According To Darryl Strawberry And Others, Dwight Gooden Is Battling Serious Drug Problems Again
John Harper has been teaming up with Darryl Strawberry and covering this Dwight Gooden saga the last couple days for the Daily News. Here is a brief synopsis of what went down.
It was Saturday night when Darryl Strawberry heard about Dwight Gooden’s implied denial of a drug problem in his life, via a text to me that ran in a Daily News story, in which Doc dismissed Strawberry’s own public concern for him as “unreal.” And that’s when the former Met slugger decided enough was enough. “I have to try something before he’s dead,” was the way Strawberry put it. So he called me late Saturday night, then Sunday morning, to take his comments of last week — after Gooden failed to show for an appearance with Strawberry — considerably further, saying that he has no doubt his old Met teammate has an out-of-control cocaine problem. “He’s a complete junkie-addict,” Strawberry said. “I’ve been trying behind the scenes to talk to him and get him to go for help, but he won’t listen. He thinks he can manipulate and BS his way through everything. His son called me to beg me to help his dad before he dies. “The condition Doc is in, it’s bad, it’s horrible. It’s like cocaine poison. I feel like I’ve got to get it out there because nobody else is doing anything to help him, and it might be the only way to stop him.”
Really scary stuff right there. I guess this is the other side of all those crazy stories about the 86 Mets and just New York City or America during the cocaine-fueled 80s. Can you imagine spending your early 20s with the 86 Mets? Fucking crazy. I imagine most of us had a hard enough time keeping our head on straight just being around our idiot friends. But with the rabble rousers in that Mets clubhouse? It’s like a bunch of wolves raising a couple of sheep. And even though it always feels like Darryl Strawberry is conning me every time he speaks, he has no reason to be doing that here, right?
Back to the article:
With that, Strawberry put me in touch with three people he said were close to Gooden, including a woman named Janice Roots who says she had a live-in relationship with Doc for four years, before his cocaine use finally drove her to leave in February. “It breaks my heart because Dwight is a loving, compassionate man who took care of me when I had health problems,” Roots said by phone on Sunday. “But then he morphed into a cocaine monster. “I don’t even know if he realizes what he’s doing. He turns into a different person. He’s a great guy who takes care of his family members, but being around him, there were times when it was just a very toxic, dangerous environment. “I felt helpless to do anything. I finally left because to sit there and watch somebody kill himself was devastating.” The two other people with whom Strawberry put me in touch spoke only on the condition of anonymity, citing business concerns, but they painted a similarly dark scenario. One said he was in Gooden’s apartment in Jersey City on Thursday, the night Doc was scheduled to appear with Strawberry for a WFAN event hosted by Joe Benigno.
Jesus Christ, getting called a cocaine monster is some shit. Truth be told, I always thought Doc would be the one to figure things out instead of Darryl because he seemed to have a better support system at home growing up. But instead it’s Darryl that seems to be put together and trying to help his ex-teammate out. I still can’t believe the shape Doc was in during the 30 For 30 between the two of them. Doc was thin and jittery as all hell. I still can’t believe they shot a documentary about their personal demons while Doc looked like that. Then again, it was almost fitting.
Finally, it was Gooden’s denial on Saturday, saying via text that he missed Thursday’s event because he was dealing with “minor health issues,” that convinced Strawberry and the others to attempt what is essentially a public intervention of sorts here. “Doc won’t let me or anybody help him,” Strawberry said. “By us coming forward like this, he’ll realize that he’s been exposed and it will challenge him to get help. “The worst thing we can do for him is stay silent. That was a common thread in some of these other celebrity deaths, like Prince and Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson. Silence can kill people.” Strawberry thinks Doc is especially vulnerable since his mother died in July.
“Now I just want what’s right for him. There’s no malice here, from me or Darryl or anybody who cares about Dwight. This is done out of love and concern. I just want to save his life.” In truth, nothing else has worked over the years. I’ve known Gooden long enough to believe that, for all his problems, he’s a guy with a good heart who has always been worth rooting for. No doubt he’ll be humiliated by some of the comments here, but as Strawberry said, better now than to wait until he’s dead.
The “Silence can kill people” line hit like a punch to the gut. All those celebs just kinda died out of the blue, even though it usually wasn’t all that shocking when you thought about. Honestly I’m surprised that both of these guys are alive and not in jail. Here’s to hoping Doc gets help before it’s not too late and Darryl stays on the straight and narrow. If it means Darryl calling Doc out in public, so be it. Those two already squandered Hall of Fame careers because of that poison. There is no need for either of them to squander the rest of their time on Earth for that bullshit. Hopefully Doc gets some help before it’s too late.