After the 30 for 30 special entitled “Doc and Darryl,” many Mets fans came away from the documentary feeling that while Darryl Strawberry had turned his life around, many feared that Dwight Gooden had not. Many feared that trouble still lied ahead for the once great Met phenom.
Unfortunately, as it turns out, those fears may not have been displaced. In fact, they were re-ignited when Gooden failed to appear for what was supposed to be a joint interview with Strawberry on WFAN with host Joe Beningo.
In an exclusive interview with John Harper of the New York Daily News, Strawberry somberly said, “I have to try something before he’s dead.”
“The condition Doc is in, it’s bad, it’s horrible. It’s like cocaine poison. I feel like I’ve got to get it out there because nobody else is doing anything to help him, and it might be the only way to stop him.”
Strawberry painted a dire picture of Gooden’s health, a player who was 190 pounds in his playing days, saying, “I don’t think he weighs 150 pounds soaking wet right now.”
Dwight Gooden, Jr. (Doc’s son) reached out to Strawberry, begging him for help. “I’ve been trying behind the scenes to talk to him and get him to go for help, but he won’t listen. He thinks he can manipulate and BS his way through everything. His son called me to beg me to help his dad before he dies.”
In a publicly released statement, Gooden’s son said:
On behalf of myself and my brothers and sisters we would like to thank Darryl (Strawberry), Janice (Roots), members of the media, friends and most of all, the fans for their concern for our father’s health,” he said. “His problems have been well documented and publicized through the years. At this time our only concern is his health and that he takes care of himself. There has not been a single day that our love for him or his love for us has ever wavered. One thing that has always been constant has been our Father’s determination to provide for us regardless of what was going on in his life. He has always provided for us and has always been there for us.
This has been a very hard year for our entire family. With our Grandmother’s diminishing health and her passing last month, the stress and sadness that this brought us has been unthinkable. She was the leader of our family and things will never be the same without her. Between this and our father’s work schedule he has been under an extraordinary amount of stress, pressure and above all sadness. He has been planning on taking a break from the spotlight to rest and regroup and address his health. We will be pushing this respite up. We, as a family, are currently planning his best course of action and thank you all for your concern, messages and prayers.
But it’s not just Strawberry and Gooden’s son who are speaking out, it is also Gooden’s ex-girlfriend, Janice Roots, who desperately tried to get him to go to treatment as she told John Harper.
“I felt helpless to do anything. I finally left because to sit there and watch somebody kill himself was devastating. It got to a point where he just succumbed to his addiction.”
Roots explained that Gooden has consistently struggled not just with addiction but also with how he is perceived publicly. “He was embarrassed. He went on his book tour (in 2014) and told everybody that he was OK. He’s a celebrity. I think that’s part of the fear. He felt like others would judge him, and they probably would. Most people don’t understand addiction.”
In the end, Roots had to break off a four year relationship with Gooden this past February because his addiction became too much to handle.
“It breaks my heart because Dwight is a loving, compassionate man who took care of me when I had health problems. But then he morphed into a cocaine monster.”
I would urge you to read the entire exclusive by John Harper, who reached out to many of Doc’s friends and loved ones. The sad truth is Gooden is in a very bad place, and ultimately, it is up to him to get the help he so desperately needs. It has been a lifelong struggle for Gooden, whose battle with addiction still wages on. Despite all the interventions by those closest to him, the fear is that Gooden is spiraling toward a tragic end.
