Doc Gooden's Career Was Over. Then He Did the Impossible.

by all accounts dwight gooden should not have been on the field the night of may 14 1996 in fact if you had to take a guess as to his whereabouts on that chilly may evening based purely off of the trajectory of his life up until that day it's fair to say that the yankee stadium pitchers mound is the very last place you'd expect him to be at 31 years old goodin had already experienced triumphs the likes of which most people could only dream of and the kind of hardships most of us pray we never have to face from a blistering rise to the top that made him one of the best young aces the sport had ever seen to a stunning fall from grace that rendered him mere inches from death this is the story of how doc goodin defied the odds to deliver one of the most improbable pitching performances of all time [Music] the 1983 mets were bad wait let me rephrase that in 1983 the new york mets were the worst team in all of major league baseball lead if you can call it that by the managerial dream team of george bamberger and frank howard the 83 mets finished last in nearly every offensive category well that's not entirely true they were second in the national league and hit by pitches but despite what chase utley will tell you hit by pitches don't put butts in seats as evidenced by the fact that attendance at shea stadium was just over 1.1 million in 1983 the lowest in the league it had been seven years since the met's last winning season and general manager frank cashion knew that if he wanted to keep his job he'd have to turn the ship around and fast so he got to work the first big move was in june of 1983 when cashin sent pitcher neil allen to st louis in exchange for 29 year old first baseman keith hernandez a 10-year veteran hernandez and his mustache provided consistency and leadership for a young corps that included homegrown talents daryl strawberry kevin mitchell lenny dykstra and mookie wilson among others the second major piece of kashin's plan to revive the mets was bringing in davey johnson as manager prior to the 1984 season as manager of the triple-a tidewater tides the previous year johnson knew that if the club was going to win they would have to do it with their youth in addition to 83 rookie of the year daryl strawberry cashion traded for rookie pitchers ron darling and sid fernandez to bolster the rotation but it was at the behest of davey johnson that cashion made what would end up being the most impactful decision of his entire career calling up a 19 year old phenom by the name of dwight gooden in 191 innings at class a lynchburg goodin struck out 300 batters on route to a record of 19-4 even so he was unsure if he was ready for life in the big leagues so he turned to his father dan for advice my dad he grew up in georgia a small town like cordell georgia he claimed that he would have been a great baseball player given opportunity i'm not sure if that was true but yeah so i think when i got about ten my dad used to love watching baseball so he'll have a game on on saturdays you know in a game on the radio he'll have his beer and chips i have my cookies and juice when watching the game and then one day he just asked me out of the blue he said do you like baseball i said yes he's that much he said like a lot he said you think you ever be on tv playing one day as any kid you're gonna say yeah yeah he said okay well we'll start working on that and then from that that day on when we get off get out of work we'll start working on my pitching and whenever through the ball we do all these different drills and stuff like that at the time i didn't quite understand what he was doing with the mechanics but as i got older i figured out so i would say initially it probably was his dream yeah did i make it and then it became my dream as a child dwight had spent countless hours talking practicing and watching baseball with his father so there was nobody he trusted more for guidance luckily for the mets goodin's doubts were proven wrong from the get-go in his major league debut on april 7th goodin surrendered only one run over five innings against the astros striking out five to earn his first career win and he didn't slow down from there over 218 innings pitched dwight goodin utterly dominated the national league to the tune of a 2.60 era 17 wins and an mlb leading 1.07 whip he became the youngest player ever to appear in an all-star game on july 10 1984 striking out the side in the process he was the near unanimous rookie of the year winner and finished second in the nl cy young award voting to rick sutcliffe but it was with the strikeout that dwight gooden made history with the deadly combination of his 98 mile per hour fastball and sweeping curveball the young man who would come to be known as dr k struck out 276 batters demolishing herb score's rookie record of 245 set in 1955 his 11.39 strikeouts per nine innings shattered sam mcdowell's mlb record of 10.71 and he quickly attracted a rooting section at shea stadium dubbed the k corner with doc gooden at the helm the new york mets finished with a 90-72 record second in the nl east attendance at home games jumped by over 700 thousand as fans flocked