Today, one of the greatest Mets of all time will once again be available. Not to play, he’s too old now. But his talent was so great that when he took the mound at Shea Stadium, everything stopped. Everyone who remotely cared about baseball tuned it to see what magic he would toil with that small white ball. There was a huge mural of him on the side of a building in mid-town
There has never been any Mets player who came on the scene and performed right out of the gate like Dwight Gooden did. He was a 19 year old kid who Mets manager Davey Johnson convinced GM Frank Cashen to bring up and be part of the ’84 club. Johnson having managed Gooden in the minors knew he was special and it did not take long for Mets fans to recognize this too. He instantly became a fan favorite. As the Mets improved attendance grew dramatically in 1984 especially when Doc took the hill. The “K”s you see hung from upper decks around baseball originated at Shea Stadium in 1984 when Dwight Gooden started mowing down Major League hitters at a phenomenal rate. He won the Rookie of the Year award in 1984; in 1985 he became a Cy Young award winner at the age of 20 then Gooden helped the Mets win a World Series in 1986. After that season it all started to fall apart for Dwight. During spring training of 1987 it was announced that Gooden would enter a clinic for drug and alcohol addiction. It was the beginning of a series of problem relating to drugs and run-ins with the police. When Dwight came back he pitched well but never again was he the dominating pitcher he was in his first three seasons. The Mets cut ties with Gooden after a suspension in ’94 once again for drugs. For the Mets, it was the last straw. Doc played till 2000 and had success with other teams most notably the Yankees where ironically he pitched a no-hitter and was part of the 96’ World Championship team.
Gooden’s personal problems continued after baseball and culminated this year with a seven month prison sentence, one in which he agreed to serve in fear that if he failed probation again, he would have to endure a 5 year prison term. So today, Dwight is released from prison. Doc becomes a free man and now must find out if he can stay clean and live a productive life. Gooden will turn 42 next week so he still is a young man. He says he wants to work in baseball again and has stated that George Steinbrenner would be interested in bringing him back to the Yankees in some capacity.
Should the Mets reach out to Gooden? Should Doc get the opportunity to wear orange and blue again? Isn’t he really a Met at heart? The Mets are the team he experienced most of his success and where he became a baseball legend. So shouldn’t he be a Met again? I’m not sure of the answer but I do know that I have been a huge proponent of the Mets celebrating their past. The ’86 celebration this past season was a huge success. When the players from that era were introduced on that dreary Saturday evening in August, you could just feel the love raining down from the stands. Omar Minaya seems to get it. He was the one who reached out to Darryl Strawberry and made him feel like part of the family again. Darryl received a huge standing ovation when he was introduced that rainy evening. And during that celebration, someone was missing. Obviously he couldn’t be there but Doc’s name should have at least been mentioned.
I know that I was angry with Gooden after his downfall, lots of Mets fans were. Here was a guy who was king of the hill, playing for the best team in the best town and making a ton of money. How could he blow it like he did? Gooden should have been a hall of fame player just like Darryl should have been. But instead he threw it all away, just like Darryl did. Now being older and much wiser then I was in those days I understand that regardless of talent and stature, we are all human beings. Dwight Gooden is a human being too, capable of feeling anxiety, depression, and loss of self worth. He is a human being who had and may still have demons in his head that are not so easily cleansed from his soul. No amount of money, fame, and power can remove the mental anguish that a person may suffer. Dwight Gooden is no different. True he had a talent that the rest of us could only dream of having but that alone does not remove the personal mental burdens that he then and may still be experiencing.
The Mets should welcome Doc back to the family. The Mets should show him that all is forgiven and that he is valued for what he contributed to the team back then and what he could mean to the organization now. Why is it any different than when someone has cancer, mental illness is every bit a disease. And the disease can be treated through therapy and medication. Hopefully Doc has been getting that while in prison, certainly I hope he gets it now that he is out. I know that if the Mets offer Doc some position in the organization, he could falter again. With his history, that is the risk the team would be taking. But with every risk comes the potential of reward. And what better reward could the Mets have knowing that they helped one of their own get his life together. For too long the Mets have let George Steinbrenner play the role of Father Flanagan to Mets cast offs. The Mets brought Darryl back; it is time to tell Dwight Gooden that he is forgiven and now it is time to come home.
