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SABRES, PENS, SHOTGUNS & METS |
BILL BUCKNER WAS INNOCENT |
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Spring Break Training PART I |
Spring Break Training PART II |
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Sam's-a-fan
Posts:1001
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| 08-29-2008 - SelecA - |
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NEW YORK, NY - Every once and awhile when I'm down in the Times Square area, or more often when I'm heading down 9th Avenue as I cross 42nd Street and look east, I feel a pang, an emptiness, a real sense of loss for what used to be a towering mural of Dwight Gooden circa 1985, 11 stories high on the facade of 351 West 42nd Street. Back in the day seeing that wonderful beautiful Nike ad filled me with the same kind of excitement that accompanied every start started, every batter faced and every pitch Doc made. During the season the image sustained me in between his starts and again between Fall and Spring during the off-season. When in the eyes of the powers that be it became necessary for the shrine to number 16 to come down, the pain that we first experienced when Doc's first tumble came to light was felt all over again.
Those pains of loss were only somewhat softened by the fact that its replacement, made sometime in the mid-nineties, was another Nike ad with the heart and soul of the Knick's defense, Charles Oakley. But as much as I loved Oak and knew that he would never cram his career in the toilet while cramming white crap up his nose, I felt that Doc should always remain in that vaunted spot. I thought that the heroic image of Doc mid-windup could stand to both immortalize those magical dominant times from when he came up in 84 through the Cy Young award and World Series Championship winning seasons of 85 and 86, and also stand as a reminder of human frailty and as a cautionary tale.
Doc is/was the author of all of his trials and tragedies since his explosive arrival on the scene, and fans like you and me can also be angry at him for what we feel he stole from us in unfulfilled promise, but that doesn't change what he gave us when he stood on the mound in Mets orange and blue and mowed down the competition with blazing speed and a curve that only a geometry teacher could've previously imagined.
So I don't think about Doc with the same regularity that I once did, but when I do I smile. And I grimace a little bit now and then when I'm down around the deuce and instead of seeing Dwight Gooden one hundred feet tall I see the clean scrubbed Times Square brought to you by Rudy Gulianni and guaranteed not to offend those nice mid-Western tourists and their nice mid-Western tourist dollars.
On Monday night at Shea, the Mets played what would be their 16th to last regular season game ever to be played at the stadium of my youth; of my life. On that night as Darryl had done two games before on 18 and Keith the previous day on 17, it should have been Doc turning the number to sweet 16. No matter what came afterwards, because of a magical time when Dwight Gooden allowed us to experience the joy of watching him pitch like few had ever pitched before, he will always hold a hallowed place in our hearts. As much as I still love Lee Mazilli for all he honorably did in wearing the uniform , there will always be only one number 16 for most Met fans. Now I don't know if Doc is currently doing state time somewhere or if he is somehow otherwise indisposed, but somehow someway, Monday night, it should have been Doc. |
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Bayside
Posts:259
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| 08-29-2008 - SelecA - |
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| I'm with ya Sam. That billboard is etched in my subconscious to the degree that it is still there whenever I pass the spot. |
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ANGRYWARD
Posts:760
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| 08-29-2008 - SelecA - |
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| Lee Mazilli? Really? That's criminal. Even if Doc is in the big house, couldn't they spring him for one night. Maybe some sort of work release thing where he got to turn the number to 16 and clean the bathrooms or something. Tonight is one of those games where someone needs to grab Ollie Perez by his collar before he takes the mound, shake him and yell: "This is a huge game tonight! We need your best!" |
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Yankee Joe
Posts:405
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| 08-29-2008 - SelecA - |
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| The Mutts dissed Doc because he came back and beat them at Shea as a champion Yankee and threw a no-hitter with the Bronx Bombers. Boo hoo, Samantha and Wardette. |
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Cookie
Posts:691
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| 08-29-2008 - SelecA - |
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Aww... Sam. Luckily for me... I wasn't in Times Square as much during those days so missed out on that gargantuan horror show. I do recall the later Oak screen. Speaking of Oak.. he's like the only thug-ball guy I like. I saw him once in a Denver airport... seemed like a nice, usual guy. His recent commercial work gives him some regular joe cred too.
