The Good Doctor Has A Bad Scrape

Beneath a blue sky streaked by high-flying clouds, and with a salty breeze wafting through the park's trees, the young man in the Nike T-shirt and the New York Mets pants walked slowly to the plate.

"Come on, Doc!" shouted a voice from the dugout along the first base line.

Dwight Gooden swung the bat above his head, reached out to tap the plate, set himself in the box and looked out at the pitcher. It was Dec. 21, a comely Sunday afternoon in Tampa, and for at least one blessed moment, Dr. K was lost in nothing but the game of baseball. His slo-pitch softball team, the Neighborhood All-Stars, was losing 10-3 in the eighth inning to the club from Town and Country Sporting Goods. But Gooden was perfectly happy, because there is nothing he would rather do on a Sunday in the off-season than play shortstop and bat third at Henry and Ola Playground in the town where he grew up and learned the game.

"I love softball," Gooden had said. "I get to hit more often than in baseball, and I can be a power hitter in this game. It's fun. We have four or five guys on the team who play professional ball. By the time we're through with our season, the softball season has already started, and it's tough to get in [a league]. We just go around and find teams to play."

And Gooden, for the most part, just plays it loose and swings away. With nephew Gary Sheffield, a minor leaguer in the Milwaukee Brewers' system, on first base in the eighth, Doc crushed the first pitch, sending it in a towering arc toward the fence in left centerfield.

"That's outta here!" shouted the on-deck hitter, Vance Lovelace, a minor league pitcher with the California Angels. The ball fell 10 feet beyond the fence, about 285 feet away, and Gooden trotted very slowly around the bases. The blow began a two-inning rally that ultimately carried his team to a 12-11 victory. The gold in his teeth flashed in the light as he high-fived his way into the dugout.

"You looked like Reggie!" cried centerfielder Marvin Lancaster. Gooden laughed.

"Hey, Doc, what'd you hit?" someone asked.

"A hanging slider!" he replied.

And he sat down and smiled again. "I really enjoy this," Dwight Gooden said. "Sometimes we play three or four games on a Sunday. I really look forward to these games. It's so relaxing. It's fun. Just fun."