Dodgers Are Just What Doctor Ordered

Doc Gooden needed a doctor. He broke the middle toe of his left foot--or, rather, a teammate broke it for him--a few days ago.

Gooden decided to give it a minor stress test. So, he pitched against the Dodgers. That’s all the Dodgers ever give Dwight Gooden--minor stress. The man is 11-1 lifetime against them.

Covering first base, though, or leaving the batter’s box, Gooden limped and lumbered around the infield Monday night. He looked old and lame for a kid of 25.

“I felt like Bill Buckner,” Gooden said.

Well, all the New York Mets and the sporting public can hope for is that Gooden takes it easy and gets back to his old form. Vin Scully told his radio audience the story of Dizzy Dean, and how he favored his sore foot so much that he wrecked his delivery and his career.

Gooden confined himself to five innings against the Dodgers, staked to a big lead by a bunch of hits including a Darryl Strawberry home run that landed someplace near Glendale.

He was sharp, scattering three hits, but said: “I definitely was favoring the foot out there. Usually you land on the ball of your foot on your follow-through? Well, I was afraid to do that sometimes.

“I must have looked a little herky-jerky out there.”

No, Doc Gooden on his worst day never looked either herky or jerky.

Already, going into the 1990 season, this kid had racked up an even 100 victories. At his age, 300 seems likely, 350 certainly possible. If only he can overcome life’s little problems. Gooden was on the disabled list from April 1 to June 5, 1987. He was on it again from July 2 to September 2, 1989. In one of those instances, Gooden had a substance-abuse matter to attend to, which makes every day of the rest of his life a comeback.

He appears and feels relaxed. There was a time when Dwight Gooden looked like a kitten caught in a car’s headlights. After a game he always looked jumpy, skittish, scared. On the mound, he looked like Bob Feller. In the clubhouse, he looked for an exit.

Not after pitching against the Dodgers, though. Gooden stood there in his white silk shirt with the solid-gold cross necklace and shot the breeze like a veteran who had been doing it his whole life.

He and the Mets had held a team meeting before the game, to talk over the reasons they were so low in the standings.

“This one was different,” said Gooden, who has been to these sorts of things previously. “It was different because so many people spoke up. Ordinarily, you’ve got one or two guys who want to get something off their chest. This time, 10 or 12 people must have stepped forward.”

One of them may or may not have been catcher Mackey Sasser. If he did step forward, you can bet Gooden jumped out of the way, fast.

It was Sasser who was unfolding a folding chair in San Diego the other day when he decided that the best place to set it down was atop Dwight Gooden’s foot. Diagnosis: hairline fracture.

“You always think it’ll be a line drive or a hit-by-pitch that’ll get you,” Gooden said, laughing. “Not somebody’s chair.”

Besides, what was a catcher doing sitting down, anyway? Why didn’t he just squat?

Being extra careful around a man who already has struck out more than 1,200 batters might also be a good idea. Remember, Nolan Ryan has fanned 5,000-plus, but he’s 43 years old. He has 18 years on Gooden, provided Doc can stay away from chairs and other bad stuff.

Watching Gooden work is one of baseball’s real pleasures. There is an effortless way about him, a smoothness, that rivals Ryan’s. If he was herky-jerky against the Dodgers, he sure didn’t show it.

The only time we could really tell the foot was troubling Gooden was when he covered first base on a grounder. Mike Marshall flipped him the ball, leading him by a couple of strides, and you could see Marshall flinch, realizing that he had led Doc by too much.

It was exactly what the Doctor hadn’t ordered. But gimpy old Gooden made a lunge for the ball, caught it and dragged his right foot across the base, retiring the speedy Juan Samuel.

“How old did I look on that play?” Gooden asked.

Old enough that he is definitely no kid anymore. Young enough, however, that Dwight Gooden still figures to do a lot of good things for the Mets--even more than Bill Buckner has.