My guess would be that Davey Johnson is somewhere daydreaming of that mural of Doc.
Honestly... I think we need more murals/building banners of some sports role models. Giving a Mutt a nod... David Wright would be perfect. |
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Cookie
Posts:691
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| 08-29-2008 - SelecA - |
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Thanks to Wiki.. .here is the latest (as of late 2006.. on Doc).
It is basically says that he got into a bakers dozen rap sheet of troubles with driving drunk, without a license and drunk, driving with an open container and drunk... etc. The best two pieces of info are pasted below:
On March 12, 2005, Gooden was arrested in Tampa, Florida for punching his girlfriend after she threw a telephone at his head. (COOKIE NOTE: This was the blueprint for 'Pulling a Russell Crowe.') He was released two days later on a misdemeanor battery charge
Insert more driving drunk charges... and then:
He entered prison on 17 April 2006. On 31 May, Gooden said in an interview from prison, "I can't come back here. ... I'd rather get shot than come back here. ... If I don't get the message this time, I never will." Gooden was released from prison November 2006.
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How Philly Won |
One Of Our First
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ROY HOBBS ON STEROIDS??? |
MEAGHAN & JAKE: COOLEST FANS |
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Nobody Remembers The Loser |
Giant/Super Tuesday |
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MATTS-MATICS: Hockey Nuts Go At It |
See us on: "Law & Order" |
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MATT FACTS:
Plaxico Burress is no longer spokesman for Thigh Master. Chad Pennington is NOT a Brett Favre fan... Hillary Clinton and Don Nelson have never been seen in the same place... Jerry Manuel is not related to Charlie ManuelJerry Manuel is not related to Charlie Manuel... Somebody namd Michel coaches the Pittsburgh Penguins... Tiki Barber quit the Giants. The Giants then won the Super Bowl... The New England Patriots only lost ONE game out of 19!!! Aaron Heilman was actually funny in re to Eli and Plaxico Burress helping the Mets as a pitcher and outfielder, respectively. Repeat, Heilman was funny... Jessica Simpson would rather date Tom Brady - trust us... Eli Manning is better than Archie - now... Alyssa Milano is a Met fan. RRRRR... Rickey Henderson speaks in the 3rd Person... Shawn Green has big ears... Howard Johnson likes to stay at the Holiday Inn, ironically... Sandy Alomar, Sr. is the youngest of 9 kids. That's why he was quick around the dish. Jiminy Cricket was the Philly Phanatic in a previous life…Fred Wilpon is pals with Sandy Koufax... Mike Ditka is a really tough guy.. Buffalo has a Triple A baseball team. They are NOT called The Snowballs... Chan Ho Park has people thinking of naming a ballfield after him - it would be called Chan Ho Park Park... John Maine has never been, oddly enough, to Maine... Curt Gowdy, Jr. has never been to Yellow Knife, Canada... Kevin Mitchell played 6 positions for the Mets in '86 and, according to Doc Gooden's book, didn't like cats... John Olerud & Wayne Gretzky have never been seen in the same place... Kevin McReynolds now makes his living doing laugh tracks for sit-coms... Tony Gwynn is nearing 300 lbs... Carlos Beltran has Mercedes Benz dealerships named for him in Barcelona, Spain... Willie Montanez was called Guillermo by Lenny Randle... Rusty Staub beat Jeff Kent in a race – TODAY... Jay Horwitz is a dynamite Cricket players – somebody said... Jeff Wilpon was a decent minor league catcher... Ziggy Palfy lives in Slovakia and is a big Met fan... Superman Returns, yet still can’t hit Billy Wagner... David Wright will win the Triple Crown – on a horse... Omar Minaya is Tobey McGuire’s stunt-double in Spider Man 3... Hilary Clinton has Mr. Met pajamas – we think... Albert Einstein was a HUGE Met fan... The Metropolitan Opera House was named for the Mets after their 2nd season in ’63... Wally Backman, ’86 sparkplug, considered changing his name to Wally Back-Matt... Neil Allen and Mike Stanton, former Mets, have Allen & Stanton Streets on Lower East Side named for them.
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