ClimbingSky

Why Baseball, Books, and the Grateful Dead matter

Dwight Gooden

On August 25th, 1985, At the age of 20 years, 9 months, 9 days, Dwight Gooden became the youngest 20-game winner ever when the Mets beat San Diego at Shea Stadium, 9-3. Doc was 27 days younger than Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller, who had accomplished the feat with Cleveland in 1939. Gooden would end up winning the 1985 NL Cy Young Award and the pitching Triple Crown, compiling a 24–4 record and a league-leading 1.53 ERA, 268 strikeouts, and 16 complete games in 1985. In 1986 he will help the Mets win the 1986 World Series.

If there was a Time Machine that allowed me to go back in time to watch the games of certain pitchers while they were in their prime, here is the list of pitchers I would most want to see:

  • Vida Blue
  • Mark Fidrych
  • Dwight Gooden
  • Roger Clemens
  • Bob Gibson
  • Sandy Koufax

These six are iconic to me. They are the names and faces that come to my mind when someone says “dominant Starting Pitcher.”

Of the list, only Gibson and Clemens had long careers. Koufax took awhile to get going, and his career was cut short at his peak by injury. Fidrych had a single incandescent season. Blue and Gooden just a few.

Of the pitchers on the list, I only got to see Clemens in his prime. I saw Gooden pitch. But it was later in his career, when he was a mere mortal. I never got to see Blue, Fidrych, Gibson, or Koufax pitch in person at all.

I don’t collect baseball cards anymore. Sometimes I wish I did. But if I did collect cards again, I would focus on Clemens and Gooden. The two best pitchers that I ever got to see in pitch in person.

, ,

One response to “Dwight Gooden”

  1. ddimitrie55 Avatar
    ddimitrie55

    I had the chance to see Roger Clemens as a Blue Jay. It was strange watching him in a Blue Jays uniform. He still could pitch effectively. I had to wonder why he chose Toronto. At the time they weren’t a strong contender for the World Series.

    He still had the strong arm and tenacious competitive spirit. After the one season with Jays I believe he went on to New York, Houston and a few other teams. The whole steroid question dogged him at this point but he denied any use. He should have had the chance to win a World Series with the Red Sox where he thrived.

    I really couldn’t judge how well he pitched for the Jays as I sat in the upper level nose bleed section. He had a decent record. He was still effective, but it seemed like he was a hired gun meant to draw fans to a mediocre Jays team going nowhere. Blue Jays fans took to him but he moved on after a brief stint with the Blue Jays.

    The Pitcher I would like to have seen was Mark Fidrych. I lived just across the Detroit River in Windsor, Ontario Canada during the Summer of the Bird. He was simply unhittable at times. He also brought an electricity and joy of baseball to Detroit which was in the depths of a recession, high unemployment and a dying auto industry.

    It seemed like he came out of nowhere with an enthusiasm you usually only saw in excited Little Leaguers. Many top hitters like Reggie Jackson said that he was unhittable in his prime. He had the talent. He needed experience to mature personally and professionally. My take on Fidrych is that the Tigers used him as a cash cow. To say that Detroit/Windsor and so many other Tigers fans around the US loved him was a gross understatement. He was a shooting star that lifted a terrible Tigers team to heights nobody dreamt of at the time. It was the SUMMER OF THE BIRD.

    He pitched a large number of complete games often with little rest. Ultimately his career died because of a 6 year long undiagnosed torn rotator cuff. In 1976, No doctor was able to diagnose this now common baseball pitcher injury. Had he been properly managed by the Tigers, with proper medical treatment, conditioning and physio I believe that he would have pitched well into the eighties effectively. After retirement he went home to Northborough Mass. to work, get married and become a father. Sadly in 2009 he was killed while working on a dump truck he used in his business. His memory lives on in Detroit and elsewhere.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment