Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Young Superstars II #3 - Dwight Gooden


I think Doc could be considered a legitimate superstar. He was pretty dominating through the late 80s, and a prooven winner in his career with the Mets.

Judging by the dirt on his pants, the photo on the front of the card was taken during the same game as the photo on the base release.

However, the photo on the reverse of the base card is interesting. It's a bit more common these days, but back in the 80s, you rarely saw a pitcher batting on a baseball card. While he's not exactly batting, Gooden is wearing a batting helmet. He is the owner of a Silver Slugger award prooving that he knew what to do with a bat, so showing him in a batting helmet isn't completely off the wall.


Doc's career quickly went down hill quickly, and the vast majority of his 194 career wins came before his 29th birthday.

Had it not been for troubles with drugs, Gooden could have had a Hall of Fame career. As it was though, he is still the owner of three World Series rings (all with the Yankees), four All Star selections, the NL Rookie of the Year and a Cy Young award. He threw a no-hitter against the Mariners in 1996.

Dwight Gooden's career statistics

1 comments:

Jinxo56 said...

I never did like Dwight Gooden. Of course, that probably has something to with the fact the Cubs could not beat him. I tried to find his lifetime record against the Cubs but wasn't successful. I think he was something like 25-3 against them. I sincerely hope he has got his act together now.