Doc & Darryl (2016) Movie Script

30 For 30.
-Announcer: And as you see,
leading all National League rookies
with his 19 home runs...
-[ Bat clacks ]
-...and that may be another one!
Deep into the night,
Darryl Strawberry with a two-run shot,
his 20th of the year.
-Announcer #2: Dwight Gooden has set
a new Major League record
for strikeouts by a rookie pitcher.
-Announcer #3: The National League Rookie
of the Year is Darryl Strawberry.
-Announcer #4:
Dwight Gooden has been named
the National League's
Rookie of the Year for 1984.
-Announcer #5: You're looking at
the future of the New York Mets.
-Announcer #6: Tonight, Darryl
is in alcohol rehabilitation,
the same place that teammate
"Doc" Gooden checked into
for cocaine abuse in 1987.
-Announcer #7: Darryl Strawberry
rests late Wednesday night
in Tampa, Florida.
-Announcer #8: And New York Mets
pitcher Dwight Gooden
has been suspended for violating
Major League Baseball's drug policy.
-Strawberry: We really haven't had a real
just sit-down talk about life
and, you know, what it was really like.
And, you know, I'm more
concerned, more focused
of his life, how's-how's he doing?
-Gooden: Well, I've had my share of those.
[ Chuckles ]
-Strawberry: I don't know
what Doc, you know, is doing,
as far as his after-baseball life.
Man, I hope he's doing some great things,
'cause he's a great individual.
-We probably have
more good times than bad.
It's just, basically, just, you know,
it's a good time to tell him
how much I appreciate him
for all the talks
and the time we did spend.
Nice to see him.

-What up, joker?
-What's happening?
-Nothing.
-What's up, bro?
What's happening? Everything good?
-Good, man.
-Good to see you.
-How's everything?
-You, too, man. Good, good.
-How you doing, man?
-Aw, everything's great.
-Good, man, good.
-It's always good to see you.
-Good.
-You got your sweets, still.
-[ Laughs ] Yeah.
A little bit of pie, homey.
-Yeah, nothing wrong with that.
-Yeah.
-Well, that's how we see each other.
We're just kind of passing by.
-That's what I tell everybody, you know?
We been passing by.
I say, "Well, I seen him
at a ballgame in the suite."
You can't have a real conversation there.
-Naw, just kind of pass by.
-Yeah, we just saying, "Hello.
How you doing? And how your family doing?"
That's the whole purpose, uh, you know,
that's the whole purpose
of us sitting down
and doing what we doing right now.
I want to be able to get my side out,
and I know you want to be able
to get your side out.
-Definitely. Then go.
-'Cause nobody was there with us
when we was going through
everything that we were going through,
playing ball and, you know, having to deal
with the, you know,
trials and tribulations.
And, you know, here,
we just to get sit here,
and we just get to look at each other.
We just get to think
about what it was really like.
-Man: Base hit, baby!
-Yeah! Yeah!
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Strawberry: I grew up
in Los Angeles, California,
in South Central, right in the hood.
I knew in my head
that I had athletic skills.
But I had no idea where
I was gonna go with them.
I knew I was good at football.
I knew I was good at basketball.
But I knew one thing about baseball,
that I was gonna play.
My senior year, when I came off
of my first game,
I think there was about 40 or 50 scouts,
something like that, there.
And I was... TV crew there.
I was like, "Why they making
a big deal out of me?"
-Darryl had that quotient
that everybody admires
and looks for in a player.
He had visible star power.
But above all, he had power.
A guy with such a lean, long body,
at first, they compared him
to Ted Williams.
-Man: They likened you to Ted Williams.
-Had you heard of him?
-Well, I heard of Ted Williams,
but I never really knew who
he was, personally, you know?
I didn't want to make a big fuss out of,
you know, how good I was
or how good I wasn't.
You know, I just wanted to get
on the baseball field.
'Cause, see, the baseball field
allowed me to escape from me.
Because I was hurting so much inside,
I didn't want nothing to do
with anything else.
My father was an alcoholic.
And that's where the dysfunction
came in our family.
When I was young kid,
I was beaten by my father,
you know, to lay across the bed
and take off your shirt
and be beaten with an extension cord.
There was a message in there
every time you got beaten,
"You'll never amount to nothing.
You'll never be nothing."
Then, one night, he came home drunk,
you know, badgering our mother.
And then he actually pulled out a shotgun
and said, "I will kill all you guys."
And we said, "No, this is not
gonna happen tonight."
We had reached a point.
We had reached a breaking point.
And we just started grabbing everything,
bats and everything,
just whatever we could,
you know, to get into our hands
to let him know
that, you know, "This is it.
You know, it's gonna be either us or you."
And that's the way we looked at it.
And my mom made us get out of the house
and we got out of the house,
went down the street to the neighbor's.
And from that day forward,
he was never in the house again.
My mom told him he had to go.
I just felt so angry inside.
And I was already active
and drinking Colt 45s,
smoking marijuana at that time.
The scars were there.
I was already scarred.
-Man: Boston selects Michael Gary Brown,
right-handed pitcher.
-Strawberry: And I remember
the day of the draft,
they came and got me out of class.
It was like, "You've been drafted."
And I said, "Oh, great."
It was like, "No, you don't understand.
You've been drafted.
You're the number-one pick in the draft.
You've been drafted by the New York Mets."
I said, "Where the heck is New York at?"
[ Laughs ]
That was a little funny because I'd never
been out of California, you know?

-Noble: Once Tom Seaver left,
Seaver was traded in 1977,
the Mets hit the skids.
I mean, they were an awful team
'77 through '83.
-Stewart: I'd always assumed
they just had a fear of success,
where they would have a great
player like Tom Seaver,
and they'd be like,
"What if we gave him away
for five lesser players
that, maybe, if they all stood
on each others' shoulders,
would equal Tom Seaver."
-Klapisch: Nobody went to the games.
The Yankees were the team.
They'd won back-to-back
World Series in '77 and '78.
It was a Yankees town.
The Mets were nowhere.
-Shea was just kind of this
dismal place to play.
You had to really go in there
to get yourself ready and
prepare to play nine innings.
And the team, at that time,
was the perennial-last-place
New York Mets.
-Klapisch: So they desperately needed
to find someone,
some way to reclaim some of those fans,
most of those fans who had drifted away.
-Announcer:
Right fielder Darryl Strawberry.
-Man: Was it rough on you,
coming right out of high school?
-But really, yeah, it was pretty
rough coming out of high school,
you know, being the number-one
draft pick in the nation.
Then go to a small town like
Kingsport, Tennessee, to play baseball.
It was a big adjustment
I had to make and everything.
But I made an adjustment as the season
progressed on and everything.
I used to call my mom every night.
"Mom, I just...
I don't know if I can do this," you know?
Everybody's writing about me.
Everybody wants to do
an interview with me.
It's a whole different level.
And there was a lot of things
being said in the stands,
you know, racial things
that I had to deal with.
You know, "boys," and N-words, you know?
I had to swallow it.
I mean, I just had to swallow it,
walking back to the dugout,
you know, night after night.
And I just started getting high every day.
I don't know what they expecting out of me
but I'm gonna do the job.
And I'm gonna continue working
hard until I can do it.
I'm just gonna play baseball,
and I'm gonna make it.
-The Mets have lost five in a row.
Only 6 wins in 21 games.
They're hoping for a lift.
So the pressure will be on
the 21-year-old Strawberry.
Strawberry will make
his Major League debut tonight.
-Man: Are you worried at all
about how you're gonna perform tonight?
-If it is a lot of people
out that comes out to see me,
you know, it'll lift me up
a little bit more
and even make me play
a little bit more harder.
When I came in that-that rookie year
with the expectations
had already been built up for the fans,
you know, that I was a savior.
You know, one guy doesn't save a team.
-Announcer: Here's Darryl.
Warming up their third pitcher.
Well hit to left-center field.
Outta here! Darryl Strawberry's
first Major League home run.
-I remember, after years of not
paying much attention to the Mets,
I went to a game in '83.
And there was this tall, skinny kid
with a colorful name, Strawberry.
And then he hit this monster shot
way, way out of the ballpark.
And I thought, "Oh, interesting. Hmm."
-Strawberry: And I got better and better
as the year went on.
-Announcer: It's going, going, gone.
Goodbye!
-And you started to put two
and two together and think,
"Wow, this adds up
to some kind of package,
the kind of player the Mets
have never had before."
-Announcer: Wiggins is probably
gonna score the throw home.
Not even home plate!
What a score by Strawberry! Holy cow!
-The potential certainly was there.
I mean, there's no question about that.
-Announcer: Might be
the best-looking hitter
in the National League right now.
-The Mets were still not a force
or really a contender,
as I recall it, in 1983.
So it started to be about the individual.
-In Major League Baseball,
the National League Rookie of the Year
is Darryl Strawberry of the Mets.
Strawberry had 26 home runs
and drove in 74 runs.
-Darryl, we have our own special
Rookie of the Year award for you.
It's a specially made
Carvel ice-cream cake.
Congratulations.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Congratulations, Darryl.
