“In my opinion, you can’t ever get used to losing.” DAVID WRIGHT

MIAMI – Spotting David Wright at his locker yesterday, Mike Cameron yelled out that the rookie third baseman should be called a Swiss army knife.

Cameron’s rationale was that Wright was hitting fifth last night, and it was the third time in the last four games he’d been moved around in the lineup. But while there’s no questioning the kid’s versatility, there is one thing the 21-year-old phenom is having trouble adjusting to.

“In my opinion,” Wright said, “you can’t ever get used to losing.”

Especially considering Wright’s history. He’s won his entire life.

Consider the evidence. Wright’s tenure with AAU teams? He constantly won state titles and went to national competitions. His junior year in high school? His team, led by him and Tampa star B.J. Upton, got one game away from the state championships.

At Capital City with the Mets’ A-Ball unit in 2002? His team won the first-half title and went to the playoffs. At St. Lucie last season? The A-ball Mets won the Florida State championship. This year at Binghamton? The B-Mets were in first place when he got promoted to Norfolk.

You get the idea.

So as the Mets season fritters toward full-blown catastrophe (or are they already there?), Wright tries to keep his spirits up. Not an easy thing to do when your team’s lost 10 straight games and 15 out of 16.

And not an easy thing to do when you can’t stop thinking about the game – even when you’re not at the ballpark.

“I bring the game home with me,” Wright admitted. “You really shouldn’t do that, but when we lose or I play a bad game or I think I can do something better to help the team, I take it personally. I take that home with me.”

Typically after games, Wright shuffles back to the clubhouse, sits next to locker neighbor Vance Wilson and chats about the game (interestingly, while the veteran Wilson counsels Wright, the catcher also admits, “I try to pick his brain. He’s so good at hitting.”)

From there, Wright has dinner in the clubhouse, typically eating with Mike Piazza or Todd Zeile or Joe McEwing – veterans who go over what just happened the previous nine innings. Then it’s a shower and a trip back to the hotel, where Wright promptly flips on SportsCenter, watches the highlights and begins recounting where he could have done better.

“You just think over and over again about situations in the game and what if I could have done that?” Wright said. “You’re on such an adrenaline rush after the game that you can’t just go back to the hotel and go to sleep … you run through different situations in your head from the game.”

Thanks to Wright’s remarkable talent and maturity, he probably hasn’t had to second-guess himself too much. On a team that’s currently devoid of energy, Wright continues to go full-bore. He’s also become perhaps the Mets’ best hitter.

In just 166 at-bats with the Mets, Wright’s hitting .289 with 10 homers and 27 RBIs and 29 runs scored. Pro-rated to a 550-at-bat season, that equates to 33 homers, 89 RBIs and 96 runs.

Not bad for a kid who was in A-ball last year.

Still, Wright doesn’t want to rest on his successes. He promises the day his offseason starts, he’ll be in the gym beginning his workout program. He insists, “I never want to experience this kind of losing streak again.”

Said Wright, “I just want to taste what it’s like to win in New York.”

Just a rookie, he’s already experienced more losing than he’d like.