Tank's Take 4/2/01

They both came up around the same time with potential labeled unlimited. One debuted in 1983 at the age of 21 and the other in 1984 at the age of 19, and both would go on to win Rookie of the year. Teammates it was thought there be no stopping this duo that were well on their way to Cooperstown. However for Darryl Strawberry, and Dwight Gooden the road to Cooperstown had many forks in it, and each took the wrong turn.
Gooden and Strawberry were the centerpiece of a young up and coming team that was going to dominate the National

League for 10 years, and make the World Series an annual appearance for the Mets. In 1985 Dwight Gooden's second season NL hitters were helpless against the Doctor's fastball. Gooden went 24-4 that season with a microscopic 1.53 ERA. Fans at Shea Stadium would boo when Keith Hernandez or Gary Carter caught a foul ball hoping they would drop it to hang up another K in the K Korner. The Mets would fall short in 1985, but in 1986 there would be no stopping them, winning 108 games cruising to an Eastern Division title. The Mets would go on and win the World Series after coming back from the dead in Game 6. However, underneath the surface cracks were forming and the careers of Gooden and Strawberry began to go down the wrong track. The Mets of that era played hard and partied harder. It was not unusual for players to stay up until 5 am drinking and playing cards, and that was tame compared to some of the partying that went on. Unfortunately for the young Gooden and Strawberry the strong veteran leadership that was present on the field also partied with kids off the field. Even Manager Dave Johnson has confessed to drinking to heavy during that time, and according to a Met player at that time one of their coaches was caught smoking marijuana in the dugout of a spring training game. The partying did catch up to the Mets and by the time the team was broken up there was only one World Series, and two division titles to look back on, even though on paper they were probably the best team every year between 1985-1990.
The partying would have an even greater toll on Strawberry and Gooden individually. Both of them would go down a dark path known as addiction that would ruin their hall of fame careers, and destroy their lives.
Both careers seemed joined at the hip especially when both found redemption with the cross town New York Yankees. Then in another bizarre turn the careers became enjoined again when Doc announced his retirement and police issued a warrant for an AWOL Strawberry's arrest.
These separate incidents gave us yet another reminder what might have been. In June

of 1989 at the age of 22 Dwight Gooden won his 100th career game only Hall of Famer Bob Feller reached the century plateau faster. However arm problems would begin to affect Gooden's fastball and combined with suspension would hold Gooden to only 94 wins over the last 11 years of his career. Fortunately for Gooden he has been clean since his 1995 suspension, and instead of drugs it was injuries that forced him to step away on Friday.
However the news has not been as good for Darryl. In 1998 it seemed as if Strawberry had made the same turn to sobriety. Then as the 1998 postseason was starting his world was rocked

with the news that he had colon cancer. Straw's teammates would go on to with the World Series with his uniform number 39 stitched on the back of their caps. Darryl even mustered up enough strength to make a cameo at the ticker tape parade despite recovering from surgery only a few weeks earlier. Strawberry worked hard that off-season to try for a comeback in 1999. but just before spring training he suffered another setback getting caught for cocaine possession and soliciting a prostitute. After coming back from a 60-day suspension in 1999, Darryl hoped to make a full comeback in 2000, but thanks to his old demons that would not happen. A drug test at the start of spring training revealed that Darryl had been taking Cocaine to dull the

the pain form chemo. The news would get even worse when it was discovered that the cancer had reappeared and more surgery including the removal of kidney was needed. It was too much for Darryl who went on drug binge and refused to take chemo, saying before a judge that he wanted to die. That judge would sentence Strawberry to house arrest and rehab all seemed fine until Thursday when just hours before Gooden's retirement Darryl's ankle bracelet was removed forcing police to issue a warrant for his arrest. Since then not even Darryl's closest friends have heard from him, leading them to worry about his health. One can only think back to his previously stated death wish, and worry that this time it may have come true.
Friday was the end of the road for Gooden's career there won't be a Cooperstown ceremony for him. There won't be a ceremony for Strawberry either, now all we can do is pray there is not a funeral for him anytime soon.
What I will think of most when I think of these two is how much talent they had and how great they could have been. Now all we are left with is what might have been, what should have been. Perhaps the lives of Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry could serve as a warning for future talented athletes not to take the path down the dark road of addiction.