-The thing people don't realize is
not that you're just hitting home runs,
but you brought
more to the table than that.
You had a lot of baseball
knowledge, as well,
you know, that came to the table.
-Yeah.
-You're the total package.
-Well, yeah, that's all...
I mean, that's the whole
ingredients about us, you know?
People don't realize
we had more knowledge at such a young age.
It was so funny 'cause when I was thinking
about the first time you met Doc Gooden...
-At the club? You remember?
[ Both laugh ]
-I had to laugh.
I had to laugh because
it was so funny, you know?
It was like, "Hey,
there's y'all phenom pitcher."
Yeah. I said, "Where?"
I said... We was in the club.
And they was like, "'He's right
over there at the bar."
I said, "Where at over at the bar?"
-Gooden: First time I met Darryl,
he came over and said,
"How you doing, Doc?"
And, you know, I said, "Good."
And I was hammered.
-And he was hammered.
He had his head down on the bar, sleeping.
And I was like, "He's gonna be
at spring training?"
-And then the next year,
we became good friends
once I made the team and everything.
But we actually met at a bar,
so it was no coincidence
what happened down the road off the field.

In his high school years,
we used to smoke weed
and drink beer on the lots here
before school, at lunch break.
If baseball didn't work,
I had no other options.
Not that I thought of any options.
All I thought was baseball.
And in my mind,
I was gonna make it in baseball.
I mean, that was just my thing.
My dad loved baseball.
I mean, baseball was all
he was about, pretty much.
I never seen him really get mad,
never seen him get sad.
Only time I've ever seen my dad
cry was at his mother's funeral.
Very even-keeled guy.
Didn't show much emotions.
But he was an alcoholic.
So my dad would have his beer and chips.
I'd have my juice and cookies or whatever.
We'll sit there and watch games.
You start to look forward
to those days I get to spend with my dad,
right there, just me and him
spending that time watching the game
and hearing it on the radio.
As I started getting older, and he said,
"How much do you like baseball?"
I said, "I love it."
He said, "Well, you know,
you got to really work at it."
At the time, I was like 8 years old.
I said "Sure," not knowing what he meant.
So he said, "Okay.
When I got off work,
I'm gonna take you to the park,
and we'll work on some things."
He had, like, a 2x4 board
with a brick in the middle
to teach me about balancing.
At the time, I didn't know
what he was doing.
But he was teaching me about pitching.
-I worked all the time,
and my husband was retired,
and he was home with him,
and he would teach him
how to throw the ball.
And he just pushed him and pushed him.
And he didn't have the chance
to be a kid, you know?
He had to play balls every day.
That's what his life was about,
balls, balls, balls, balls.
-How do you think he's doing now?
-He tells me he all right.
So I just continue to pray for him.
Mm-hmm.
-Klapisch: There's no doubt,
early on in his life,
it was clear that Dwight Gooden
was going to be a baseball superstar.
And that was very much what
the family wanted from him.
And it was just a natural flow of events.
This is what was supposed to be.
This was what fate had in store
for Dwight Gooden.
-Gooden: My junior year,
I ended up going 7-0 with an 0.7 ERA.
And, then, my senior year,
I remember my high school coach
telling me that,
"You're probably going up
between the 5th and 10th round."
So to me, that was great.
I just wanted to be drafted
and hear my name.

Then the fifth pick, it was,
"New York Mets select
Tampa's Dwight Gooden."
And my dad gave me a hug.
I'd never seen my dad that
excited ever about anything.
So baseball, it was my dad's dream.
Then it became my dream.
-Rose: 1983, Dwight Gooden had
this absolutely spectacular run
through the Class A,
I think it was Carolina League,
and was brought up to AAA
for the postseason.
AAA team at Tidewater
was managed by Davey Johnson.
-Probably the most exciting
is a young pitcher named Dwight Gooden.
And I think he can do for a pitching staff
what Strawberry can do
for offensive ball-playing.
-Had him down in the bullpen.
And he gets the catcher down there,
moves the catcher to the outside corner.
Fook! Foom!
Right in the mitt.
Boom, boom, right on the corner.
Moves into the inside.
Foom, foom, right on the corner.
I said, "Holy moly."
You know, this guy was a complete pitcher.
And I knew he was gonna be a superstar.
-Man: 300 strikeouts, less than
200 innings this year.
-That's smoking, man.
-Yep.
I didn't really expect,
you know, to get that many.
But, you know,
most small-speed pitches work,
and I make my fastball, you know,
just that much effective.
-Best of luck to you and...
First here, and then of course next year,
hopefully, being here all year,
maybe even making it to the bigs.
-Okay, thanks a lot, man.
-Announcer: And on the mound,
it is Dwight Gooden,
the spring training record
0-0 with a 3.0 ERA.
-Dwight Gooden, his first start in
the Big Leagues is in the Astrodome.
He's so nervous, can't wait for the game,
that he leaves the hotel and
starts walking to the Astrodome.
And he's there so early
that he literally has to climb a fence
to get into the ballpark.
-I'm nervous. I want to do well.
My parents are watching.
My dad's sitting right there.
I don't want to let him down.
This is our dream together.
This is what we built everything for.
This is what we put
all the hard work in for.
-Announcer: Gets his first strikeout here.
Dwight Gooden, impressive.
-Gooden: At that point, I said,
"You know what? I belong."
Even though it was only
one inning and three batters,
but I just had
the confidence that I belonged.
-Announcer: 2-2 pitch to Parrish.
Got him swinging.
So Dwight Gooden leading
the Bigs in strikeouts.
-Klapisch: Some pitchers have
a real stiff-arm delivery.
They just can't generate the arm speed
because their arms don't move that fast.
Gooden had the ability
to turn his arm into a whip,
which created great velocity,
atypical velocity.
-Stewart: He would throw the ball.
And you thought like,
"Oh, he could go 10 miles an hour faster,
he just, like, he doesn't feel
like sweating right now."
Like, he was ridiculous.
-Hernandez: His last 2 months,
he won 8 of his last 10 starts.
And I realized that we had something
that was very special,
a Sandy Koufax, a Warren Spahn,
Tom Seaver.
You know, something that
doesn't come around too often.
-Man: This is Dwight Gooden.
He leads the Major Leagues in strikeouts,
and he is all of 19 years old.
Even more impressive is the way
he turns on the fans.
And with each strikeout victory,
they salute it with the letter K,
the scoring sign for strikeout.
-It was the most
impressive time in my life,
seeing a guy perform like he did
in his rookie season
and moving forward from his rookie season.
I've never seen anything like it.
-Baseball fans have something
to talk about this morning.
Dwight Gooden has been named
the National League's
Rookie of the Year for 1984.
-It's rare in sports to get two athletes
that almost in unanimity are can't-miss...
Not just contributors but superstars.
Strawberry and Gooden, man,
they were gonna be our guys for years.
-Gooden: I never really told you
how much I appreciated
things you did for me,
especially as a young
ball player coming to New York.
-Strawberry: Yeah.
-You had been there, you know,
a year before me,
to show me around and kind of
took me under your wings a lot.
-Yeah.
-And I don't think I ever told you
how much I appreciate that in my life.
-No, but that's all right.
I mean, I knew when you came up,
it was gonna be more pressure
on you, just like it was me.
-But anything, I remember you
told me, you said,
"Get your piece of the apple,
but don't try to eat the whole apple."
Even though I did try to eat
the whole apple, but...
[ Both laugh ]
-New York City is...
it was wild, you know?
You got to be, like I said, "Get a piece.
Don't get the whole thing."
'Cause you try to eat the whole thing,
it's gonna swallow you up.
I was young, too.
So I had never went into Manhattan,
to all those parties and stuff,
you know, that we used to go to?
And all those different girls,
I always used to think,
"Man, had I not went in there,
I would've never got lost."

-Klapisch: The backdrop of their success
was a society
in New York City, especially,
that was really living on the edge.
I mean, so we all sort of knew
that there would be a risk
that they would be overwhelmed
by what New York City had to offer.
-Gooden: New York City, bright lights.
There was always something going on.
Didn't matter
if it was 3:00 in the morning.
Felt like it was 3:00 in the afternoon.
It was fun. I loved it.
-Over here, gang.
Turn that [bleep] light off.
-Hernandez: It had its perks.
You know, I was single.
Darryl was single. Dwight was single.
And, you know, we're nocturnal creatures.
We play night games.
That's a city that stays up.
I can only tell you, we had some fun.
-Strawberry: I had a major problem,
you know, playing in New York City
because the girls here were so pretty.
And there was no social media.
There was no YouTube
and HerSpace and MySpace and HisSpace.
You could do things that nobody
would ever talk about.
-It must have been, for them,
like any young athletes
who go from nothing to everything.
It must be just mind-bending.
-Strawberry: I was in it.
I was in all the parties.
And that's what happened
in my rookie year.
You know, I got introduced to cocaine,
you know, my rookie year.
And when I tried it, I liked it, you know?
And I was out every night.
I didn't never get sleep.
-Nobody was monitoring them.
They were off on their own at night.
