PHILADELPHIA - David Wright had not stepped into a big-league batter's box since April, and so much had happened since then.
At one point, he had trouble standing upright without pain, fallout from what the world's foremost specialists would later discover was the back condition spinal stenosis.
Even manager Terry Collins admitted that as recently as June, he doubted that this day would come.
Yet Wright needed only one remarkable moment to establish that he had indeed returned from the back ailment that some believed could threaten his career.
On the third pitch he saw, on the first swing he took in his first at-bat, Wright hit a mammoth solo homer that jump-started the Mets in a 16-7 trouncing of the Phillies Monday night.