Dwight Gooden
From The Met Wiki
| Age: 44 (born November 16, 1964) |
| Position: P |
| Bats: Right Throws: Right |
| Number: 16 |
| Acquired: Amateur draft (1st round) |
| Contract: Retired |
At age 18 (in 1983), Dwight Gooden had his only full season of Minor League Baseball, going 19-4 with a 2.50 ERA and 300 strikeouts in 191 innings, in single A.
He started the next season with the Mets, and unanimously won the Rookie of the Year Award, shattering the Major League record (not just the rookie record) with 11.4 strikeouts per nine innings.
The next year he had one of the greatest seasons any pitcher ever had, going 24-4 with a 1.53 ERA, taking the pitcher's triple crown and the Cy Young unanimously. Dwight was only 20 years old.
And then it all fell apart. He had a pretty good season in 1986, but it would later become known that he had become addicted to cocaine. He lost both of his World Series starts and then didn't appear for the ticker tape parade celebrating the Mets' win, and his absense would later be revealed to be cocaine related. He was arrested two months later for fighting with police. He tested positive for drugs and began the 1987 season in rehab.
He pitched well again, though not as brilliantly as earlier in his career. In game four of the 1988 NLCS, Gooden took a one hitter into the ninth, where he would face the Dodgers weakest hitters, with a 4-2 lead and a chance to give the Mets a commanding 3 games to 1 lead. But in one of the worst (of many) collapses in Mets history, Gooden walked John Shelby and then gave up a game tying home run to Mike Scioscia, stunning the Shea Stadium crowd. NL MVP Kirk Gibson and Cy Young Award winner Orel Hershiser (and Met 1986 postseason hero Jesse Orosco) won the game for the Dodgers in the 12th. Gibson and Hershiser would complete their legendary postseasons. The Mets would take another decade to see the postseason again.
Injuries and repeated drug, alcohol, and legal problems would darken the rest of Gooden's career.
At age 29 (in 1994), Gooden was suspended for 60 days for drug use, and when he failed a test during his suspension he was suspended for all of 1995. The Mets did not resign him, but Gooden got a job with the Yankees, with whom his only highlight would be throwing a no hitter, one of ten thrown by pitchers who came up with the Mets (7 by Nolan Ryan, one each for Seaver, Gooden, and David Cone). Nobody ever threw a no hitter while on the Mets.
Ironically but perhaps appropriately, Gooden's last two appearances at Shea Stadium would be on two of its worst days. Like Tom Seaver in 1986, Gooden's last days on a Major League roster would be sitting in the opposing dugout during the Mets World Series games. Unlike in Seaver's case, Gooden's team would do the celebrating. Gooden's only return to Shea Stadium was to appear in its destruction ceremonies, on September 28, 2008, as the Mets completed their most recent improbable collapse. After receiving such a positive reception at that ceremony, Gooden began attending Mets games at Citi Field. Gooden's nephew, Gary Sheffield, joined the Mets for the 2009 season.
After the 1986 season, many Met fans expected Gooden and Darryl Strawberry to win a few more World Series together for the Mets, and end their careers in the Hall of Fame. Instead they're the personification of the Mets' failures.
