Of the 150 players to suit up for both the New York Mets and New York Yankees, few have made as much history with the two teams as Dwight Gooden.
After winning the National League Rookie of the Year award by going 17-9 with a league-leading 276 strikeouts as a 19-year-old for the Mets in 1984, Gooden authored perhaps the greatest season by a pitcher in the divisional play era by going 24-4 with a 1.53 ERA and 268 strikeouts while winning the NL Cy Young Award in 1985.
Gooden went 17-6 with a 2.84 ERA for the World Series-winning Mets in 1986, beginning a nine-year span in which he struggled to regain his previous form while being suspended multiple times for cocaine use. He signed with the Yankees prior to the 1996 season and threw his only no-hitter while going 11-7 with a 5.01 ERA and winning his second World Series ring.
On this date in 1996, the #Yankees Doc Gooden pitched a no-hitter! pic.twitter.com/tgAvJlGMXE
— Mike Gwizdala (@MikeGwizdala) May 14, 2022
After pit stops in Cleveland, Houston and Tampa Bay, Gooden returned to the Yankees on July 8, 2000, when he allowed two runs over five innings and earned the win at Shea Stadium in the opener of a day-night split stadium doubleheader (that twinbill is most remembered for Roger Clemens concussing Mike Piazza with a beanball in the nightcap, 104 days before Clemens threw a jagged bat at Piazza in Game 2 of the World Series). Gooden retired after earning his third World Series ring following the Yankees’ five-game Subway Series win.
Twenty-two years later, the Yankees and Mets possess the best and fourth-best records in baseball and have a real chance to navigate their way to an October rematch — which means Gooden will be watching intently tonight, when the two teams meet for the first time this season in the opener of a two-game series at Citi Field.
“I think it’s great for baseball when both New York teams (are good),” Gooden said following an autograph signing in Cooperstown. “So hopefully it continues in the second half, they stay healthy, make the moves they need to make. It’d be great at the end of the year if you see both teams still standing.”
Doc Gooden struck out his 246th batter on 9/12/1984 to break the single-season rookie strikeout record…as a 19-year-old. That still blows my mind. #Mets #LGM (via MLB) pic.twitter.com/Ez5tFVO4F1
— Matt Musico (@mmusico8) March 9, 2022
Recalling the 2000 World Series inevitably brings a smile to Gooden’s face, and not just because he was on the winning team. He didn’t pitch in the series but warmed up in the 12th inning of a classic Game 1, which ended minutes later when Jose Vizcaino laced the walk-off RBI single to left to lift the Yankees to a 4-3 win.
Had Turk Wendell gotten the final out of the 12th, Gooden would have pitched the 13th — a storyline that would have been the most delicious of the Series, at least until the Clemens-Piazza duel about 20 hours later.
“I remember it like it was yesterday,” Gooden said. “I can say it now — I couldn’t say it when I was playing — I was almost hoping Vizcaino would fail so I’d get an opportunity to pitch. It was a selfish thing on my behalf. I just wanted an opportunity to get in because it was the Mets. The regular Subway Series, the day-night doubleheader, I got to pitch in that. But getting an opportunity to pitch in the World Series against your former team would have been great. So I was kind of rooting for Vizcaino to make an out.
“That’s what I was hoping for, but it turned out good.”
The modern Yankees-Mets rivalry doesn’t yet have the drama and shared history that accompanied the 2000 clash. The most pivotal out of the 2000 World Series might have been recorded by David Cone, whose 81 wins with the Mets and 64 wins, four World Series rings and one perfect game with the Yankees make him the lone player whose dual New York-New York resume exceeds that of Gooden’s. Cone made his lone appearance in Game 4, when he retired Piazza to end the fifth inning and preserve a tie in a game the Yankees would eventually win 3-2.
In 2022, the lone participant with strong ties to each franchise is Mets manager Buck Showalter, who skippered the Yankees from 1991 through 1995 before he wasn’t retained and replaced by Joe Torre. Nor is there a mutual contempt between any of the team’s stars, a la Piazza and Clemens.
But with AL RBI leader Aaron Judge and NL RBI leader Pete Alonso both in the thick of the MVP conversation in their respective leagues, the arguing over who is better will echo those debates of yesteryear: Don Mattingly or Keith Hernandez? Peak Gooden or peak Ron Guidry? Edgardo Alfonzo or Derek Jeter? (In 2000, it was a real debate)
The @TimothyRRyder Tweets about Alfonzo reminded me of this graphic from G1 of the 2000 World Series. Factoring in Alfonzo's defense, he was better. #ButItsTrue pic.twitter.com/40cbgJ6zIn
— Jerry Beach (@JerryBeach73) July 31, 2021
There’s also the decidedly different expectations of each fan base. The Mets have reached the World Series just twice since winning it all in 1986, meaning any sort of success elicits a euphoric reaction from those rooting for the blue and orange. But simply contending isn’t enough for those cheering for the Yankees, who have won the World Series 27 times and haven’t had a losing season since 1992.
But with the Yankees on pace for 110 wins and the Mets residing in first place since Apr. 12, those filling Citi Field and bars around the tri-state area will be united the next two nights — and the two games at Yankee Stadium, scheduled for Aug. 22-23 — in hoping these games are just a preview of October.
“Oh man, it’d be great, especially this year,” said Gooden, who lives on Long Island and regularly attends games at both Citi Field and Yankee Stadium. “I might be a little biased, but I think the city deserves it. It’s been a while since both teams won — especially the Mets — and for the Yankees, just getting into the playoffs is not enough. They’ve got to win it, especially with the team they’ve got, and I think they should be there.
“But if both teams are in it at the end, another Subway Series? I think it’d just be crazy. I’d love to see it.”
