Thread: Gooden issued a walk

Doc getting out of jail tomorrow

Will it be different for Dwight Gooden this time? He gets out of prison in Gainesville, Fla., tomorrow, having served nearly seven months for using cocaine and violating his parole - a sentence he chose for fear of bigger trouble.


At the time, Gooden didn't trust himself to stay clean from drugs, because his other choice was stricter probation for which violation would have meant a five-year prison sentence.

So now, once again, you wonder if anything changes. Can the nightmarish experience of prison do what nothing else could over the years, keep Gooden from drinking the beers that so often led him to seek and find cocaine, even when he had so much to lose?

You always wanted to believe Gooden when he'd look you straight in the eye and tell you he was doing well, never better. He did that one day last March in the hallway at Legends Field, flashing the smile that always covered up his problems, saying that he was coming back to work again soon for the Yankees, as George Steinbrenner was giving him another chance after what was then his latest drug problem.

"I love being around the game," he said that day. "I messed up as a player, but I want to do this. I really do."

As always, the handshake was strong, the eyes were bright. Then a few weeks later Gooden was headed for jail, trading in all of his old dazzling pitching numbers for a new one - T47272, his prison identification number.

So now what? People close to the situation say he is in bad shape financially, to the point where he has turned to nephew Gary Sheffield, the star outfielder the Yankees are trying to trade after picking up his $13 million option for next season.

Then there is Steinbrenner, who has employed Gooden as a minor-league instructor and front-office adviser for the majority of Doc's six years in retirement from baseball. The Boss may again be Gooden's only hope for finding another job in baseball.

"I haven't spoken or seen Dwight Gooden, but I'll always have room to talk to him," Steinbrenner said last night in a statement to the Daily News through spokesman Howard Rubenstein. "I want to see what his plans are and what his hopes are, and then I'll be able to relate to that and determine what, if anything, I do."

Will it ever be different for Gooden? He will be 42 in a few weeks, still a young man, but with a history of cocaine use that goes back 20 years, to the weeks following the Mets' 1986 world championship.

In a published report while in jail, Gooden insisted his time behind bars had scared him straight once and for all. He said he'd been treated like "an animal," and that "he'd rather get shot" than ever return to prison.

Will the words stick? Only a few weeks, ago during the Mets-Cardinals NLCS, Darryl Strawberry, Doc's old teammate who has plenty of his own problems, was standing on the field in St. Louis, where he lives now, when he was asked if he'd talked to Gooden since he went to prison.

"No, but I hear it's been really hard on him," said Strawberry. "I just hope he comes out stronger for it."

With Christian Red

Cuff luck

Dwight Gooden's 20-year trail of trouble:

1987: Tests positive for cocaine during spring training. He enters a rehab center and does not make his first start of the season until June 5.

1994: With a 3-4 record and 6.31 ERA, is suspended for 60 days after he tests positive for cocaine. He tests positive again while serving the suspension, and is further suspended for the entire 1995 season.

2002: In February, arrested in hometown of Tampa and charged with driving under the influence and having an open beer container in his vehicle.

2003: Arrested in January for driving with a suspended license.

2005: In March is arrested in Tampa for punching his girlfriend. He is released two days later on a misdemeanor battery charge. In August, he drives away from a traffic stop. He gives officer his driver's license then drives away. Gooden turns himself in to police three days later.
2006: Is arrested in March for violating his probation, after he appeared high on cocaine at a scheduled meeting with his probation officer. He chooses prison over extended probation. He enters jail on April 17 to serve seven-month sentence.

Originally published on November 8, 2006

Originally Posted by dg806

Won't be that long.

I agree, he gave up a dream career for drugs. Heck, his contemporary is still pitching. Roger Clemens.