Synopses & Reviews
A brutally honest memoir of talent, addiction, and recovery from one of the greatest baseball pitchers of all time. As a shy nineteen-year-old, Dwight Gooden swept into New York, lifting a team of crazy characters to World Series greatness and giving a beleaguered city a reason to believe. Then he threw it all away.
Now, with fresh and sober eyes, the Mets beloved Dr. K shares the intimate details of his life and career, revealing all the extraordinary highs and lows: The hidden traumas in his close-knit Tampa family. The thrill and pressure of being a young baseball phenom in New York. The raucous days and nights with the Mets bad boys (and the real reason he missed the 1986 World Series Victory Parade). The self-destructive drug binges and the three World Series rings. His heartbreaking attempts at getting sober, the senseless damage to family and friends, and the unexpected way he finally saved his life—on VH1s Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.
In Doc, Gooden details his close friendships with many of baseballs greats: Pete Rose, George Streinbrenner, Joe Torre, and nephew Gary Sheffield. For the first time ever, he reveals the full story of his troubled relationship with fellow Mets superstar Darryl Strawberry. And he tells the moving story of the Yankees no-hitter he pitched for his dying father. Doc is a riveting baseball memoir by one of the games most fascinating figures, and an inspiring story for anyone who has faced tough challenges in life.
Synopsis
With fresh (and sober) eyes, Dwight Gooden, who tallied a mountain of strikeouts while leading the 1986 bad-boy New York Mets to a World Series win, shares the most intimate moments of his successes and failures, from endless self-destructive drug binges to three World Series rings.
Synopsis
A bruisingly honest memoir of addiction and recovery from one of the greatest pitchers of all time With fresh and sober eyes, Dwight Gooden shares the most intimate moments of his successes and failures, from endless self-destructive drug binges to three World Series rings. Known for his triumphs on the baseball field and his excesses off of it, Gooden was a soft-spoken, dominating wunderkind who tallied a mountain of strikeouts while leading the 1986 bad-boy New York Mets to a World Series win. Even at that pinnacle, Gooden had already succumbed to a cocaine addiction that would short-circuit his career and personal life.
Goodens story transcends baseball, from his childhood in Atlanta raised by a father who was an alcoholic womanizer, to the recent experience of overcoming his own demons on the show Celebrity Rehab. Along the way, Gooden offers a unique perspective on Yankees owner and stalwart supporter George Steinbrenner and some of the greatest baseball players of all time. Doc is the definitive look at a life equal parts inspiring and heartbreaking.
About the Author
At nineteen, DWIGHT "DOC" GOODEN became the youngest
Table of Contents
Parade Rest vii
PART 1: DREAMING
Whose Dream 3
Dark Side 12
Young Phenom 21
Getting There 35
PART II: PLAYING
Rookie Season 47
Cy Season 60
Party Time 70
Series Season 78
Off-Season 91
PART III: HURTING
Dusting Off 109
Burning Out 115
Sliding Back 125
Suicide Squeeze 140
No-Hitter 151
Pushing It 159
Some Dad 172
Behind Bars 182
High Low 193
Room Service 203
PART IV: SAVING MY LIFE
Fame Game 213
Candid Camera 221
Cast-Offs 227
Show Time 236
Staying Strong 247
Judgment Day 253
Ready Steady 262
Why Now? 269
Forward March 276