Doc Gooden gets championship moment 31 years after missing parade
On the same day Time Inc. decided to end a...
Mayor Bill de Blasio gives the key to the city to Dwight "Doc" Gooden at City Hall.
Dwight Gooden finally got his golden moment at City Hall — 31 years late.
More than 30 years ­after the Mets great ­famously missed the team’s 1986 ticker-tape parade and City Hall celebration after he got blitzed the night before, Mayor de Blasio presented him with a key to the city.
“This is one of the ultimate comeback stories,” de Blasio said during a ceremony in City Hall plaza honoring Gooden and the Mets’ last championship team.
“There was a time when Doc didn’t know if he’d make it to the age of 50, but he gritted it out the same way he did in tough games,” he said.
Gooden told former Mets teammates — including Darryl Strawberry, Jesse Orosco and Bobby Ojeda — and hundreds of fans that the ceremony will help him put to rest a dark chapter in his life.
“Today I can close that wound. I can fill that void with love, and peace and joy. That’s because of you guys believing in me even when I didn’t believe in myself.”
Gooden also thanked sports journalist Amy Heart, who helped coordinate the event as part of a documentary film she is producing about Gooden and Strawberry.
It was Heart who also convinced Gooden to make peace with Strawberry two months ago.
“I didn’t think it would happen,” said Gooden.
Their feud stemmed from Strawberry last year claiming the 1985 Cy Young Award winner and 1984 Rookie of the Year needed help again for his drug addiction.
Gooden said he wasn’t using cocaine again and hadn’t for years.