to see the exciting new roster now what doc gooden did in 1984 was enough to earn him a spot among the best in the league what he would do in 1985 would place him among the greatest of all time just how good was he well [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] if you were to visit times square in the year 1986 odds are you would have been greeted by mlb superstar doc gooding well at least the 105 foot likeness of him that towered over manhattan for the better part of a decade by the start of the 86th season goodin had not only earned himself a gig as the face of nike he was also the spokesman for brands ranging from kellogg's to toys r us in the span of two years the 21 year old gooden had become the face of the most exciting mets team in the club's three-decade history by the end of the 1986 regular season new york had obliterated their national league competition finishing with 108 wins the most in franchise history leading the charge was doc gooden who followed up his cy young season with yet another stellar year this time around he racked up a 17-6 record to go along with a 2.84 era and his 200 strikeouts were fifth in the national league he continued to set records for his age too becoming the youngest pitcher ever to start an all-star game so it was no surprise that the mets tapped goodin as their ace heading into the postseason doc's playoff career started promisingly he lost a one-nothing pitchers duel to the astros mike scott in game one and pitched ten innings of one run ball in game five as the mets clocked their ticket to the world series against the boston red sox the world series was substantially worse for gooden who failed to get past the fifth inning in both of his two starts now i'm sure most of you watching know how this series went but for those who don't here's the cliff's notes version after winning three of the first five games the red sox were on the verge of taking home their first world series since some guy named babe skipped town then mookie wilson hit a ground ball bill buckner had the worst day of his life and the mets hoisted the 1986 championship trophy having completed one of the most remarkable comebacks in the history of the game the next morning the city of new york celebrated their young heroes showering them with praise and ticker tape in equal amounts as the party raged each one of the 1986 mets knew that this parade would be ingrained in their memories for the rest of their lives well all except one because at that very moment as his teammates basked in the glory of their collective achievement dwight gooden was miles away in his drug dealer's long island apartment high on cocaine next thing you know you're seeing your teammates on tv the parade's going on you're sitting there and the project's watching this i mean the clock is spinning out of control you're thinking 30 more minutes one more hour one more hit and at that point that you lose your high everything goes down and the depression comes in and now you go in the apartment you pull the shades and just shut down the rest of the day gooden's problems with substance abuse can be traced back to his days in the minors while at class a lynchburg he became a frequent drinker thinking that it was just another part of being in the pros during the 1985 season his teammates introduced him to what life as a major leaguer really had to offer he began to sample the new york nightlife and had his first experience with cocaine while in tampa after the season if you know anything about the 86 mets or even just the 80s in general you can probably see that goodin's cocaine use was a disaster waiting to happen the first public trouble came in december of 1986 on a saturday night in tampa goodin along with four others including his nephew gary sheffield was arrested after a traffic stop during the incident goodin was beaten to the ground with night sticks and flashlights before being handcuffed and shackled the story of the mets star pitcher's arrest made waves among baseball fans and sparked unrest in tampa after the attorney's office cleared the officers involved the following february as the off-season continued rumors of goodin's drug use spread like wildfire not just through his hometown of tampa but through the baseball world as a whole in spring training of 1986 news broke that good in a tested positive for cocaine and would have to make a choice be suspended from baseball or undergo a medical counseling program for drug and alcohol abuse he chose treatment entering the program on april 1 1987. after two months gooden made his return to the mets earning the win against the pirates on june 5th but by that point the damage from doc's absence for a third of the 87th season had been done he finished with a record of 15-7 and a 3.21 era but it wasn't enough as new york finished with a record of 92 and 70 three games back from the first place cardinals in the nl east by his own admission gooding continued to drink throughout the 1987 season but he stopped using cocaine all in all he was still the met's most dominant pitcher and he proved it in 88 going 18-9 with a 3.19 era he was selected as an all-star for the first time since 1986 and the mets returned