And it was up to them to make sure
they didn't abuse all of the treasures
and perks that came
with being a young star.
-I told him, I said, "There's three things
that you can't do every day,
stay out too late, drink, and carouse."
Now, one at a time, okay, maybe.
[ Laughs ]
But that's the kind of
conversations Darryl and I had.
-How sweet it is.
-Announcer: [ Laughs ]
That's a mouthful, Darryl.
-Darryl Strawberry, he was the only one
who would always walk out of the clubhouse
with his paper bag, a brown paper bag,
filled with probably a six-pack, at least.
That was just to get yourself started.
After that, you were going out.
-You're young, you're energetic.
You know, you have a lot
of energy for a lot of things.
I had many days of hangovers
where I got out there
and actually hit two home runs,
and it was like nothing.
-Announcer: Batting ninth and pitching,
the 1984 National League
Rookie of the Year,
number 16, Dwight Gooden.
-Gooden: 1985, I was in the best shape
mentally, physically.
I was just totally locked in,
totally business that year.
-Announcer: Fastball, that's all.
-There goes range.
Curveball struck him out.
-Noble: No one touched the city
the way Doc did.
When Doc was pitching, you went
to the ballpark to see Doc.
That's it.
-The traffic jams were crazy.
It was amazing buzz.
-Stewart: He was that type
of generational talent
that people go, "Oh, that's
the best baseball player
in the world right now,"
and no one can touch him.
-Gooden: On the drive to the ballpark,
I felt like I was headed to a concert,
like I was a performer,
which, you know, pitching is performing.
But I was the guy that everybody
was coming to see.
-Announcer: He has averaged
12.8 strikeouts per 9 innings,
a fantastic strikeout ratio.
-Gooden: When I would take the mound,
it felt like I'm on the stage now.
That mound is my stage.
I'm here to perform.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Rose: Dwight Gooden has struck out
16 to tie his career high.
-I really thought, "My God,
we are possibly looking
at the closest thing to perfection
that we've ever seen on a pitcher's mound.
This is going to be perhaps
the greatest pitcher who's ever
worn a Big League uniform."
-To me, I didn't want to fail.
I just didn't want to let my dad down.
I didn't want to let myself down.
And I always felt
like I got to keep my job
because if not,
somebody's gonna take my job.
-Verducci: When I look back
on his 1985 season,
the pressure to be
the best pitcher in baseball,
maintaining that start after start
is a lot of work.
Try to find a picture
where there's joy on his face.
It's hard to find.
I think it tells you
how much of a grind it was
to perpetuate the greatness.
-So here are the standings in the East.
The Cardinals lead by a game and a half.
And you have to wonder
who's gonna blink first.
-It went down to the last week
of the season.
And we won 98 games and went home.
But Dwight was just
the most dominant pitcher
I ever played behind.
I haven't seen too many guys
put a full year like that together.
Gooden: Every start,
I put everything into it to work hard,
to get ready for that next start.
The preparation I was putting into it,
the mental approach I was taking.
And so to do that for 35 starts,
I think, once the season
was over, that was it.
I was done.
-Announcer: At the end of every season,
Dwight returns home to Tampa,
where he still lives with his parents
and spends time with the people
he grew up around.
-Gooden: I thought alcohol
would calm me down,
just to drink a little bit.
So my drinking
started increasing that year.
Started smoking more pot that year.
Everything just went up, went up.
Never had a real, true hobby.
Like, a lot of guys, they go fishing.
They play golf.
My hobby was partying
and drinking and high,
hanging around with people I shouldn't.
This one particular day,
I went to my cousin's house.
That's who I was getting my weed from.
He also was a pimp,
and he had girls living in
his apartment he had, as well.
So, of course, 20 years old,
I worked my way into the room
where the girls were.
They're doing coke.
So they said, "Just put
a little bit on your tongue."
I put it on my tongue, and it felt like
my whole face was numb.
And I said, "All right,
I'll just try one."
And for some reason, when I did that one,
at that point, it was over.

-Why'd you lose all our cards?
-I tried my best.
-Well, you lost all our cards.
-Go ahead, Doc.
-Do it.
-[ Rock 'n' roll music plays ]
Come on
-Klapisch: '86, the Mets were the team.
It was just a cultural happening.
The Mets were rising at a time
when New York was exciting.
It was the mid-'80s.
I mean, everybody had money.
Everybody was partying.
And the Mets, these young,
single, crazy guys,
were right in the middle of it.
-All: Let's go, Mets!
-Strawberry: You had a bunch of drunks.
You had a bunch of womanizers.
You had a bunch of liars.
You had a bunch of...
Little bit of everything.
-The stories that these guys have,
like, Caligula is in a corner like,
"Whoa, guys, settle down."
-Verducci:
These were almost like marauders
or invaders from the Middle Ages.
First, they wanted to kick
your team's butt.
Then they wanted
to take your women that night
and take over the bars that night
and come back again the next day
and do the same thing.
-It was like, "We're gonna 'F' they women
and, you know, we're gonna drink
all they alcohol,
and we're gonna whup they butt
on the ball field."
[ Laughs ]
-Klapisch: I remember going
from city to city,
just the things that they would
say to the Mets.
"Pond scum," they called them.
I never heard that expression before
until I was in St. Louis.
-And the Mets reveled in that.
"Oh, good, we're pond scum. Great.
Now we're gonna kick your ass."
-Announcer: Both benches
emptying, as we see.
Fights breaking out around.
-They did have four or five
bench-clearing brawls that year,
as I recall.
-Announcer: Darryl Strawberry.
And he is hit by the pitch.
And look out!
-You could talk all you want,
but don't cross the line with it,
'cause they realized, once they
crossed that line with us,
it was on.
-Gooden: Certain times
where Darryl and Kevin Mitchell would say,
"Doc, hit somebody! Let's fight today."
And I would say, like,
"Well, at let me get 5 minutes.
I want to hit to win,
and then I'll hit somebody."
-Rose: I absolutely believe
their success was in part fueled
by the fact that everybody else
hated them.
-Hernandez: I know a lot of
writers that say, you know,
"You guys were
a little crazier than most."
Like, okay, fine.
-Johnson: It was a family. It was fun.
When we hit the field, nobody
competed harder than us.
So I knew, going into '86,
that's when I said, "Boys,
we're not only gonna win.
We're gonna dominate."
-Together: Let's go Mets!
-Gooden: Sometimes just driving the car,
I'll be thinking about some
stuff we did, crazy stuff.
-I just bust out laughing, man.
-I know.
-A lot of stuff if you told
somebody, wouldn't believe it.
I wouldn't have believed it
if I wasn't there.
-We were self-destructive, though.
Man, it was like, you know,
Frank Cashen, like,
"Man, I want you guys
to drink milk," you know?
It was like, "We ain't drinking no milk!".
-Hey, New York,
get on my health kick, milk.
It's got the power I need for pure energy.
Hop on milk, 'cause milk's got more
-Announcer: Ball back right field!
Deep to right!
Goodbye!
-At the beginning, it was just working out
and drinking water, you know?
All of a sudden, you know,
it's like everybody popping greenies.
You know, the amphetamines,
it was like, "Hook me up!"
We have a team full of junkies.
It just wasn't me and Doc.
I got hooked on greenies,
and I never got off of them.
You take amphetamines,
and the baseball looks so big coming in.
It's just like I could hit anything.
-Announcer: Oh, my goodness!
-Announcer #2:
Boy, you talk about a blast!
That ball went over the Big Apple!
-Stewart: They used to have
jars of greenies.
Like, these guys used to pop amphetamines
like it was M&M's.
-People say it was a bowl.
You know, I mean, I used to hide mine
'cause I didn't want nobody stealing mine
'cause I needed them. [ Laughs ]
-Verducci: If you went out there
and played without amphetamines,
they used to call it "playing naked."
You were thought of
as not trying your best.
-Announcer: And it's out of here!
-Strawberry: Some nights,
you're speeding so fast out there.
And then you go home,
and you're trying to come down,
and you're drinking.
Then you go on the road.
You're drinking and trying to come down.
And I remember looking
at the television at night
at 3:00, 4:00 in the morning,
just looking at the lines
of the television
'cause I'm so wired.
You have crossed over into another place.
-And then that cycle starts again,
the greenies, the baseball, the beer,
sleeping in late,
get your body jump-started
the next day with greenies,
and on and on.
-Announcer: After warm-up pitches,
Dwight Gooden comes into the bench and...
-Once I succeeded, my drinking
definitely increased.
That's when I started going
from two days before I start
to one day before I start
not to drink or do anything.
I never got high
before I pitched the night that I pitched.
But still, the wear and tear
that you're putting on your body,
opposed to all the wear and tear
you're putting in from playing,
and now you throw alcohol
and drugs on top of that,
the recuperating time
gets tougher and tougher.
-Announcer: Well, it just may be
that the greatest year
may just have been last year.
He's tied for fifth
in the league in strikeouts,
and that's a little bit of a surprise.
You'd expect him to be up higher.
-Klapisch: He was still great.
He was still Dwight Gooden
and capable of doing
tremendous things on the mound,
but not as consistently.
