The Doctor Is In

YouTube is a wonderful thing. Even better are the people who post videos on YouTube, especially those who uncover gems like the one you see above. It's the entire bottom of the first inning of 19-year-old Dwight Gooden's Major League debut from the Houston Astrodome on April 7th, 1984. I'll take stuff like this over crap like "Chocolate Rain" or overweight women dancing to "The Thong Song" anyday.

Gooden and Darryl Strawberry are two big reasons why I became a Mets fan. However, since I was a youngster in the 80s (I was two months shy of my fifth birthday when Doc made his debut), I couldn't really appreciate their brilliance when they were at their peak. By the time I could appreciate them, they were both waging very public battles with drug and alcohol addiction instead of punching their tickets to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

What I love about this clip (besides the fact that I just love old sports clips) is the simplicity. If someone of Doc's ilk were coming up now, there would be tremendous fanfare. However, broadcasters Ralph Kiner and Tim McCarver kept things simple. They told you the facts, which gave you enough of an idea of how good this guy could be (after all, 300 Ks in 191 innings is pretty darn impressive, even if it is at A ball). They mentioned how rare it is for a teenager to pitch for the Mets, but there was no hyperbole, no unnecessary hype. The attitude seemed to be "yeah, this guy is pretty good, we believe he could turn into something special, but let's watch things unfold before we get too excited about him." Too bad journalists in general, and sports journalists in particular, aren't going back to those hyperbole-less days anytime soon.

A few random tidbits:

-- From about 1983 through 1986, the Mets often wore the royal blue jerseys on the road with the gray pants. I always liked that look and would love to see the Mets go back to it. However they, like many other Major League clubs, are sold on black as the alternate jersey color. At least royal blue is one of the Mets' primary colors.

-- Of the Mets on the field to start this game, only Keith Hernandez and George Foster didn't come up through the Mets' farm system. How times have changed.

-- Classic Tim McCarver at 1:31. He indirectly calls Astros leadoff man Bill Doran "foolish" for swinging at Gooden's second pitch even though he has yet to throw a strike. I agree with McCarver, but it's amusing in hindsight, knowing how disliked he is by many for his biting and hair-trigger opinions. Tim, by the way, was in his fifth year as a broadcaster (second year with the Mets after three years with the Phillies) and one year away from his first taste of national exposure (he worked the 1985 ALCS for ABC). Although, at the time, cable systems all over the country carried WOR, as it was then known.

-- Gooden throws his first Major League curveball at 3:38. Holy cow!

-- It's easy to forget how good a broadcaster Ralph Kiner was once upon a time. That's why it's so tough for me to hear him now on the rare occasions when the Mets bring him into the booth.

-- You will never see another top minor league prospect throw 191 innings in a season, especially not in his first full pro season, as Gooden did in 1983. You have to throw a lot of pitches to strike out 300 guys and today's baseball higher-ups would probably cringe if they saw Gooden's pitch counts during some of those starts...assuming pitch counts were kept back then, which they probably weren't. Even with all the off-the-field issues Dwight had, he was still a workhorse on the mound and didn't have arm problems until 1989, when he missed more than half the season. But, he came back in 1990 and won 19 games.

-- My girlfriend will kill me for telling people this but, when I showed her the video, her first words were "Dwight Gooden is black?!" No, she isn't a huge baseball fan, why do you ask? I love you honey.

-- Gooden allowed a run over five innings for the win.

Here's another Gooden gem...

This video is from June 5th, 1987, when Gooden made his first start of the season after undergoing drug rehab for the first time (it's the WWOR broadcast open and the top of the first inning from Shea Stadium). Again, you see plenty of evidence of a simpler time.

For one, nowhere in this clip do you hear the words "drugs" or "rehab" mentioned. Kiner and McCarver allude to Gooden's problems, but never state them explicitly. Of course, you could argue that almost everyone watching this broadcast when it originally aired was very well aware why Dwight's season was beginning in June. But, that's something you would never see announcers do now, even on a local broadcast.

Check out the huge ovation Gooden receives when he takes the field (about the 3:00 mark). I disagree with McCarver's assessment of the ovation being "controversial" because, back then, I doubt it was. Nowadays, he would've gotten a mixed reception, at best. But, the mentality back then was completely different. Keep in mind that athletes publicly admitting to a drug problem was still very new, so fans didn't have a cynical attitude about such things 21 years ago. Even though I was a youngster at the time, I remember the attitude of Mets fans being very forgiving and encouraging toward Dwight. They wanted him to succeed. There was still so much hope that Dwight had turned the corner and would continue as the Mets' heir apparent to Tom Seaver. Note that the theme from "Welcome Back Kotter" is playing on the Shea Stadium PA while Dwight is warming up.

A few random tidbits:

-- That Budweiser commercial in the open (2:03) has not aged well.

-- What's up with that shirt McCarver's wearing? White with bright red stripes!? Yuck!

-- How amusing in hindsight is it to see Barry Bonds as a skinny leadoff hitter? He was in his second Major League season and was still prone to high fastballs, as you see at 6:37. However, there were a lot of hitters who had trouble laying off that great Gooden fastball upstairs.

-- Dwight allowed a run over 6 2/3 innings for the win. He won 15 games in '87 despite missing the season's first two months.