Dwight Gooden said Sunday he still has one regret about his career. That was how his time with the Mets ended.
Ahead of the number-retirement ceremony, Gooden spoke with Mets fans on Sunday about “things going on” after his tenure with the team ended in 1994, when he was permanently suspended by MLB after testing positive for cocaine. I want to make it right,” he said many times. About the 1995 season.
“The fans stuck with me until the end,” Gooden said Sunday before his retirement ceremony at Citi Field. “After ’94, when my contract with the Mets was up, I always wanted to come back here.”
He got the chance Sunday, and said he tried several times to return to the Mets as a player, but the team never gave him a chance.
In a brief pregame speech on Sunday, during an ill-timed rainstorm, Gooden drew boos from the crowd when he said he was calling the Mets after a two-year stint with the Yankees.
Gooden replied, “I always go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.”
The Mets reportedly told him there was no place for him on their roster.
Gooden said he made the same call after spending 1998 and 1999 with Cleveland and again when he was released by Tampa Bay in 2000.
“I wanted to come back and finish my career.” [with the Mets] And I said I was going to go to Triple-A and do whatever I wanted,” Gooden said. “They said there was no room, so I re-signed with the Yankees and won the World Series.”
He even hoped to sign a one-day contract to retire as a Met after that season, but that didn’t work out and his substance abuse problems got in the way of other potential returns.
The issue was resolved last year with a phone call from owner Steve Cohen, and Gooden thanked Cohen and his wife, Alex, on Sunday.
“It’s all about timing,” Gooden said. “My health is good now. Today I am retiring as a Met.”
