fine print of everything nowadays... and as I lurk on the message boards of the New York Mets and get emails from teenage girls who frequent my site, assuring me they're going to text MLB and vote David in as much as possible, I fight back my urge to ask who their wireless carriers are
Perhaps if David can earn the starting bid this year and these girls get a good reality check in the form of a valuable lesson... it'll be worth the money.
