TAMPA – If Dwight Gooden’s nearly 18-year-old cautionary tale is any blueprint, Jason Giambi can expect a few unsettling things during his pivotal comeback season.

Self-doubt. Anxiety surpassing that of any rookie. Sleepless nights. And perhaps even death threats.

Not long after Giambi showed up at Legends Field yesterday in good spirits, Gooden recalled his road back from drug addiction in 1987.

He faced those aforementioned hurdles that year and cleared them. While he knows it’s a long road ahead for Giambi, he struck an optimistic tone.

“I think the biggest thing for him is – I still think he has a lot left in his tank as far as playing – is being in front of your locker every day,” Gooden said. “You just got to face the music. Everything else will take care of itself.”

Now a Yankee instructor, the former flamethrower missed the start of the 1987 season because he was recovering from an addiction that became public knowledge.

He doesn’t feel comfortable offering unsolicited advice to Giambi, but he’ll be there to share his tale if the embattled Yankee slugger approaches him.

Gooden was plagued by self-doubts in 1987 despite going 17-6 and winning the World Series in 1986. In Giambi’s case, his hitting had tailed off before steroids officially became a distraction.

“(You’re) not going to know until you get out there,” Gooden said. “You can get ready and think you’re ready, but until it happens, that’s when you know.”

Gooden returned on June 5, 1987, at Shea Stadium against the Pirates. He was more nervous than he was in his first major-league start, but he scattered four hits and one earned run over 62/3 innings in a 5-1 victory.

Soon afterward, an angry fan from Pittsburgh wrote a death threat. The FBI traced the handwriting and it turned out the man had mailed out others, but that was hardly comforting.

“Those three nights I didn’t sleep very well in Pittsburgh,” he said. “Because you don’t know.”

Nobody is sure what reception awaits Giambi at Yankee Stadium on April 3.

“If he’s being himself and showing up every day, he doesn’t have to do nothing extra,” Gooden said. “Just be himself, and eventually the boos will turn into cheers.”