Like so many Mets fans last night, Dwight Gooden was on the edge of his seat for the final outs of Johan Santana’s no-hitter against the Cardinals.
Gooden, the former Mets great, began the night flipping between the Mets game and the Heat-Celtics NBA playoff game. By the seventh inning, he decided LeBron James could wait.
Nearly 30 years ago, Mets fans thought Gooden would be the one to break the string of no no-hitters. He came close on Sept. 7, 1984, but Keith Moreland’s fifth-inning single kept the streak alive.
Gooden would be one of the many former Mets pitchers to add salt to Mets’ fans wounds by throwing one with the Yankees in 1996, something he heard about from the Flushing Faithful.
“I heard about it so many times,” Gooden said last night by phone. “You always hear, ‘I can’t believe you threw one with the Yankees.’ It was crazy. I’m happy that it finally happened. I’m so happy for Johan. It couldn’t happen to a better guy.”
Gooden actually saw Santana on Thursday at a charity event held by Carlos Beltran. Gooden congratulated Santana on his comeback. About 24 hours later, he watched Santana make Mets’ history.
“That was incredible,” Gooden said. “Just to see what he’s been through the last couple of years, rehabilitating his shoulder and putting the work in, it couldn’t have happened to a better guy. I’m happy for him and for the Mets fans and the organization as well.”
One of the toughest parts of the no-hitter drought for Mets fans was just how many great pitchers have passed through the organization from Tom Seaver to Nolan Ryan to Gooden to David Cone to Pedro Martinez. There were plenty of close calls — Mets pitchers have throw 35 one-hitters — but none got the job done until Santana.
Gooden said he thought Terry Collins might remove Santana after the seventh inning, and he could relate to what Santana was feeling when he took the mound in the ninth. Gooden threw his no-hitter on May 14, 1996 against the Mariners. He sat with his wife last night and told her just what Santana was feeling.
“I was explaining the nerves are really going now and the anxiety and everything that goes with it, especially once you get into the ninth inning,” Gooden said. “When you get on the mound in the ninth inning, you just have that anxiety. I said, hopefully he’s just breathing. It may sound cheesy, but you have to breathe and take deep breaths. Especially when you’re that close. “You forget about everything. You forget about the shoulder stuff. You forget about pitch counts. You’re just locked in on that moment and everything you’ve got is coming out.”