-It wasn't like he was a marginal pitcher
and just fell off of a cliff.
He still pitched well for us,
and we were good.
We had a good team, and it was a good team
to watch play.
-Announcer: Backman to Hernandez.
The unbelievable season is not over!
But the championship is here in New York!
-Well, that year just worked out.
That year was magical.
We had an incredible team,
an incredible group of guys
who believed, who never gave up
to the last out.
-Announcer: By the wall...
He did it! A home run!
-Lehrer: Even though the team was arrogant
and there were fights,
they were still the scrappy, lovable Mets
trying to climb the mountain
against all odds.
-Announcer: The pitch on the way.
Swing and a miss! Swing and a miss!
Struck him out! Struck him out!
-I mean the playoffs in Houston,
that 16-inning game,
was probably the greatest game
I ever played in my life.
If we gave up a run, we lose.
-Johnson: After that series, we came home
and opened against Boston.
And we were worn out.
I mean, it was a tough series.
The World Series,
Doc got beat up pretty good,
which was stunning for us
and something that we had to overcome.
-Coming back from '02, the Mets
had this incredible karma.
-Announcer: And Roger Clemens
hoping for that last out.
Lined into left field. Base hit to Carter.
And the Mets are still alive.
-There was never any quit in that team.
Even though we were one strike
away and two runs down,
two outs, one strike away,
you know, I didn't lose hope.
Announcer: And it's gonna go
to the backstop.
Here comes Mitchell
to score the tying run.
-That was one of the grittiest
teams I think I've ever seen.
-Announcer:
A little roller up along first.
Behind the bag!
It gets through Buckner!
Here comes Night, and the Mets win it.
-Maher: They've always been
the miracle Mets.
When they win, it's a miracle.
-Johnson: When the seventh game
came around,
none of us were panicked.
We knew we were gonna win
that game, and we did.
-Announcer: Struck him out!
The Mets have won the World Series!
-Strawberry:
After going through that season
and grinding through that season
and getting to the point
of now you're in the winning circle.
So there it was.
You know, we celebrated that night.
I think everybody got drunk,
and some got lost.
-Man: People have been jumping
the ticker tape,
the computer papers I have seen.
For those of you who know
a lot about computers,
I've seen floppy disks
coming from the sky.
Having been hit by one of those,
let me tell ya,
it's a little bit hard on the head.
But what a festive celebration.
That's the scene as we set it right here.
-Klapisch: The parade was a culmination
of what had been
sort of like a 2 1/2-year party
in New York.
It was like the official coronation.
World champions.
And lower Manhattan was...
I mean, it's almost indescribable.
-Dude, I was there. I was at the parade.
The idea that the New York Mets
had won a World Series
and were coming down
in this parade, it was madness.
-Getting crushed here. Getting crushed.
-Jay Horwitz, who was the PR guy,
he asked me to, you know,
make sure you get Doc.
And I went by his house
that morning and, you know,
headed to the stadium to meet
the team and go to the parade,
and there was no answer.
-Woman: The parade should be
beginning very shortly.
The entire Mets organization
will be riding.
Many of them will have
their families with them.
-I was just like, where is he?
He was nowhere to be found.
-Darryl, how are you feeling today?
-Huh?
-How are you feeling?
-I feel super.
-The official estimate of the crowd
is 2.2 million people,
the largest that we have
ever had in any parade.

[ Cheers and applause ]
-That night was...
it should have been the happiest
day of my baseball career.
You know, winning the World Series,
that's something you shoot for,
celebrate as a team.
Came inside, called my dad.
Both shared tears on the phone.
Then, unfortunately, the next
call went to my drug dealer.
Told him I was coming by to see him,
and my goal was to go by there,
pick up drugs,
and then meet the team
at this bar we all went to.
Well, obviously,
I never made it to the bar.
You're drinking, you're partying,
the clock is like...
I mean, the clock is doing like this.
I mean, it's moving so fast.
And you're thinking,
"Okay, I'm gonna leave here
in 30 more minutes.
Okay, I'm gonna get one more hit.
I'm out of here."
Next thing you know,
instead of 1:00, now it's 3:00.
Now the sun's coming up.
Now I'm like, "Uh-oh,
I got to get out of here."
And, then, I finally get in
the car to drive home.
Closed all the blinds,
make it dark, get on the couch.
Then you say, "Okay,
one more hit, one more drink.
Now, the parade's going.
You're watching the parade,
and you're not there.
Now, all the depression comes in,
the sadness, the self-pity.
That was a horrible, horrible feeling.
So that really hurt. That really hurt.
[ Siren wailing ]
-Strawberry: I always
was curious about that.
That was the one thing
I was always curious, you know,
because I know everybody
was like, "Where's Doc?
Where's Doc? Dude, you supposed
to know where he at."
I said, "Man, I don't know where he's at.
He went home after the game
just like all the rest of us."
You know, he knew he was supposed
to be back at the parade.
I said, "I went by his place
and knocked on his door."
-I said, "He didn't give no answer."
-Yeah.
-Everybody's still looking around
the whole time at the parade.
You know, we're going,
"Doc, no Doc, no Doc."
That's all they could talk about.
-That was one of the things
that kept me sick for a long time,
-not letting that go.
-Yeah.
-Because you don't get to do it over.
-Right.
-Yeah, that was a tough one.
That stayed with me for a long time.
That lasted a long time.
After that '86 season,
winning the World Series,
things got totally out of control.
-Dwight Gooden, pitching ace
of the World Champion New York Mets,
is accusing Tampa police of brutality.
Gooden got into a scuffle
with police there Saturday night
after he was pulled over
for a traffic violation.
-He was handcuffed behind his back,
his wrist to his ankles
in a hogtied position.
And he was hit before, during, and after.
And after he was knocked down,
he said he didn't know
how to get them to stop,
and he just pretended
that he was knocked out
and hoping they'd stop hitting him.
He said, "That's it.
You're going to jail."
He reached for his cuffs.
And I was completely wrong
to grab at his hand.
All the cops, I guess,
saw me grab his hand.
They all forced...
Got me down on the ground.
Flashlights, night sticks,
punches, kicking.
I thought I was gonna die, honestly.
I thought it was over at that point.
-Man: Gooden started yelling,
using profane language, the reports read.
He started struggling violently,
swinging and kicking officers
in the groin.
-Woman: Tests later showed
that he was legally intoxicated.
Police charged him with battery,
resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct.
-Man: Tampa's chapter of the NAACP
is calling for a Justice
Department investigation
to determine if Gooden
was beaten by police
because he's black.
-Gooden: I was driving these fancy cars,
but I still was hanging out
in the projects.
That's where my friends were.
You make a lot of money.
You're successful.
They thought you should get out of that
neighborhood that you grew up in
and move to the suburbs or whatever.
But some people,
they're just not like that.
I think they just targeted me.
-Darryl and Doc both had incidents
that off-season after the '86.
You had the fight with the police
with Doc and the Tampa police department.
And you had Darryl,
who had a lot of issues with his ex-wife.
At the time, it was his wife,
Lisa Strawberry.
-Strawberry: My first wife, I didn't
really care about what she thought.
I was gonna do what I wanted to do.
It was just a fight we got into
in where she said something smart,
and I just didn't want to hear it.
I wanted to go out and be with the boys
and drink in the bars and stuff,
you know, and she didn't want me going,
and we got into an altercation.
And I hauled off and hit her,
you know, and I did.
I was just...
I was sick.
-One of the problems with addicts is,
you don't know if their behavior
is caused by their drug and alcohol use,
or do they just behave the way they can
because they have an excuse
to behave that way?
Addiction's insidious,
and it starts to break around your life,
break up marriages, break up friendships.
It affects your ability to perform,
your ability to function and focus.
What they both probably needed in '86, '87
is a year off of baseball
to get their lives together
and get honest and get real.
But who wants that?
Come on. [ Clapping ]
We got spring training.
-Man: In spring, a young man's fancy
turns to thoughts of love, of baseball.
The glow of childhood leaps alive
as I join my New York Mets at camp
in St. Petersburg, Florida.
-And there we go.
-There it is. How's this?
Hey, Doc, how's your boy look here?
-Look like Frank Cashen now.
-Verducci: That team was built to last,
so that's what I was thinking.
This is just the beginning
of a team that's gonna be around
for 10 years or more
and win multiple championships.
We were that team of just bangers
and could barely get it done
even for one season
before it all spun out of control.
-Hernandez: I remember it was
probably the third week
of spring training games,
and I just went out to the bus.
And I got in the front
of the bus, and I always...
I don't know what I was...
I had a book or a paper or something,
and then I heard
some rustling in the back.
I turned around, and it was Doc.
He was like a caged cat.
And he was darting and dashing
and sitting in his chair and just...
And I went... I remember going, "Oh, no.
Aw, please. Don't let this happen."
And what am I gonna do? I'm gonna go run
and tell management?
And I certainly had my troubles, too.
So from my past experiences,
I knew inside that there was
trouble brewing.
-Noble: I mean,
you did hear a lot of stories,
and there was a benefit that Ueberroth,
Peter Ueberroth,
the commissioner, was attending.
