Major League Baseball

Mets nix idea for racy dating site to elect Wright

Published Jun. 14, 2013 2:05 a.m. ET

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The New York Mets are willing to do most anything to get David Wright elected to the All-Star team. Well, almost anything.

The Mets said Thursday they had backed off their latest idea - teaming up with a racy dating website that caters to women looking to meet younger men.

The team said it approached CougarLife.com about trying to help Wright get picked for the All-Star game the Mets will host next month, but later decided to pass.

''CougarLife voted David Wright as the hottest cub. In our effort to expand All-Star balloting to wider audiences, so as to increase votes, we did reach out to CougarLife,'' Mets spokesman Jay Horwitz said.

''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 happen again this year. We ultimately elected to pass,'' he said.

The website featured Wright in an article last month. The 30-year-old Wright is engaged to model Molly Beers.

''Serious? Umm, I guess it's a nice honor,'' Wright said. ''Did you guys have to draw straws for who asked that question? I guess I'd like to thanks my parents for the genes.''

An unidentified Mets employee in the marketing and communications department last week inquired about the site encouraging its users to vote for the New York captain, Deadspin.com first reported.

Earlier this week, the employee changed direction after talking with a superior.

The All-Star game is July 16 at Citi Field. Wright was trailing San Francisco's Pablo Sandoval for the National League's starting spot at third base - 1.09 million to 967,000 - in the most recent results of fan voting.

Last year, Sandoval made up a deficit of nearly 465,000 votes in the final week to beat Wright 5.7 million to 4.1 million for the starting spot.

The Mets have been promoting Wright during games at Citi Field.

''It's nice when the organization is trying so hard to do something for one of their players, and I can't thank them enough for that,'' he said.

''At the same time, I've asked them to kind of 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 goodhearted, but to me 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.''

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