It took a little bit longer than anticipated, but David Wright is finally at the top of the Mets' record books. Wright’s fourth double of the season, on Wednesday afternoon, made him the club’s all-time career leader in two-base hits with 226.

The Mets doubles record stood for a LONG time. Ed Kranepool held it since mid-August of 1975, when he passed the total of Cleon Jones. Kranepool put some distance between himself and his nearest competitors by totaling 225 before retiring in 1979.

Current hitting coach Howard Johnson (214) and former star infielder Edgardo Alfonzo (212) threatened the mark, but neither lasted long enough with the team to surpass it. Wright stands out as the first player with any sort of longevity with the Mets whose strength is hitting doubles.

Doubles hitting has never been a Mets forte. Every team in baseball, except for the Rays, has a career doubles record-holder with more doubles than Wright’s 226, and every team in baseball (including the Rays) has a single-season record holder with more doubles than Bernard Gilkey had (44) when he set the Mets record in 1996. Wright is a threat to break Gillkey's mark every year. He finished three different seasons with 42, two shy.

Wright has a chance to change the perception of the Mets as a team without a great doubles hitter, as he’s been rather prolific. And his doubles have been of significant value. A check of Baseball-Reference.com shows that the Mets are 126-70 (.643 win pct) when he doubles at least once, 21-8 when he doubles twice, and 1-0 when he doubles three times (which he did in his 28^th career game, and hasn’t done since).

When Wright plays and doesn’t double, the Mets are 324-349 (.481 win pct). Oddly, the Mets are actually better when Wright doesn’t homer (365-374, a .494 win pct) than when he doesn’t double.

Wright, whose first major league hit was a double off Zach Day on July 22, 2004, is one of the most prolific doubles hitters in the major leagues. Since his first full season, 2005, Wright ranks third in baseball with 209, trailing only Brian Roberts and Miguel Cabrera. His doubles total is about the same as Albert Pujols’ home run tally (213) in that same time period.

People paid attention last season to Wright’s power struggles, particularly the issues he had at Citi Field. Those didn’t just affect his home run total but his doubles tally as well. Wright had 14 doubles at home, 25 on the road. In 2008, he hit 22 doubles at home.

Wright’s setting this mark got a little bit of fanfare at Citi Field, but wasn’t treated with the overwhelming reverence that figures to come when he gets closer to Darryl Strawberry’s Mets mark of 252 career home runs (he’s at 143 and counting).

Given Wright’s power rate from last season, the homer record may be more of a struggle than was thought a year or two ago. But the doubles mark could, based on his longevity, the team's history and the current ballpark situation, stand the test of time for quite a while.