And Ray Knight was there.
And Ueberroth went to Ray and said,
"We know that one
of your black superstars"...
that's what he said, black superstars,
"is using cocaine."
So Ray confronted Darryl,
'cause everyone thought
that Darryl would be the one
doing that stuff.
And Darryl said, "No, it's Doc."
Gave him up like that.
-Unfortunately, Darryl
sold me out to Ray Knight.
Obviously, I denied it.
-Verducci: Dwight Gooden actually
went to the Mets himself
and said, "Hey, there's rumors
out there about me.
Go ahead and test me
for whatever you want to test.
Test away tomorrow if you want to."
-Gooden: Some reason,
I was in this crazy idea
that it only stays
in your system for 24 hours.
So I figured, "I won't use for
2 days, and I'll take the test.
They'll see it's negative.
They'll leave me alone."
And then even when I tested positive,
I denied it at the beginning.
-The New York Mets announced today
that their 22-year-old
pitching star, Dwight Gooden,
will be sidelined indefinitely
while he seeks treatment
for a drug-abuse problem.
-Johnson: I mean, normally,
if somebody has a problem
like that, you can tell.
But with what I knew about him,
it was the biggest shock of my life.
-It was very tough to call
my parents and tell my dad.
He never said one word.
He just dropped his head.
He never said a word about it.
And I felt real, real low,
because I knew I had
really, really crushed him.
-I guess in '86, the commissioner
was talking to Ray Knight,
and Ray said
there's a black player
on our team doing drugs.
And he said... He went to you,
and you said, "It ain't me. It's Doc."
-Ray said that?
-Yeah, Ray Knight.
-Well, see, that... Yeah, okay.
Well, let's clear all that, 'cause no,
it was only two black players
on the team that were stars.
-Right.
-There was me and you.
-And I just told Ray it wasn't me.
-Right.
-You know, I never, you know...
-Just the way he said it.
He said it was you.
-No, I said, "No, it's not me, you know?"
-Mm-hmm.
-And then I guess
that's his own assumption.
-He comes and...
-Came away.
-Yeah, that it was Doc.
You know, and they always say...
You know, that's the thing about it.
They always tried to put us...
'cause I ain't never said
nothing like that, Doc.
I think you knew me better than that.
I would never throw your name up
in nothing like that.
'Cause I wasn't like that, you know?
Opinions, opinions, you know,
from everybody that's always...
They always been like that, you know?
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Announcer: Darryl Strawberry says
he is dedicating this season
to Dwight Gooden.
And Darryl says that he will be wearing
Dwight Gooden's baseball pants
as part of his tribute to Doc.
-Announcer #2: Well,
those are big pants to fill.
-Announcer #3: This one ripped and gone.
Goodbye. Forget it!
-Gooden: I know I made a mistake,
and I regret it a lot.
But I must turn the page once
again because life goes on.
And I want to put all of this behind me
so I can get back to doing things I like,
and that's playing baseball
and having fun once again.
-You know, I'll never forget
when Doc came back to pitch
after being in rehab.
Dick Young wrote a column,
"Stand Up & Boo."
And there were a few people
who stood up and booed,
but it was not the majority of people.
-Announcer: Dwight Gooden was back,
and a sold-out crowd at Shea Stadium
welcomed him with a standing ovation.
Obviously, most fans were kind
about his flirtation with drugs
and willing to forgive
his personal faults.
Gooden's mother sat behind home plate,
holding Dwight Jr.,
and she was pleased as her son
began his 1987 season in June.
-I had no idea what to expect
coming out of there.
But once I took the mound,
and the fans showed me
everything was okay,
they gave me that
extra adrenaline to do well.
So after that, somehow I got
seven years out of not using
because I was being tested.
But I'm thinking, you know,
you're 22 years-old.
I'm not gonna stop drinking
the rest of my life.
I'm not gonna stop using
the rest of my life.
I was trying to cut back.
So the first road trip, I was
wasted, you know, drinking.
-And I think that was
Doc's narrative, is like, "Okay,
I'll try to stay away from coke.
I'm not gonna do coke.
I'm gonna put coke behind me,
but I'm gonna drink."
And drinking was his primary
problem since he was 16.
-Announcer: Roger McDowell
saves it for Dwight Gooden.
And the Mets pull to within
5 1/2 games of the Cardinals.
-'87, we had a great year again.
And the Cardinals just had a better year.
-Dynasties are hard.
Dynasties don't come along very often.
Just because you have a great
team and you win one year
doesn't mean you're gonna win
the next year and the next year.
-Announcer: ...the runner at first.
And it's ripped to right field and deep.
Strawberry goes back.
She's gone!
-They got within a game
of the World Series in 1988
and lost in heartbreaking
fashion to the Dodgers.
-And then it became obvious
that window was closed.
The two or three years
in which the Mets could have
and perhaps should have
won a championship,
'87, '88, it didn't happen.
And I think they look back
in retrospect and realize,
"Wow. We took it all for granted."
-Announcer: There goes Strawberry.
Breaking ball is high.
The throw not in time.
And he's done it.
-Darryl Strawberry,
a member of the 30-30 club.
He becomes the ninth man
to join that exclusive club.
-My career, I was playing well,
but my life was spinning out of control.
My drinking was out of control.
I was drinking more and more
in the off-season.
And I was just getting into,
you know, out-of-control situations.
-Darryl Strawberry will be 28 next month.
He's in the prime of his life
and baseball career.
But the Mets slugger and right
fielder is a troubled young man.
Tonight, Darryl is in alcohol
rehabilitation at Smithers,
here in Manhattan, the same
place that teammate Doc Gooden
checked into for cocaine abuse in 1987.
-I went to rehab and just kind of
really never implemented
the program into my life
like it needed to be at that time
'cause I wasn't ready.
You know, I didn't think I had a problem.
I thought my wife was crazy.
I thought everybody else
was crazy, you know?
I just liked to drink.
-Forrest: The best example
to describe an addict in general
is frightened and arrogant.
So at the same time that
you're thinking you're the [bleep],
you can't believe
that nobody else realizes
you're not the [bleep]
and that constant push and pull
and tug and back and forth of
feeling like nobody can stop me,
nobody can touch me,
nobody can tell me what to do.
-I was in the middle of negotiating,
you know, my contract,
and the media was all over me.
I knew it was gonna come to
me becoming a free agent.
And I said, "If you let me
become a free agent,
I'm walking."
-Strawberry not only got his wish
to return to his hometown, Los Angeles.
He also got a five-year deal
worth $20 million.
-Strawberry: You know, I just sat down
and really thought about it,
and I know I made the best decision
for me and my family at this point,
'cause I'm for sure coming here
to help the Dodgers win the championship.
It's the biggest mistake I ever made
was leaving and going to play in L.A.
You know, life in this city is...
I mean, the memories here are...
-I mean, that never ends.
-Never ends.
-Nobody can take that away,
what we did here.
And the fans still
appreciate that, you know?
-Yeah, they do.
-That feels great. Yeah.
-When you went to the Dodgers, I cried.
-Yeah.
-I was hurt, 'cause it was like
a part of me was gone.
-Yeah.
-All that optimism and enthusiasm
from the early '80s,
it was just gone. It was just bitter.
Everybody was bitter.
You know, the franchise as a whole,
they just didn't win anymore, you know?
All that promise had fallen short.
-Hernandez: Darryl went on to L.A.,
and Doc continued to pitch.
And then the team kind of hit the skids,
and then they started having issues.
-Dwight Gooden, Vince Coleman,
and Daryl Boston,
accused of raping a woman
in Florida last year,
learned they would not
have to face criminal charges.
A Florida state attorney said
the case against them
wasn't strong enough to prosecute.
-The allegation was that
the victim had been
in Port St. Lucie, where the Mets train.
She was at a night spot
down in Palm Beach County
and had met Dwight Gooden.
-Myself, Daryl Boston, and Vince Coleman
actually went to this club
in spring training
and at Port St. Lucie.
And there was a girl there.
So was hanging out, drinking,
dancing, just having a good time.
And so Vince and Daryl was
staying at my house that night,
and so they said, "We're ready to go?"
And so she said,
"No, you guys can go ahead.
Doc, if you want to stay a little bit,
I'll give you a ride home."
-Colton: She drove him
to a rented house in Port St. Lucie.
He invited her in.
She did not know at that time
that there were other people in the house.
She went in to use that bathroom
and get a drink of water
and then intended to leave.
-She came out and was playing
a video game with us,
having some drinks.
And then Vince Coleman started running.
She was like, "Well,
I've never been with three guys.
I've been with two."
Then she said, "Well, I'll do it.
But if one guy come in,
but Doc's got to, you know,
got to come in with us, also."
So I went back in the room with them.
Everybody did things. Everything was fine.
-Colton: Mr. Gooden,
according to her story,
asked her to go into the bedroom.
He wanted to speak privately.
She said she was reluctant
to go into the bedroom.
He took her by the arm
and didn't actually force her
into the bedroom,
but kind of led her in,
and the other two followed them in.
