As the white ticker tape rained down like snow on the celebrating masses on the World Champion New York Mets in 1986, Dwight Gooden was nowhere to be found. As he reveals in an ESPN E:60 story that airs tonight, he was holed up in a drug dealers house snorting up a different kind of snow.
From ESPNNewYork.com
“Then you know what time you have to be at the ballpark to go into the city for the parade, but I’m thinking, ‘OK, I got time.’ And the clocks, I mean the rooms are spinning. I said, ‘OK I’ll leave in another hour.’ Then the next thing you know the parade’s on and I’m watching the parade on TV.”
Gooden, who told everyone he had just overslept, wasn’t too high at the time, though, to realize that he was making a big mistake.
“Here I am in the projects in a drug dealer’s apartment with guys I don’t even know, with drugs in the house, watching it,” he said. “It’s a horrible feeling.”
He admitted that he has been clean for the last 7 months. I’m glad he seems to have gotten his life turned around, but the the grip of drugs is tight so one can only hope he stays clean. Its a real shame that his career was derailed because he could have been an all time great had he kept his nose clean.