to playoff form with another 100 win season a shoulder injury in 1989 limited his playing time though gooden continued pitching well when he was on the field but by the early 90s it was clear that the mets were no longer the team they had been just a few years before in the middle of a 1989 season in which they would finish 87 and 75 the mets shipped lenny dykstra and roger mcdowell to the phillies a few weeks later they moved outfielder mookie wilson to the blue jays after the season ended perennial all-star gary carter was released and signed with san francisco also let go was keith hernandez who signed a one-year deal with cleveland one year later new york let home-grown superstar daryl strawberry walk he inked a five-year 22 million dollar contract with the dodgers and would return to new york a yankee a few years later fellow pitchers ron darling and david cohn were traded shortly thereafter with the former heading to the expos in 91 and the latter kansas city in 92. by the end of 1993 dwight gooden was the last member of the mets championship team left in flushing but not for long [Music] before i continue i'd like to thank the sponsor of today's video keeps if there's one thing baseball players like it's their hair but did you know that two out of three guys will experience some form of male pattern baldness by the time they turn 35 you heard that right two out of every three guys will end up closer to this than this but what if i told you that there's a way to get ahead of this problem get it 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over the next three years goodin saw a steady drop off in his performance from 91 to 93 he averaged 12 wins a 3.57 era and 148 strikeouts per season now these aren't poor numbers by any stretch of the imagination he was still pitching very well for a mets team that was in rapid decline but they were also a far cry from the unparalleled dominance he had demonstrated earlier in his career something was up with doc the first instinct for many is to point to drugs as the main culprit while it's likely that substance abuse certainly didn't help there's another factor at play behind goodin's decline between the years 1983 and 1985 dwight gooden was 18 to 20 years old an age at which a young athlete's body is still developing during that same period it is estimated that goodin through over 10 800 pitches let's put that number in perspective from 2017 to 2019 mets ace jacob de graham started on average about 32 games per season winning a pair of sci young awards in the process during that three-year stretch degrom threw a total of 5 064 pitches less than half of what goodin threw over the same number of years if jacob degram were to have taken on doc gooden's early 80s workload it would have required him to throw at least 113 pitches per start every start for three straight years in goodin's 1985 season alone he threw 276 innings over his first 10 years in the majors doc gooden accumulated over 2 100 innings pitched for context there are only seven active pitchers who have thrown that many during their entire career with max scherzer and clayton kershaw tied for the fewest number of seasons among them with 14. chris sale the highest pitcher on the active leaderboard with exactly 10 seasons under his belt has pitched 1 629 innings 600 less than goodin at the same point in his career while dokgodin's run in the 1980s was legendary it was obvious by the 90s that all those innings had taken their toll in 1992 goodin finished with his first ever losing record at 10 and 13 and followed it up with a 12 and 15 1993 season despite his struggles on the field however he was able to remain sober then came 1994. doc goodin was no stranger to making history but on opening day of the 1994 season he would find himself on the wrong side the mets were starting the season on the road against the chicago cubs the wind at wrigley was blowing out but doc wasn't too worried he had a record of five in one in his seven career opening day starts and the cubs lineup was no murderer's role batting leadoff for chicago was little-known center-fielder tuffy rhodes road's specialty was base stealing and he was entering the 94 season with only five major league home runs to his name on a 3-2 offering from goodin he crushed a curveball to deep left center to give the cubs the lead the mets hit back with two home runs of their own in the third giving dock a 2-1 advantage but it wouldn't last for long with rhodes launching yet another home run to left center in the bottom of the inning by the fifth inning the mets had pulled ahead nine to five for the third time that afternoon rhodes came up to bat against goodin for the third time goodin fell behind in the count and for the third time that day tuffy rhodes blasted a deep home run off of doc gooden to left center field by the sixth inning mets manager dallas green had seen enough pulling gooden before he could risk another encounter with rhodes in anger at his poor performance goodin kicked a dugout step on his way out breaking his toe he tried to pitch through it but after a few less than stellar starts it was clear that he would have to spend some time on the dl despondent at his inability