And that's where
the sexual assault took place.
All three of them sexually assaulted her,
according to what she told us.
She was reluctant at first
to come forward.
She only came forward after
she had gone through counseling.
Where one person is claiming consent
and the other person is claiming
that there was no consent,
that's basically one person's
word against the other.
Unfortunately,
in many sexual-assault cases,
where there's no independent evidence,
and the determination that we made was
this could not be proven
beyond a reasonable doubt.
-Klapisch: There was this other
Dwight Gooden.
He was a sweet, sweet guy
who treated people well.
You just never saw evidence
of it, that other side,
while he was in uniform,
while he was in that clubhouse.
-Stewart: I think they had
engendered enough goodwill
that you still believe them
to be redeemable when,
by all rights, they had
no reason to expect
that they would still
engender goodwill from people.
-Announcer: And there's a drive
into deep right.
And there it is,
the first one of the year,
a line-drive home run
by Darryl Strawberry.
-Man: What's the thing
that concerns you the most
about your play here this year?
-Nothing.
-You're ready to go.
-Strawberry: Ready to have some fun.
-Man: In January of '91,
you told the L.A. Times,
"Now that I'm happy,
people will see the real me."
You're saying, publicly,
that you're happy.
-Right. Well, I had to believe in myself,
that I was happy because I made a switch,
of, you know, leaving New York
and starting a new life for myself.
But in the middle of my happiness,
there was dysfunction
that was still there.
And then I got introduced to
crack cocaine,
and there was, you know,
getting addicted to that
and getting addicted to the crystal meth,
and my whole life changed.
I became a whole different
person, and I became...
My addictive personality
had started to run wild.
-Man: Officers developed
the probable cause
to arrest Mr. Strawberry
for spousal abuse.
He was taken into custody
without incident.
-Strawberry: There I was, doing exactly
what I said I wouldn't do,
that my father had done.
You know, I had come to the
place of being just like him,
an alcoholic and, you know, very abusive.
And, then, that's what I did.
I hurt a lot of people
in the midst of my addiction.
-Darryl Strawberry
told Dodgers' management
he's suffering from
a substance-abuse problem.
The Dodgers have placed
Strawberry on the disabled list.
He will be paid in full
while he rehabilitates
from what his attorney describes
as drug and alcohol problems.
-When you said,
"Okay, I'll be drug tested,"
did you believe that you would stay clean?
-No. But I always knew
how to beat the test.
I knew how to get around the test.
When they come to test you, you know,
it's either you can
drop somebody else's urine,
or you can not be there
and come up with an excuse of,
you know, something happens,
you're sick or something.
And they buy it.
We got clever minds. We're manipulators.
You know, we know how to
operate the system.
-Verducci: Man, I'll never forget
going out to Darryl's house.
Well, he told me had just gotten back home
from providing a urine sample.
We then proceeded to talk
for hours about his sobriety
and how clean and sober he was.
That sample that he gave
that day was a dirty sample.
And it boggled my mind,
how could someone knowing...
He must have known that his
sample was going to be dirty,
it'd be a positive.
How could he do this interview
and talk about his sobriety that way?
And for me anyway, it was
a personal, powerful reminder
of how powerful the drug is,
'cause I don't think
he meant to deceive me.
I think he was more trying to
deceive himself.
-I think I've had my last fall
for, you know, for a lifetime.
And now it's time for me to move forward
and achieve what I believe I can achieve.
-American Society of
Addiction Medicine did a study
and said about a third of
the people that are in treatment
catch onto it right away
and kind of get it.
Don't drink. Don't take drugs.
Go to 12-step meetings.
A third believe that,
but just aren't ready for that.
And a third just never get it.
In the end, if you don't realize
how [bleep] you are,
being a drug addict, you're
probably gonna keep [bleep] up.
-And New York Mets pitcher Dwight Gooden
has been suspended for 60 days without pay
for violating Major League
Baseball's drug policy.
-Gooden: I broke my foot opening day.
And then I got put on the disabled list.
And then once I got back to working out
and then throwing at Binghamton, AA team,
there's no guy there from Major
League Baseball to test me.
And then the first thing
that hit my mind was,
"Wow. I'm not being tested."
-Lehrer: I think, as a fan,
when things like that happen
over and over again,
and it's coupled with a decline
in their performance,
you kind of start dismissing them,
and you stop caring,
and you start thinking,
"This guy's a bum" and that kind
of thing that fans will think.
-Dwight Gooden is celebrating
a birthday today.
[ Cheers and applause ]
I thought this was nice.
His friends got together
and gave him something
he can always, always use...
clean urine.
-Oh, man! Oh!
-[ Drum roll ]
-Verducci: There was that time
in the mid-'90s
where both of them were banned
from baseball at the same time.
-Dwight Gooden was suspended
for one year Friday
for repeated violations of
baseball's drug policy.
-Darryl Strawberry
has again tested positive
for some violation of
baseball's drug codes.
He's been suspended for 60 days,
and he's been released
by the San Francisco Giants.
-Both started off with great careers.
You know, we've had our problems.
We went through the thing this past year.
We're fighting back.
I remember getting that letter saying,
"You're suspended for
the entire '95 season."
I must have read that over
and over, like, maybe 10, 11 times.
That's what really hit me is like,
"Now, a game I've played since
I was 7 or 8 years old,
I'm not gonna be able to play
for an entire year.
What am I gonna do?"
There was a lot of depression.
I think I started using more,
started drinking more.
I'm missing my kid's birthday parties.
I'd show up late for family gatherings.
I'm totally depressed.
I got nothing else to give.
I think everybody would be
better off if I'm not here.
And I put the gun to my head.
I kind of held a gun at my head
until my wife came in.
I mean, I really, truly think
if I was gonna take my life,
I would have did it.
But I'm sure there would've came a time
where you put that gun
to your head so many times,
eventually, you're gonna pull the trigger.
-Strawberry: I think a lot of
people looked at status.
You know, they looked at the status of us
-as our playing ability.
-Right, yeah.
-But they didn't look at the
confusion of what was going on
inside of the turmoil that
was going on inside of us.
-I know while I was
going through my downfalls,
it wasn't about other people
and other things.
It was myself. Like I said,
I was hating myself.
And any time I had a relapse,
like, here I go again.
And to cover that up 'cause
I didn't want to get sober
and have to deal with myself,
so I continued to get high,
continued to drink.
For me, it was hard to accept
that I had a disease
'cause I started thinking, "I'm just weak,
and I got to get stronger."
But not knowing it's a disease,
and you got to deal with it.
-Yeah.
-I remember a good friend of mine
at the time, he said,
"I want you to meet this guy, Ron Dock."
Ron Dock was heavy into recovery.
Starting doing meetings,
and Ron Dock was my sponsor,
started doing a lot of work together.
And what was great,
he knew nothing about baseball.
He didn't care who I was
or none of that stuff,
which was the best thing for me
at that time.
-Dock: That was the edge I had
with these guys.
"You know, I'm strictly about you guys.
If you want to turn it around,
I'm-a help you.
But don't play me,
'cause I will play you."
You know, and they'd just look
at me like, "Really?"
"Yeah, really."
And I think no one never
talked to them like that before
because everybody's always
patting them on the back
and stroking them. And I didn't play that.
-Gooden: Eventually, I started
straightening up, baby steps.
I got involved with the church,
going to meetings,
and not only just going to meetings,
but hanging out after the meetings,
getting to know everybody,
building my self-esteem, my confidence.
Everything just started growing,
and it all just started
coming together for me.
-Today, after signing
a one-year guaranteed contract
for reportedly $1 million
with the New York Yankees,
Dwight Gooden said something
you just don't hear every day.
He said, "It was the chance to
play for Mr. Steinbrenner."
That was one reason why
he signed with the Yankees.
-Verducci: George Steinbrenner was a guy
that anybody who worked for him
with the Yankees would tell you
is just a bear,
very, very demanding,
sometimes unreasonably.
But at the same time, he had
a tremendous charitable side,
a very soft side in terms of
giving people second chances.
-With little to lose, the Yankees
have made it official
and come to terms with Darryl Strawberry.
-Steinbrenner: It just seemed
like the right thing to do.
It was a decision by all of us
to reach out there
and hope that he can bring us
a little power.
-George Steinbrenner called me up
to his office and said,
"I got a guy by the name of Strawberry
I want you to work with."
He used to talk like that.
I loved him to death.
And he called me his "drug guy."
And that's when he introduced me
to Strawberry.
And I told Strawberry,
"I'm gonna work with you,
but I'm not taking your B.S."
-Strawberry: It was a sad time in my life.
And George was the only one
that gave me a chance.
Incredible man. I'll never forget him.
He did more for so many people
that struggle with addiction.
I've never seen anyone like that.
-Lehrer: I'm sure George Steinbrenner
also just wanted to show up the Mets.
He loved showing up the Mets if he could.
They were the competition.
-Why wouldn't they end up
on the Death Star?
Why wouldn't they end up wearing
the imperial guard uniform?
-They looked as out of place
in Yankee pinstripes
as a pork chop at a bar mitzvah.
