Dwight Gooden Gets Out Of Jail

I was stopped at a road construction site and fiddling with a stumpy cigar that wouldn't stay lit when I happened to glance to my right and see a familiar face. Who IS this guy, I wondered, dressed in prison orange and working a push-broom, why is he so familiar. Traffic inched forward before coming to a halt once again, and that's when it hit me. I rolled down the passenger side window and shouted, hey Dwight, sign a ball for me? He started laughing and put a finger to his lips as if to shush my booming request, and I nodded back. Wouldn't do. Wouldn't do at all to have every other occupant of the long line throw their vehicles into park and rush over with pad and pen in hand. Then again, the soccer-mom's driving their 4-ton behemoths with a cell phone glued to one ear probably wouldn't have known Dwight from anyone not named Beckman, but I waved, he waved back and I went on my way. So it is with some sense of certainty that I am able to report that yes, Doc served his time with "hard-labor" thrown in for good measure.

November 8, 2006 -- GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Dwight Gooden is set to be released from prison tomorrow after finishing a sentence for violating his probation by using cocaine.

With gain time and credit for 93 days already served in the Hillsborough County Jail and in a secure drug treatment facility, Gooden's total prison time will be about seven months. He had been sentenced to a year and a day.

The Department of Corrections refused to give a time for when Gooden, 41, would be released from Gainesville Correctional Institution, DOC spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said. Gooden has had numerous legal problems, most related to drug problems.

Last April, Gooden chose to accept prison time instead of an offer of probation. If he had violated probation, he would have faced the prospect of five years in prison.

Gooden was serving three years probation for speeding away from police during a drunken-driving traffic stop last year when he failed a drug test and acknowledged to a probation officer that he had used cocaine.

Gooden was the 1984 NL Rookie of the Year and 1985 NL Cy Young Award winner while with the Mets. He went 194-112 with a 3.51 ERA before retiring in 2001. He also pitched for the Yankees, Indians, Astros and Devil Rays.

In 1994, while with the Mets, Gooden was suspended for 60 days for testing positive for cocaine. He tested positive for cocaine again while on suspension and was sidelined for the 1995 season.

Darryl Strawberry, another Mets and Yankees star, was released from the same prison on April 8, 2003, after serving 11 months of an 18-month prison sentence for violating probation on cocaine-possession charges.