Longtime New York Mets radio broadcaster Howie Rose stood in the rain in center field at Citi Field Sunday and summed it up best.
A little bit of rain never stopped Dwight Gooden from pitching, and it was not going to dampen the celebration of his jersey retirement.
In a long-awaited and much-anticipated ceremony Sunday, Gooden’s number 16 was finally retired by the Mets in an event that included Gooden’s family and many of his former Mets teammates.
No. 16. Dwight Gooden.
It was an emotional celebration for “Doc”, who always said the love and support he received from Mets fans got him through his most difficult personal times. In his speech, he talked about how he and the Mets parted ways, and how he kept contacting the Mets throughout his career asking if he could come back. The Mets never had an open spot on the roster for Gooden, whose Mets career on the mound was only eclipsed by Tom Seaver and possibly Jerry Koosman.
“I wanted to stay to make things right with you guys,” Gooden said to the fans in attendance. “I didn’t want to leave on the note that I did. Unfortunately, they thought it was best that we go separate ways.”
Because of the rain, Sunday’s game was delayed and the ceremony took place in center field with a tarp over the infield and the Citi Field stands less than half full.
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Gooden said he was lucky enough to stay in New York and sign with the Yankees, a team he threw a no-hitter and won a World Series with. While some Mets fans were booing the mention of Gooden with the Yankees, Gooden interrupted them. Gooden shook his head, and put his hand over his heart.
“I’m always a Met,” he said. “I’m not saying nothing. I’m always a Met. I’m always a Met.”
Gooden’s number was unveiled at the end of the ceremony. His number 16 joins the numbers of Casey Stengel (37), Gil Hodges (14), Tom Seaver (41), Mike Piazza (2016), Jerry Koosman (36), Keith Hernandez (17), and Willie Mays (24). Darryl Strawberry’s number 18 is to be retired on June 1. Gooden was moved by the presence of Strawberry, 62, who had a heart attack on March 11.
“The moral of the story is everything’s about timing,” Gooden said . “Now, today, the time is right. My health is good, my mental health is good and today I get to retire as a Met. And I want all you guys to know, you guys are part of this. Thank you so much.”
Dwight Gooden Facts
In 1984, Gooden made his major league debut with the New York Mets at the age of 19, becoming the youngest player in Mets history. His electrifying fastball and devastating curveball immediately turned heads and set the stage for an exceptional career. At that time, curve balls were referred to as “Uncle Charlie”. Gooden had a sweeping curve that was so good it was referred to as “Lord Charles.”
- Gooden was given number 16 when he made the Mets’ roster. The last player to have worn the number was Lee Mazilli, in 1981. Mazilli came back to the Mets and Gooden offered to give him his old number. Mazilli refused, telling Gooden “this is your number now.” Mazilli ended up wearing number 13.
- Gooden earned the iconic nickname “Doc” due to his pitching prowess. It is shortened from Doctor K, as K is the official scoring symbol for a strikeout. It is also as a reference to Dr. J, the legendary basketball player Julius Erving.
- In his rookie season, Gooden won the 1984 National League Rookie of the Year Award. He finished the season with a record of 17-9, 276 strikeouts, and a 2.60 ERA.
- Gooden’s sophomore season in 1985 was spectacular. He had a 24-4 record, led the league in strikeouts with 268, and earned the prestigious Triple Crown of Pitching by leading in wins, ERA, and strikeouts. Gooden was awarded the Cy Young Award, becoming the youngest recipient of the honor. He became the first pitcher in history to win the award unanimously.
- In 1986, Gooden played a pivotal role in helping the New York Mets win the World Series over the Boston Red Sox. His dominant pitching in the postseason contributed significantly to the team’s success.
- On May 14, 1996, as a member of the New York Yankees, Gooden recorded a no-hitter against the Seattle Mariners. It was the Yankees’ first no-hitter by a righthander since Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series.
- Gooden pitched a rare “Immaculate Inning”, striking out the side on just nine pitches, a feat he accomplished on May 24, 1997, while playing for the New York Yankees.
- Gooden’s nephew, Gary Sheffield, finished his playing career with the Mets in 2009. Gooden and Sheffield were always very close. Sheffield is the only player to ever hit his 500th career home run as a Met.
- In 2010, Gooden was rightfully inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame, cementing his place as one of the greatest players in the team’s illustrious history. When he threw out the ceremonial first pitch, Gary Carter was the catcher. Carter, who died from brain cancer in 2012, was represented at Gooden’s ceremony by his widow, Sandy.
Collecting Dwight Gooden
The timing of Gooden’s extreme success as a rookie was timed perfectly for the hobby. The baseball card industry was starting to grow. Donruss and Fleer had joined Topps in the baseball card market. Topps had also just released a 35th anniversary coffee table book with a picture of every baseball card they had ever produced.
Awareness of the value and importance of rookie cards was becoming more mainstream as baseball fans jumped into the hobby. Many of these fans were from the era of buying packs, chewing the gum, and sticking the cards in their bike spokes.
As the hobby was on the onramp of its big boom, Dwight Gooden became one of the biggest and most exciting young stars in the game.
The first Dwight Gooden card was a black and white minor league card produced by TCMA from 1983 while Gooden was with the Lynchburg Mets.
