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When Dwight Gooden Reached the Mountaintop

batmagadanleadoff Jun 12 2020 10:44 AM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Jun 12 2020 11:21 AM

From Joe Posnanski's favorite 60 baseball moments series for The Athletic.... this is #28 and here's my favorite line (condensed), because it's so true and it's exactly as I remember it: And it was electrifying game after electrifying game.... Our entire summer was spent either watching Gooden pitch or counting off days until we could again watch Gooden pitch. I've never seen anyone more thrilling in sports. I suspect I never will again. https://theathletic.com/1867768/2020/06/12/60-moments-no-28-dwight-gooden-overwhelms-the-cubs/

Ceetar Jun 12 2020 10:48 AM Re: When Dwight Gooden Reached the Mountaintop

Gary Sheffield called him the "Michael Jordan of 1986" when talking about an incident when the police beat the shit out of them.

batmagadanleadoff Jun 12 2020 10:52 AM Re: When Dwight Gooden Reached the Mountaintop

Not even Michael Jordan was Michael Jordan yet in 1986.

batmagadanleadoff Jun 12 2020 11:00 AM Re: When Dwight Gooden Reached the Mountaintop

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=38608 time=1591980759 user_id=68] Not even Michael Jordan was Michael Jordan yet in 1986.

And in 1986, Gooden had begun to come down some from the mountaintop. Posnanski's piece focuses on 1984 and '85, with emphasis on the one-hitter Gooden threw against the Cubs in September of his rookie season:

In any case, Gooden seemed to reach the top of a new mountain that Friday night [when he one-hit the Cubs]. The next time out, he struck out 16. The time after that, he struck out 16 more. He set a rookie record for strikeouts with 276, he led the league in FIP, WHIP, hits per nine, homers per nine and, yes, strikeouts per nine. He averaged 11.4 strikeouts per nine innings. Nobody had ever struck out 11 per nine innings before.

batmagadanleadoff Jun 12 2020 11:08 AM Re: When Dwight Gooden Reached the Mountaintop Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Jun 12 2020 11:25 AM

Click on this link and expand the leaderboards to see just how dominant Dwight Gooden was in 1985. https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/NL/1985-pitching-leaders.shtml But before you look ... the same pitcher led the NL in most Ks/9innings and least hits/9innings in 1985 and it wasn't Doc. Guess who? No peeking.

kcmets Jun 12 2020 11:16 AM Re: When Dwight Gooden Reached the Mountaintop

He made the mountain shake, the green and red seats buckled. Crazy times.

MFS62 Jun 12 2020 11:22 AM Re: When Dwight Gooden Reached the Mountaintop

John Tudor had 10 shutouts that year! We may never see a pitcher coming into the majors this year never have that many for a career. Later

Ceetar Jun 12 2020 12:45 PM Re: When Dwight Gooden Reached the Mountaintop

oka y, sure, i dunno, i was 4. but typically when you're that good in '84/'85, and still very good the following year, nobody's really souring on you. Yes it was obviously before Jordan but Sheffield wrote that this week, he's simply trying to explain who/what he was when it happened.

kcmets Jun 12 2020 01:33 PM Re: When Dwight Gooden Reached the Mountaintop

I took my Mom to this game (Umpires: HP - Bruce Froemming, 1B - Terry Tata, 2B - Eric Gregg, 3B - Randy Marsh Time of Game: 2:58 Attendance: 51,102) and one per year for a number of years after. We had zero in common in the 80's except baseball (no fault of hers) so it was good for us. What magic Shea was when Doc pitched! [FIMG=750]https://www.ultimatemets.com/scorecard_graph.php?game=3619&font=1[/FIMG] Box Score: https://www.ultimatemets.com/gamedetail.php?gameno=3619&tabno=A