to pitch the way he once did gooden visited a nightclub in manhattan that june to drown his sorrows it was there that doc would encounter his old demons for the first time in seven years drunken alone goodin was offered some cocaine by one of the nightclub employees unable to reason through his stupor he accepted two weeks later he would make his last ever start with the mets giving up eight earned runs over five innings to the pirates on june 28 1994 the new york mets announced that dwight gooden had been suspended for violating his after-care program he would once again enter rehabilitation at the betty ford clinic the same clinic that his former teammate daryl strawberry had been admitted to only 79 days earlier goodin's day lasted 28 days by the time he got out the mlb players association was just beginning a strike that would end up cancelling the remainder of the 94 season while at home unable to play doc was more depressed than ever he began using cocaine again and his drinking increased by september goodin had failed at least eight drug tests on september 15th he received a letter from acting commissioner bud selig because of his repeated violations his original 60-day suspension would be extended to the entire 1995 season the new york mets who had once so proudly displayed their star pitchers likeness across banners billboards and tv screens now wanted nothing to do with their prodigal son the times square mural which had towered over the city for a decade was wiped clean the sport that young dwight goodin had known and loved so deeply was now washing its hands of him the day after the suspension was handed down goodin's wife monica walked into his room to find him sitting on his bed with a gun to his head thinking about pulling the trigger she grabbed the gun and called his mother at long last he had hit rock bottom but that's the thing about rock bottom the only way to go is up goodin sought out a man by the name of ray negron who was a consultant with the yankees at the time together they got to work getting doc back on track negron took goodin to a narcotics anonymous meeting where he was asked a simple question are you serious about getting sober yes i am he said good then don't say another word just show up tomorrow so that's what he did one day at a time gooden worked to improve himself he was working out every day throwing batting practice to negron and by the end of the summer was beginning to attract the attention of major league scouts but still no calls came the summer came and went then the fall by the time the offseason rolled around the prospect of a triumphant mlb return was seeming less and less likely he began exploring the idea of playing in japan for the tokyo giants then the phone rang it was rey with good news yankee's owner george steinbrenner wanted to meet with him over the course of that dinner goodin and steinbrenner talked everything but baseball steinbrenner asked doc about his struggles with substance abuse and wanted to know if he thought he would be able to stay clean walking away from the meeting gooden was convinced that steinbrenner didn't want him but a call and another meeting later doc found himself donning the pinstripes for the 1996 season when he signed his contract a one-year deal with team options for a second and third it was with his father dan at his side goodin's return to baseball did not start out as he might have hoped his spring training era was 8.88 and his regular season start wasn't much better he had an 11.48 era over his first three starts lasting only three innings in minnesota on april 19th it appeared that doc's comeback was going to be over almost as quickly as it began his start to the 96th season was so bad that he ended up getting benched to be clear he wasn't just demoted to the bullpen he was denied the opportunity to even appear in a game his confidence had once again been broken during a series against the twins pitching coach mel stottlemyer stopped by doc's locker he asked him if he was ready to start a game where in columbus gooden joked assuming that he was on his way to the miners but stottlemeyer was dead serious former met's rotation mate david cohn had gone down with an aneurysm in his right shoulder and new york needed an emergency starter dwight goodin had been given one last shot at success but by now it was clear that the magic from his mets days was long gone this old dog was going to have to learn some new tricks he shortened his windup studied his opponents and stopped trying to overpower hitters learning to rely on command and off speed instead he earned his first win of the season on may 8th throwing eight innings of three run ball against detroit four days later he got a phone call this time it wasn't from george steinbrenner or ray negron it was his mother his father's health was failing and he would require immediate open heart surgery the operation was to take place the day after gooden's scheduled start on may 14th he made flight reservations to go home and inform the yankees that he would have to miss the game they understood and granted him leave but when doc woke up the morning of may 14th he began to think about all the days he and his father