The High Price Of Hard Living

Gooden was the greatest pitching prodigy ever. He struck out more batters (276) in 1984 than any rookie in history. At 20 he was the youngest Opening Day pitcher this century and the youngest Cy Young Award winner ever. He is the only pitcher this century to have 200 strikeouts in each of his first three seasons. Of the first 100 games he started in the big leagues, he lost only 19.

"He was by far the greatest pitcher I'd ever seen," Darling says, "I pitched behind him in the rotation, so I always charted his pitches. Those first two years, I swear, it seemed like he was 0 and 2 on 75 percent of the hitters. It was like Little League, where the other team has no chance except to bunt. If you told me Dwight was going to win 300 games and strike out 400 people one year, I'd have believed it. That's how good he was."

In the months after he was voted Rookie of the Year in 1984, Gooden, then living in Tampa, began using cocaine occasionally behind the closed bedroom doors of house parties. Life was so easy. It had to be celebrated.

"My nearest sister is 13 years older than me," says Gooden, who has five older siblings. "I don't want to say I was spoiled, but I had what I wanted growing up. Once I got to the big leagues, it happened so quickly for me. I got caught up in it."

Says Strawberry, "Doc came into the big leagues at 19. By 20 he was a big drunk hanging out in strip clubs."

"Not true," Gooden says. "It was my third year when I started to drink heavily."

By then, 1986, rumors about his drug use began to swirl. People called the Met front office claiming to have knowledge of it. Gooden missed an exhibition game because of a friend's car accident, he claimed. He missed the team's ticker-tape parade following the World Series victor because, he says now, he was hung over from the night before and overslept. He called off his engagement to Carlene Pearson and fathered a son, Dwight Jr., by another woman, Debra Hamilton of Tampa. Then he had that brawl with the Tampa police after they stopped his car.

So on March 24, 1987, at Gooden's urging, his agent, Jim Neader, met with Met vice president Al Harazin to work out a voluntary drug-testing plan. Gooden was supposed to attend the meeting but did not show. "Test for everything," Neader said. The next day, Neader told Harazin, "Go ahead, test away." So the following day, the Mets took a urine sample and sent it to St. Petersburg General Hospital.

"I feel like I have to do it," Gooden said at the time. "I want to convince the Mets more than I do anyone else."

On March 30 a test came up positive for cocaine. On April Fools' Day the Mets confronted Gooden with the test result. His first reaction was to deny it. Then he broke down and cried.