-I think Steinbrenner took personal glee
and satisfaction in getting ex-Mets.
But Darryl and Doc needed
a strong figure in their life,
and I think George provided that.
So the best thing that happened
to both of them
was going to the Yankees.
-Strawberry: If you don't win,
George will get rid of ya...
[laughs] so be prepared.
-You got to win at least 15.
-I'll take that.
-Plus, you got to win in the playoffs.
You got to take us to the Series,
and you just got to
have some fun, that's all.
Back to the old days.
-Announcer: New York Yankee baseball
coming to you from the stadium on MSG.
And Dwight Gooden taking
the mound for the Yankees
in search of his second Yankee
and American League win.
-My dad needed open-heart surgery.
And the doctor said if
he didn't have this surgery,
he probably wouldn't last 24 hours.
And that morning I woke up,
I started reminiscing about
the days we spent at the park,
the days we spent watching the game,
him coaching me in Little League.
I said, "You know what?
I think he would probably
want me to pitch."
So, Joe Torre was the manager.
I remember calling him and said,
"I'm coming in to pitch."
He said, "No. You're crazy.
Go home. Be with your dad.
Spend as much time as you need."
I said, "I'm pitching.
I'm pitching no matter what.
I'm pitching, and I'll fly home
the next day."
-Announcer: And the lead-off man reaches
base against Dwight Gooden.
-Gooden: You're not really
thinking about the game.
And your mind is drifting to Tampa.
"Is my dad gonna be okay?"
-Announcer: This ball is hit hard
to straight away center,
a tough play for Gerald.
And he gets it!
-Klapisch: The blow-away skills
of the '80s were certainly gone.
His delivery was much heavier and slower.
His body had thickened.
He didn't have the same arm speed.
-Gooden: When you start off
so great, it happens so fast.
I mean, you're being rated as
one of the top players.
But now everything's
compared to what you did.
That's very, very hard to
accept, very hard.
-Announcer: Got him again.
-Gooden: I remember not until,
like, the sixth inning,
looked at the scoreboard.
You see no runs, no hits.
And we're playing Seattle,
who has the best offense
in baseball that year.
From that point on,
I was able to put my dad aside
and just focus on the game.
-He had found, on that particular night,
a much better than average fastball.
And his curveball was really excellent.
And the Mariners just...
It was as if they were possessed.
They couldn't hit it.
-Gooden: So now you get to
the ninth inning.
The score is still 2-0.
I walked the first two guys.
And I remember Mel Stottlemyre
coming out to the mound.
"Doc, how we doing?"
I said, "It doesn't matter.
I'm not coming out.
I got to finish this game.
I have to finish this game."
-Announcer: Swing and a miss.
-Now, I get to two outs,
and Paul Sorrento is the batter.
And it's like, "Wow.
I got to get this guy."
-Announcer: Lifted in the air
in the infield.
Derek Jeter waiting, waiting, waiting.
Makes the catch.
A no-hitter for Dwight Gooden.
-Gooden: Started, you know,
just losing it.
You start thinking about,
"My dad, is he gonna be okay?"
I'm back in New York.
I just pitched a no-hitter
with the greatest players
to ever play in the history of baseball.
I was suspended last year,
away from baseball.
I remember the time I couldn't
go a week, you know,
trying to be clean and sober
without a drink.
I couldn't do it.
All those different thoughts
going through my head.
All those thoughts
are going through my head.
-Announcer: Here he is. Dwight Gooden
has just thrown a no-hitter.
[ Cheers and applause ]
So the next morning, I fly home,
get to the hospital, and he was there.
At that point, he was on life
support, so he had the surgery.
They say, "Did see the game."
Said he stayed up the whole time
to watch the game.
I thought that's how it was made.
He had a tear in his eye
and then had a smile,
and then he went to sleep.
And so he never made it out of
the hospital after that.
But the thing that made that
no-hitter that much special
was it was the last game
my dad ever saw me pitch.
So that made it that much special.
-Announcer: And here's the payoff.
Swung on and drilled to deep right.
It is high, it is far, it is gone!
It's a two-run, game-winning
home run for Darryl Strawberry!
-Darryl had some terrific years
for the Yankees,
really fantastic years.
Everybody forgets about that.
-Announcer: Wild hit into
right field, but gone!
-I remember I was playing,
and I was having a good season.
But I always knew something was wrong
'cause I had a lot of blood in my stool.
And I was going to the ballpark
day after day,
drinking Maalox.
And I just figured at the end of the year
that I would go in and get a test
'cause I'm a ball player. We don't care.
We gonna play through some pain.
At the end of the season, that September,
I went into the doctor and found
out I had colon cancer.
-Man: Darryl, you've dealt with adversity,
injury in your career,
but this is like nothing
you've ever had to deal with.
-Yeah. I mean, this is...
Had surgery and had treatment
for six months,
and chemo was so strong.
You'd rather be dead than taking chemo.
And I just had reached a point
I wanted to try anything.
I already knew what would make
me escape and not have to feel,
and that was drugs.
So I went back and did that.
-Yankees outfielder Darryl Strawberry
arrested late Wednesday night
in Tampa, Florida,
and charged with
soliciting for prostitution
and possession of cocaine.
Tampa police said Strawberry
was arrested about 10:10 p.m.
after soliciting
a Tampa police officer for sex
in exchange for $50.
-Man: What were you thinking, man?
-Well, I mean, it was the mind-set.
When I was in my addiction,
my addiction was drugs, hookers,
prostitute, whatever.
That didn't matter.
It just... I used with them,
partied with them.
And, you know, even though
people look and think,
"Well, you're the great
Darryl Strawberry,"
but when you sick and you fall
into the sickness, it is real.
I was done with baseball
after the '99 season.
And probably the best thing that happened
because, after that, cancer reoccurred.
The colon cancer came back in 2000.
Then, I lost my left kidney
in the second surgery.
So there I was, climbing another mountain
and another battle
that I had to deal with.
I didn't want to face all that.
And so I basically just went
back to my old ways
and relapsed again, and that was it.
I was off to running.
-Woman: Friends and fans are watching
a different clock tonight,
the time lapse since
Darryl Strawberry disappeared.
Every hour missing
paints a bleaker picture
for the former superstar,
who vanished last Thursday
from his drug-rehab program.
Longtime friend Dwight Gooden
is said to be searching
Strawberry's old haunts in Tampa.
-Gooden: Saturday night, I took a ride
in the neighborhood in Tampa
'cause that's my hometown,
and I just asked around a little bit,
try to get any inside scoop on anything,
but there was nothing there.
You probably won't remember
where you was that night...
2001. Or do you know?
-Yeah, yeah, I remember. I remember.
I was in treatment
in HealthCare Connection.
-HealthCare Connection, yeah.
-I was out of my mind.
I mean, they had sent me in
there for five months, you know?
And then I was like,
"I ain't doing this no more."
You know how the treatment is.
You get there.
-Tired of it all.
-I said, "Ain't nothing wrong with me."
I said, "Y'all need to let me go."
And they was telling me,
"No. You ain't going.
You gonna end up dead
or in jail for a long time."
I said, "Well, I just need to
end up dead in jail
for a long time," in group that day.
And I just got so mad
I just called this girl.
I said, "Come pick me up."
I said, "Let's go."
And she picked me up, and she had a pipe,
and we got some crack.
And I had an ankle bracelet on,
and we started smoking it.
-I said, "We got to go now."
-Once you start, keep going.
-Yeah, you know, and we just...
we just went.
We went all the way out
in Daytona somewhere.
-It really became very, very painful
to watch themselves go down
this constant spiral
of negative behavior
that had very, very serious ramifications.
-Today is, I guess, a sad
and enjoyable day for myself.
I've enjoyed a great career.
I'm here today to announce my retirement.
Once I had the press conference
that I'm retiring,
as soon as that was over,
I mean, it hit me just that quick...
You don't have to be tested anymore.
And so, two days later, three days later,
started right back using.
Cop: Mr. Gooden, turn
and then come back 9 steps.
-Each time, it gets worse and worse.
-Dock: When that disease of
addiction grabs you,
it's very, very hard to let go.
And it takes a real radical change
for you to turn that corner.
Some don't. Some have to die.
-Woman: It's an all-too-familiar scene...
Darryl Strawberry
being led away in handcuffs.
-At the time, I would rather just
go ahead and kill myself.
But I couldn't kill myself
because of the fact of my five children.
Life hasn't been worth living
anymore for me.
You know, and that's
the honest-to-God truth,
and that's where I've been.
I begged for it.
You know, I begged for the fact
that, "Just let me die."
-Judge: And you are remanded to
commence serving a sentence
of 18 months incarceration in
the Florida state prison system.
-Forrest: What stops an addict eventually
is either fear of death,
fear of incarceration,
fear of losing
their most cherished things.
And a lot of times,
addicts blow right through that.
-Man: Dwight Gooden, go to
the middle of the front row.
-Man #2: You end up
violating your probation.
And then you were sentenced to
a year and a day.
-That was horrible. I'm 40 years old.
Now, I got no connection
to my kids, my mom, nobody.
