Statement Analysis: Dwight Gooden

Ex-Met, Yankee Gooden: Hearing man get raped in prison scariest moment of life

from the NYPost.com

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Dwight Gooden.

Dwight Gooden has had his fair share of scary moments, but he has no doubt what the most frightening was.

The former Mets ace was on WFAN Thursday morning promoting his new book: “Doc: A Memoir” and recalled hearing a man getting raped when he was in prison. He said it was “the most devastating thing that I had to go through in my life.”

“No. 1, once you get into prison, you’re not Doc Gooden the baseball player,” Gooden told the station. “You’re a number. That’s it. And you’re not living; you’re just in the system. So in there, if a guy wants to take you, he’s going to take you, because it’s going to be 10 guys.

“There’s nothing you can do. So me not actually witnessing the guy getting raped in there, but hearing him screaming and fighting for his life, you knew what was going on behind the door. You don’t know if you’re going to be next.”

The distancing language is expected.  What does Gooden not tell us?

Gooden had several run-ins with the law involving alcohol and drugs after his retirement from baseball in 2000 following a second stint with the Yankees. He was sentenced to prison in 2006 after showing up to a meeting with his probation officer high on cocaine. Gooden chose prison over probation in hopes it would help him get over his addiction. He said he was not clean until March 2011, though.

“You’re as sick as your secrets,” Gooden said of the book. “I had to come clean with everything, and so basically it was just strictly therapy for myself and hopefully (it will) help someone else.”