So much for being on the same page.
Everything seemed to be OK between Darryl Strawberry and Dwight “Doc” Gooden during their recent ESPN “30 for 30” film, which chronicled the highs and lows of the former New York Mets teammates. But the relationship has begun to sour over the last week amid a public intervention for Gooden staged by Strawberry.
“He’s a complete junkie-addict,” Strawberry told the New York Daily News’ John Harper over the weekend after Gooden failed to show up for a scheduled joint appearance Thursday and subsequently implied he didn’t have an addiction problem. “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 B.S. his way through everything. His son called me to beg me to help his dad before he dies.
“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 put Harper in touch with three people he said were close to Gooden, all of whom reportedly painted a grim picture of the former pitcher. One person told Harper that Gooden locked himself in his room Thursday, the night he was supposed to appear with Strawberry at a WFAN event.
Both Strawberry and Gooden battled alcohol and drug issues during their respective Major League Baseball careers. And it’s impossible to know the exact details of Gooden’s current situation. But he clearly isn’t happy with Strawberry’s public efforts and the way things have unfolded through the media, especially since Gooden insists he’s not an active addict.
“The Darryl thing hurt me a lot because I had just thought we re-established our relationship,” Gooden said during a radio interview Monday on “The Joe Piscopo Show,” according to ESPN.com.
“I forgave him for a lot of stuff. I never threw him under the bus, never said anything about him publicly. For him to say that stuff, you have to draw a line somewhere and I guess do a better choice of picking friends.”
Regardless of who you believe, this seems like a bad situation, to say the least.
Thumbnail photo via YouTube screen grab
