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I thought the way you did, and then I read a convincing argument that Gooden pitched too many innings too soon. The baseball landscape is littered with pitchers who were abused in their early 20's and were never the same after a spectacular start. Gooden might be exhibit A in that class (see Denny McLain).

I'm not saying that Gooden's drug problems weren't a factor in his demise. But throwing all those innings at age 21 or so were a huge factor.

The coke definitely hurt. But so did his decision early on to screw with his mechanics. He got it into his head that power pitchers don't last, so he tried to convert himself at a young age into a thinking man's pitcher. Instead of following the path of pitchers like Seaver and Carlton who used their natural abilities early on, and learned everything about pitching along the way. That way, they were able to keep pitching well even when they couldn't blow guys away consistently. But Doc messed himself up by trying to change rather than letting his arm progress. Had he not done the coke, and not done this, I agree that he had the ability to be the best of his generation.

Side note: When I was 17, my family first subscribed to Sportschannel (The first cable home of the Mets). As an incentive, we were given 4 tickets to a Mets game. The game we went to happened to be the game where Gooden broke the rookie strikeout record.

I don't think anyone is ever a slam dunk for the hall of fame, but he certainly had as much potential as any young pitcher who has come into the game in the past 40 years. And he certainly threw it away.

Although, one of the thrills of my sport watching life was being at Yankee Stadium in 1996 when Doc threw a no hitter against the Seattle Mariners.

I saw Gooden pitch many times and he was very good in his best years. It is really difficult to measure the hit he took as a result of using drugs, but he would have definitely put up better numbers than he did. I would agree with you on the HOF but I think all of the numbers you believe he could of reached are overly optimistic.

Gooden was great but its hard to say what would have happened. So many things can happen to derail a career, injuries, illness... players get into slumps and mentally can't pull out of them. The world is full or unrealized potential. So its hard to say he would have had a HOF career. Too bad he threw away his opportunity to see though.

Who knows? There could have been career ending injuries. Things happen. You could say what if about hundreds of players. What if Mickey Mantle had never drank? What if Tony Conigliaro had never been hit in the face by a pitch? Thi list goes on and on. What if Lyman Bostock or Thurman Munson had never been killed?

As a Mets' fan who saw Doc pitch in the 80s, had he not had his drug & alcohol problems, he would be in Cooperstown now with 300-325 wins, and his number would be retired in CitiField. His 1985 #'s were "Bob Gibson like."

The same can be said for Daryl Strawberry, who would have 500+ HRs and would be in Cooperstown with Doc.

What a sheer waste of talent of both their parts, Its a shame.

I defiantly agree with you but the one that really bugs me is Roger Clemens he is the best pitcher of all time in my eyes, growing up we looked at Greg Madaux, Tom Glavin, Roger Clemens, John Smoltz, Randy Johnson, and Curt Schilling as gods.

I think jsut becuase he made a stupid mistake at the end of his carear shouldt keep him outa the Hall

He was definitely on his way to becoming a hall of fame candidate had he stayed the course. Sad for him things didn't work out that way.

Until last year, Josh Hamilton had a similar story.

I agree with you on Gooden and his team mate Darrell Strawberry is another player who waste his career on drugs.