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CATCHING UP WITH NEW YORK METS LEGEND
DWIGHT GOODEN by Ira Kaufman (edited by Adam Kluger)
ou grew up in Tampa, when did you ƂUVW JHW LQWHUHVWHG LQ EDVHEDOO" 4` KHK ^HZ H ZLTP WYV JVHJO PU IHZLIHSS ZV as any kid, I would follow my dad wherever he would go. While watching baseball games on tv with my dad, he would quiz me, "what would you throw here, why would you throw that?," he just knew I was going to be a pitcher HUK T` ULWOL^ .HY` :OLѝLSK ^L ^LYL raised in the same house, my sister had him very young. I remember one day him asking me how much I like baseball and I said,"I like P[ H SV[ 0 ^HZ `LHYZ VSK HUK L]LY` KH` T` dad came home from work, we would go to the park and work on these drills and it wasn't fun because he would take me to the park and you work on all these drills but you do not have 98
Metropolitan Magazine | metmagny.com
a ball or a glove or bat so it wasn't that much fun I remember telling my mom "Dad's making TL NV [V [OL WHYR HUK KV HSS [OPZ Z[\ќ I\[ ^L YL not throwing a ball we're not hitting a ball and at the time it didn't make sense," but as we got older it started making sense doing the drills we were doing. The one regret I do have was not having a conversation with my dad to ÄUK V\[ ^OLYL OL MV\UK V\[ OPZ RUV^SLKNL VM baseball because he was well ahead of his time in teaching the game of baseball and when I got older I found out that 35 guys from my little league park all made it to the major leagues. 6ќ T` OLHK `V\ OHK T`ZLSM .HY` :OLѝLSK *HYS ,]LYL[[ ;`YVUL .YPѝU +LYLR )LSS 0 NV[ [V play in the little league world series in 1975 and I played in the teenage world series in 1979.
You got to the Mets and you are in their minor league system for just 1 year, you ƃHZ WKURXJK WKH HQWLUH V\VWHP ZKHQ \RX were 18. Yes I think a big part was because of Davey Johnson I was in Kingsport and Davey was a roving instructor with the Mets I remember I was having a bullpen session with Alan Jackson, he was my pitching coach and Davey came over and challenged me, "let's see one KV^U HUK H^H` V\[ZPKL [V [OL YPNO[ OHUK hitter," and I'd do that. let me see a curveball 0 ^HZ VU [OH[ KH` HUK [OLU PU OL ^HZ [OL triple league manager in Norfolk Virginia, and the tidewater tides and I was at Lynchburg and 0 ^HZ JHSSLK \W I` +H]L` MVY ;YPWSL ( HUK ^VU [^V IPN NHTLZ MVY OPT PU [OL WSH`VќZ HUK [OL