Enough were produced to where this one is still pretty attainable.
At the time, most photography was done in black and white. Color newspaper photography was perfected by USA Today in 1987. In web and commercial printing, color printing was complicated with various plates and negatives that had to be aligned. Most game programs were also black and white with perhaps spot color on the cover. Black and white photography was likely all that was available, and it was much cheaper to print a black and white set with blue spot color than it was to print four-color with a small team set print run.
One thing on this card that is interesting is that Gooden’s nickname was “Doctor K”, which eventually just became “Doc”. The name was a play on Julius Erving as “Doctor J”, though Erving was “The Doc” and never just Doc. It’s rare to see pitchers wearing single digit uniforms, though Marcus Stroman has worn 6, 7 and 0 during his career. Gooden is wearing number 6, which was Erving’s number with the Philadelphia 76ers when he was at his peak in popularity.
Gooden’s first Major League cards appeared in end-of-season traded and update sets in 1984. They were given the XRC designation as pre-rookie cards. Gooden is in the 1984 Topps Traded set, which also has a Tiffany variation which has a UV gloss coating. Tiffany was like the Topps Chrome of its day.
There was also a Fleer Update card printed in 1984. The card was considered rare at the time, and it remains among the higher valued cards of the era. The card was only available to as a boxed set sold to hobby dealers. There were 12,000 produced, which in 1984 was rare.
Gooden’s actual rookie cards came out in 1985. The Topps rookie card is his most popular. There is also an O-Pee-Chee version of the card with the same design and photo. O-Pee-Chee produced baseball cards in Canada at that time through its relationship with Topps. The cards were similar other than that the Canadian cards were bilingual and had a much shorter print run.
Gooden’s 1985 Fleer RC is interesting in that the double-border design make it much more difficult to get a high grade. The 1985 Donruss card has a black border and a very strong design for that era. Because of the black borders and the ink chipping in the printing process, getting a high grade is more difficult. Like Topps and O-Pee-Chee, Donruss had a bilingual card back Canadian version under the Leaf name.
The three Gooden RCs illustrate how far the companies have come with photography. All three Gooden cards feature chest up posed shots taken during spring training, with Gooden wearing the Mets blue Grapefruit League jersey.
There is one other card of interest from 1985. That year, Nike signed Gooden and Michael Jordan as spokesmen. They produced an iconic posters, and they made trading cards of the posters. Gooden’s Nike poster card is a must-have for the serious Gooden collector, even though it is not an official rookie card.
The Holy Grail of Gooden Cards
There is one card out there that is the most sought after and hardest to find for Dwight Gooden collectors.
It is the 1991 Pacific Dwight Gooden prototype card.
When people think of 1991 promo cards, they immediately think of thousands of people standing in line for a Classic Brien Taylor card at the Anaheim National. Taylor, the top draft pick of the New York Yankees, was supposed to be the biggest deal on the mound since Dwight Gooden. Everyone receiving one of those cards thought they had an investible in their possession. But production of the card was closer to 100,000 than anything we would consider rare. That and a poorly timed bar fight that left Taylor with an injury that destroyed his career turned those promo cards into landfill.
The Pacific cards, according to the company’s owner and president, Mike Cramer, had a print run of 20. Not 20,000. Twenty.
“That card was part of a 10-card prototype set, and that set is what got us our baseball license in 1993,” Cramer said. “The cards were printed together, and there were only 20 made. They were printed in English, with another version in Spanish. There were 20 of each.”
The cards were produced initially for a presentation being made to the Major League Baseball Players Association. Pacific had done very well with their legends sets in the 1980s. They also had an extremely strong distribution network, especially at the retail level. Pacific was getting their legends baseball cards into markets that the MLBPA licensees could not penetrate.
“The MLBPA dictates who the 10 players would be for our prototypes,” Cramer said. “Dwight Gooden was card number 10.”
The other nine players in the set are Chris Sabo, Frank Thomas, Luis Gonzalez, Paul Molitor, Tony Pena, Rickey Henderson, Darryl Strawberry, Dave Justice and Dave Parker.
With Strawberry’s jersey retirement happening in June, this prototype set will again be at the forefront.
“In 1993, we were granted a license to produce Spanish language baseball cards,” Cramer said. “The cards did very well. They were unique and were more limited, which collectors liked. That led to us getting full licensing for English baseball cards down the road.”
Cramer said he still has a couple of the sets.
“Some of the sets ended up with MLBPA executives,” he said. “Years ago, I sold a couple of sets to collectors who contacted me.”
Cramer submitted the 10-card sets to PSA to be graded, but they were sent back when the company refused to grade them.
“They said the cards were not licensed,” he said, laughing. “No one at PSA had ever seen them or knew anything about them. The MLBPA were the ones we produced the cards for, and they asked for them. The proper logos are on the cards. When they were sent back, I just put them in a box and forgot about them for a while.”
In the past three years, only one of the 1991 Pacific prototypes has sold on eBay. In 2023, an English version of the card sold for $250 (ungraded).
Cramer hopes that the few cards that are out there, including his own, can eventually be graded.
“This prototype set is not just rare, it is an important part of Pacific’s history,” Cramer said. “People don’t realize how rare these cards really are.”
Until now.
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