Dwight Gooden Faces Drug Charges

Retired baseball star Dwight Gooden was arrested in New Jersey last month and charged with cocaine possession. Police pulled him over on June 7 for erratic driving and having tinted windows that were too dark, the New York Post reports. Officers said they found plastic bags with suspected cocaine in them, according to the criminal complaint. Gooden was charged with third-degree possession of a controlled dangerous substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, and being under the influence. He also received a ticket for driving under the influence. Gooden, 54, has not appeared in court on the charges, per Newsday.

Gooden, who pitched for several teams but is best known as a Met and Yankee, has struggled with substance abuse and drug charges since the mid-1980s. In 1986, he missed the Mets’ ticker-tape parade after the team won the World Series because, he later said, he was high on cocaine at a party, per Newsweek. In 2016, former teammate Darryl Strawberry, who also has battled addiciton, said Gooden had relapsed when he missed a scheduled appearance. In a 2006 hearing over probation violations, Gooden told a judge in Florida that he'd rather go to jail than go through rehab and probation again, because, he said, "I have a problem with cocaine, sir." (More cocaine stories.)