Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
March 15, 2006
A Friend in Jail

Bob Sikes reflects on Doc Gooden's latest arrest.

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Posted by David Pinto at 12:40 PM | Crime | TrackBack (0)
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re: Doc Gooden

Well, he will go into that column of Bill James' of best rookie seasons by a pitcher that did not end up in the Hall of Fame.

I've always said there's no such thing as talent, that success in life consists of working hard and showing up on time, but occasionally there does show up a special talent in certain areas which is a bit above the median, and Doc Gooden was one of those. His achievements from 1986-88 were special, they were in the NYC limelight, and perhaps he would have been better served if he had pitched in a smaller town like Minneapolis with friends like Kirby Puckett instead of alleged drug addicts like Keith Hernandez allegedly introducing him into the fast lane.

But then again, like all greek tragedies, Gooden was dogged by amartia, a fatal flaw, and so he continues on, a hero in the glint of the past of our eyes, fated to dwell somewhere between here and the heroic Hades he will someday inhabit with the heroes of baseball past like Kirby Puckett and Gil Hodges, more than lacunae and more than trivia, a man that for one season, made us forget about Tom Seaver's fastball and remember that baseball in New York could be fun again.

--Arthur John Kyriazis
--Philly

Posted by: arthur john kyriazis at March 16, 2006 03:31 PM
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