-Man #3: On Thursday,
Gooden was released from prison
after serving seven months
for his latest infraction.
-You got out of prison, and you
went back to using again.
-What happened?
-Right back to using.
-Was that rock bottom? Like,
what was rock bottom for you?
-Gooden: I mean, so many times
I thought I hit rock bottom.
Going to jail, going to prison,
back to rehab, all so many times.
I said, "This is it,
this is it, this is it."
The one thing I hadn't done
is been to a cemetery.
So I had to think rock bottom
is a cemetery.
-All that I was really concerned
about was my mom.
You know, I wanted to her to be...
I always wanted her to be happy
with me, you know,
because she raised us right,
and, you know,
all the wrong turns I was taking,
she would always...
She didn't preach to me.
You know, but she used to always tell me,
"You need to focus on your career.
You don't need to be partying.
You don't need to be out drinking.
You need to focus on your life."
She used to always tell me that.
You know, I just knew
I broke my mom's heart.
And...
I just...
[ Sighs ]
-Strawberry: Always forget
the fact that I did...
I really did play baseball.
And I forget that.
I've forgotten that so much.
You know, our lives change
so much in what we do.
You know, and I've really
forgotten all about that.
-It's like God is so good.
It's just the tremendous platform
from being able to entertain people
to transform people through a story
in a platform that it was so--
-Are you a Transformer?
Are you a Transformer?
Are you a Transformer?
-I'm-a knock you out.
That's what it's all about today, though.
We don't forget he played baseball.
His focus is just different.
-I haven't been sad about life
for a very long time, you know,
because I've had
a transformation in my life,
you know, with my wife, Tracy.
And she was a big part of
why I am great inside today.
I met Tracy at a Narcotics
Anonymous convention.
She had one year clean.
I was just coming back on
a four-day binge of smoking crack.
And then we just started
talking about life,
and I just started talking about
my pain and how, you know,
how my life was,
and I just wasn't happy with it.
And she was just someone that
was encouraging me.
Me and Tracy got seriously into
church together.
And before you knew it, I could
feel the call of God on my life.
I stayed with it.
I stayed in the discipline part.
I think that's been the real key.
I don't want my life to be a tragedy.
I want my life to be a celebration
to my wife, to my children,
and to people that I love.
Jesus says it clearly.
What good does it do for a man
to profit a whole world
and lose his soul?
That was me.
I was the man to profit all these things.
But I had lost my soul.
-[ Applause ]
-I work in the field.
And then I have two treatment centers,
and I know the struggle.
You don't have to be famous.
You don't have to be a baseball player.
You can be someone that has
had to overcome.
And you've been spared for a reason,
to be able to be a voice
to help other people.
You don't get well, you know,
if you walk out of here
and nothing's changed inside of you,
I'll tell you, every time,
you're gonna use again.
You have to change your ways.
You know, we can fool ourself.
We can laugh and fool ourself and joke
and believe that we changed our way.
But until you change your ways,
you will struggle.
-God...
-Together: God,
...grant me serenity to accept
the things that I cannot change,
the courage to change things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
-Strawberry: That's what I wake
up every day for, you know?
That's what life is for me, you know?
It's for, "Who can I help?
Who can I encourage?
Who can I show that,
you know, a broken me,
cancer twice, prison, drug addiction,
you know, left kidney gone?
Why am I here?
Why am I here?"
-Ah.
-Harris: Former baseball star
Dwight Gooden
has been charged in New Jersey
with driving under the influence of drugs
and leaving the scene of an accident.
He's also charged with child endangerment.
Police say Gooden had a child
in his vehicle
at the time of the crash
yesterday morning.
Gooden was released
on his own recognizance.
-I can't guarantee you
I'm gonna be clean tomorrow.
But I can guarantee you that,
if I continue doing
what I did today tomorrow,
I will be.
It's a step-to-step thing.
I know I said it's a day-to-day thing.
But sometime,
it's a minute-to-minute thing.
-Drew: My question is,
what's it gonna take?
-It's gonna take dedication from my part.
-You're such a nice guy.
Do you bull [bleep] people?
You know, do you use your
niceness to get away with stuff?
-I people-please people.
-And then you just do your thing?
-Yes.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Missing the parade in '86,
I never get to redo that.
Showing up late or missing my kids' games
or showing up high or hungover,
you can't do that over.
And to be able to forgive yourself,
even though the kids forgive me,
God's forgiven me, family's forgiven me,
but until you forgive yourself,
you're gonna struggle.
It's tough. It's tough.
-Let's hear it for our
1986 World Champion New York Met
Dwight Gooden!
[ Cheers and applause ]
Good afternoon. You guys excited?
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Forrest: If you won a World Series,
people are constantly
gonna celebrate that moment.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Like, I've been to a gas station
in Long Island with Doc.
And, like, people kiss his ass.
They get out of their cars
to kiss his ass.
Like, if he's kind of shattered and lost,
he's always got that to feed him, right?
'Cause he's Doc Gooden.
-Crowd: Let's go, Dwight!
Let's go, Dwight!
-Let's go, Dwight!
-There's no escaping it.
So how to you get
right sized with it?
That's the addict's journey.
-Man: Welcome, everyone,
to our Dinner with Doc this evening.
Man #2: Yo!
-He was inducted recently into
the New York Mets Hall of Fame.
[ All cheering ]
-And where is he, by the way?
-[ Laughter ]
Strawberry: I've always told him,
"I'm here, you know,
if you ever needed me."
I don't pry into anyone's life.
You know, but there's the helping hand.
-There he is! Come down here!
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Thank you. Good evening.
You guys doing okay?
Yeah? All right.
Well, it's good to be here this
evening with you guys.
Hope you guys have a good time.
Hopefully, most of y'all is Met fans.
[ All cheering ]
Forrest: This inadequacy and this disease
and this addiction
is just so powerful in him.
And it just... It's unstoppable.
-Gooden: I'm more happy
for you guys, the fans,
because you guys, you know, I know now,
with the new ballparks,
everything goes up,
the ticket prices, parking,
souvenirs and all that.
It's crazy, especially a family of four...
-Thank you.
-Yep.
-A family of four, we just talking about,
they can get four tickets, parking,
a hot dog and a drink and a souvenir,
y'all, that's 600 bucks.
-Man: When people talk about Doc Gooden,
what do you want them to think about?
-Honestly, I want them to think about,
"Here's a guy that came up,
had a marvelous career,
went down the wrong road,
got back up,
went back down.
Then he got back up."
And I'm still here.
-We sit here, and we talk about
the past stories, you know,
but it's about now, living in it.
If I can't take the uniform off,
-then I can't identify myself.
-That's right, yep.
-You know, 'cause there's
a real me without the uniform.
-Gooden: Without the uniform.
But mostly, I would like to say
just hating yourself...
Hating myself, really,
and beating myself up.
Every time I relapsed, I'm like,
"Oh, I let them down. I let them down."
No. Technically, I let myself down
because I know the things I have
to do is just about acceptance,
for me, and being comfortable
in my own skin.
-That's it. I hadn't seen you
in a long time.
-It's been a while.
-Yeah.
-It's been a while.
-And, you know, it's just
great to see you, man.
It's great to hear you, you know,
hear you talk like you talk, you know?
It's not all about, you know,
you know, what others think.
-Oh, it's... No.
-You know, it's what you know.
-Mm-hmm.
-But it's good to see you, man.
-It's always good to see you.
-Yeah.
-I love you, man.
-I love you, too, man.
-It's always good to see you.
-You know it, man.
-Definitely, every...
-Always will.
All good.
-Announcer: From the New York Mets,
pitcher Dwight Gooden.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Announcer #2: High drive into
deep right field, gone!
-I think their legacies will
always be like anything else.
Like, any star that didn't
live up to its luster
will always be about what could have been.
-Klapisch: I mean, both those
guys should be in Cooperstown.
I mean, they were just great,
like you created them in a laboratory.
You know, you make the perfect
pitcher, it's Dwight Gooden.
You want to make the perfect
hitter, Darryl Strawberry.
-I mean, they were literally
beautiful to watch.
Watching Darryl swing the bat
with the most gorgeous swing,
I mean, it was maple syrup.
It was just beautiful
the way the ball left his bat.
It seemed like so little effort.
That's what was so beautiful about it.
And with Dwight,
I used to say on the mound
he was like the cliff divers in Acapulco,
where it's almost like
a ballet through the air.
And they hit the water.
And there'd barely be a ripple.
-Johnson: I just feel blessed
that I was able to see them
perform on the field
and express their talent.
They got to be some of the best talent
I've ever seen in baseball, period.
-Stewart: I feel strange being upset
that I wasn't able to witness
as much of their greatness
as I should have.
That's probably not my heartache to have.
That's theirs.
And if they're at peace with it,
well, certainly, the fan base
can live to fight another day.
-Forrest: Addiction is ever-present.
It's right behind Darryl.
It's right behind Doc.
Maybe one day, one's succeeding
more than the other.
What's the truth of it?
I just know that,
forever, Doc and Darryl are tied
in our minds, not in theirs.