The Ghost of Dwight Gooden

No. 16 has come and gone from Shea Stadium, literally and figuratively.

Any hope of Dwight Gooden returning to Shea Stadium one last time, quietly passed in the summer breeze of August 24 when Lee Mazzilli, a B-plan, mathematically reduced Shea’s lifeline from 17 to 16 during a pre-game ceremony.

For generations north of 1994, Dwight Gooden is defined by a black-and-white placard in a Mets uniform on the facade of Shea Stadium. Dr. K is a character in a story their father tells. He’s page after page of Google search results chronicling a life of drugs, prison and rehab.

A quarter-century since his professional debut, Dwight Gooden is now a ghost, who’s disappeared faster than one of his famed 12-to-6 curveballs – ”Lord Charles” – did on opposing hitters.

Former Mets manager Davey Johnson played with and against some of the greatest pitchers in baseball history: Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax, Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan and Jim Palmer. ”I saw Gooden pitch for two or three weeks, and said, ‘This is the best pitching prospect I ever saw,”’ Johnson told the New York Times in 1984.

That was 1982. Gooden was 17.

Moments after being named manager of the New York Mets, Johnson sat in general manager Frank Cashen’s office in New York, planting his first seed.

”Davey asked me to keep an open mind about Dwight Gooden,” said Cashen. ”Generally, I don’t like to rush pitchers, but Davey asked me to keep an open mind about the kid, and we did.”

As the Mets slipped from postseason contention in September 1984, the legend of Gooden’s rookie season was blossoming. In back-to-back starts against the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates, the 19-year old pitched a pair of complete game shutouts, recording 27 strikeouts, breaking the Grover Cleveland Alexander’s National League rookie strikeout record, and later, the Herb Score’s major league record.

Gooden was fantasy baseball for the 20th century. It’s almost perverse, the ways in which grown men poured worshipped the teenage pitcher whose arm was his weapon. In Manhattan, a mural of Gooden – arm cocked, back arched, ball in hand and legs tumbling off the mound — adorned the entire side of a brick building. In Queens, Mets fans were hanging cardboard K’s on railings and lifting K’s proudly above their heads as Gooden baffled the games best.

“Doc’s out there throwing this incredible heat, and then he comes in with an 80-mile-an-hour hook a guy couldn’t hit even with a four-by-four,” Wally Backman told Sports Illustrated. “You almost have to laugh.”

Dr. K was born.

As the final days, hours and minutes of Shea Stadium slip away, this week is especially memorable for any Mets fan old enough to remember and young enough to dream of baseball. It’s the anniversary of two of Gooden’s most dazzling rookie performances.

Gooden one-hit the Cubs on September 7, allowing one infield single to Keith Moreland. ”He’s the best young pitcher I ever saw,”’ said then Cubs manager Jim Frey. ”He’s doing things at 19 that Tom Seaver did at 23. When he’s done, in 15 years or so, we’ll say: ‘He was the best of his time.”’

”It was as if he were playing a different game,” one Mets fan posted in a forum on UltimateMets.com.

”Watching Gooden pitch in his prime was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in sports,” wrote another. ”The windup, explosive fastball, knee-buckling curve and his poise was amazing. When he was on, he was the most dominating pitcher I have ever seen. He’d make hitters look like fools.”

On September 12, a modest crowd of 12,876 at Shea Stadium turned out and watched in awe as Gooden mowed down the Pirates. Nine innings, 16 more strikeouts, and in two hours and 11 minutes, Gooden had shattered Herb Score’s major league record for strikeouts (245) by a rookie pitcher and finish his first major league season with 276 strikeouts.

”Our guys weren’t saying anything at all in the dugout,” Pirates manager Chuck Tanner told the New York Times. ”They didn’t have time. They were striking out so fast, they had to run back on the field.”

“Someone should check his age,” Giants coach Rocky Bridges told the Sporting News.

“Dwight doesn’t throw as hard as J.R. Richard or Nolan Ryan did, but he’s close,” Rusty Staub said. ”But that’s not important. His curveball is the pitch. It’s virtually un-hittable when it’s on — an overmatch. He has a chance to be as good a pitcher as there is. As long as he keeps working, keeps his mind on the game. That’s what’s been amazing to me: the way he’s handled all the attention. It’s a great credit to his family and coaches that he has all of this composure.”

Comments that seemed so plausible then, haunt Gooden’s legacy now. Today, we don’t speak of Gooden in terms of greatness, but in phrases that compare his baseball career to a Shakespeare tragedy complete with a criminal mug shot and lengthy police blotter.

“When people start comparing me to Hall of Famers and everything … I haven’t been in the league long enough to be in that category,” Gooden said in a 1985 interview with The Sporting News. “I just want to be the first Dwight Gooden.”