In the mid 1980’s no pitcher was more feared and more dominant than the Mets young superstar, Dwight “Doc” Gooden. Gooden arrived in New York in 1984 as a shy nineteen year old from Tampa and became a pitching sensation overnight, Times Square even held an 105 foot mural of Doc on the mound. His first season he was named Rookie of the year; his second, he won 25 games, earning the Triple Crown and one of the most prestigious awards in baseball: the Cy Young Award.

The Mets loved him, New York loved him, and at the age of 20 with a 98-mph fastball he had cemented himself in baseball history. In 1986 when the Mets won the World Series, Gooden’s life would change forever. Instead of celebrating with his teammates at the Tickertape parade, he watched them on TV, bleary-eyed, drunk and high. For the next 25 years Gooden battled alcoholism and drug addiction while his life and career spun out of control.

With fresh and sober eyes, Dwight Gooden shares the most intimate moments of his successes and failures, from three World Series rings to endless self-destructive drug binges in his brutally honest memoir DOC written with Ellis Henican.

Taking accountability for his actions, both on and off the field, Gooden holds nothing back. He reveals the hidden traumas in his close-knit Tampa family; the thrill and pressure of being a young shy baseball prodigy in New York; the raucous days and nights with the Mets’ bad boys; the drug binges and arrests; his comeback with the Yankees; the heartbreaking attempts at getting sober; the senseless damage to family and friends; and the unexpected way he finally saved his life—on VH1’s Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.

Gooden details his close friendships with many of baseball’s greats: Pete Rose, George Steinbrenner, Joe Torre and nephew Gary Sheffield. For the first time ever, he reveals the real story of his troubled relationship with fellow Mets superstar Darryl Strawberry. Intimate and vulnerable, Gooden tells the moving story of the Yankees no-hitter he pitched for his dying dad and the complicated and at times estranged relationships he has had with his own children.

A story of family, baseball, of talent squandered by the disease of addiction, and of the long road to getting clean, DOC is a riveting baseball memoir by one of the game’s most fascinating figures, and an inspiring story for anyone who has faced tough challenges in life.

As you would expect, the book contains large chunks of his time with the Mets and details the 1986 Mets clubhouse which was known as much for their antics off the field as well as on. Gooden shares what it was like and the real story of why he missed the 1986 World Series Victory Parade in New York City.

ON SALE NOW!

A brutally honest memoir of baseball, family, addiction and the long road to getting and staying clean by one of the greatest pitchers of all time

“Dwight Gooden’s directness, rarely seen in athlete-penned memoirs, distinguishes this book.”
— Publishers Weekly

“How could you not like Dwight Gooden? There is no way. His disease took so much from him. He lost everything. And in spite of that, he is having this glorious recovery. He understands what’s really important in life –your family, your relationships, getting right with God, doing what you need to. He gets that now. It makes his story that much more tragic –and that much more inspiring.”

— Dr. Drew Pinsky 

 “The young Dwight Gooden was as beautiful to watch as any pitcher I have ever seen. The question seemed to be not whether he would make the Hall of fame but where he would rank among the very greatest pitchers who ever lived. In Doc, Gooden honestly confronts how and why the story didn’t quite turn out that way.”
— Bob Costas