had spent at the ballpark as a child how his father had always told him that the job needed to come first whatever it may be so he called his mother and told her that he was going to make his start that night and then come home when she began to protest he hung up the phone for the rest of the day all he could think about was his childhood and his father just before the game the transistor radio was placed under dan goodin's ear in the hope that he would be lucid enough to listen to his son play the game was at home against the seattle mariners at this point in the season the seattle lineup had a collective ops of 847 and had set an mlb record by hitting 65 home runs in their first 37 games so when doc goodin took the mound for the top half of the first his goal was just to get through six or seven solid innings enough to give his team a chance to win he got into trouble almost immediately walking lead off batter darren bragg on a full count next up was star shortstop alex rodriguez at only 20 years old rodriguez was already very similar to goodin in a lot of ways a first-round pick out of high school the young rodriguez was expected to help usher the m's to their first playoff appearance in franchise history and he did just that in his rookie year helping seattle come back from an o2 deficit to win the first ever division series in 1995 by 1996 rodriguez was in the midst of an all-star season that would see him lead major league baseball in batting average and run scored and finished second in mvp voting on a 2-1 offering from goodin a-rod lined a shot to deep center field where defensive superstar gerald williams was filling in for the injured bernie williams had bernie been on the field that night the hit almost certainly would have fallen in for an rbi double but bernie wasn't on the field that night corked a dead center field back as gerald williams away back he makes a great catch at the last minute now he fires to first it could be a double play it is a double play john i never thought he'd catch that ball first he turned toward right field then he had to turn his body completely around and was looking toward left field and stuck the glove up in the last moment almost like it was velcro and the ball somehow stuck in the webbing and then he fired a strike digital fire to one hopper to martinez a situation that should have been one on with one out had quickly turned into two outs with the bases empty so with renewed faith in his fielders behind him doc got to work after walking ken griffey jr he retired edgar martinez to end the first inning he held the mariners hitless through the second inning as well then the third then the fourth but his thoughts remained thousands of miles away with his father after every inning in the field he retreated to the dugout tunnel to cry before returning to the mound to toss more hitless frames it wasn't until the sixth inning that gooden realized he was on the verge of history suddenly it was as if it was 1985 again his focus was as sharp as it had been in years and his confidence just as high he would blow on his hands between pitches explaining later that it was his way of fighting off nervous energy but as the pressure rose the bolder he grew with every zero he put up on the board his swagger on the mound radiated throughout the electrified stadium before he knew it doc had made it to the ninth with the two-nothing lead to protect after a lead-off walk to rodriguez he was just able to retire griffey for the first out but when he walked martinez and threw a wild pitch on his first offering to right fielder jay buener he was suddenly stuck with runners on second and third and the go-ahead run at the plate joe torrey sent stoddelmeyer to check on him goodin didn't tell him whether he was good or if he was tired he just told him he wasn't coming out he struck out bjner swinging for the second out bringing up first baseman paul sorrento sorrento the six hitter was having a career year and was o for two in the night with a walk on the 2-1 pitch doc lobbed a hanging curveball over the middle of the plate at the moment he released it a familiar feeling washed over him eight years earlier he had given up a game tying home run to mike socia the exact same pitch in the exact same spot during the 1988 nlcs but this time as with many things in life the difference came down to luck perhaps in another timeline paul sorrento might have crushed a go-ahead three-run home run to yankee stadium's upper deck leaving dwight gooden's comeback story shattered in his wake but in our timeline in that moment it was doc's knight [Applause] a high pop-up he's gonna do it at shortstop jeter jeter on the outfield grass makes the catch the yankees win the yankees win and doc gooden pitches a no-hitter and the yankees win it two-nothing you

Channel: Baseball Historian

Views: 124,817

Rating: 4.9163089 out of 5

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Id: Z1-vTxAUQTk

Length: 29min 9sec (1749 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 11 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/BeatlesRays]

Not even the most unlikely no hitter by someone named Doc

[u/UpperLowerCanadian]

Great story! Thanks for that.