When Doc Gooden hurled a no-hitter on May 14, 1996, it fueled the assertion that — with all due respect to F Scott Fitzgerald — there indeed are second acts in American life.
But we should first consider Gooden’s equally talented and similarly tormented predecessor from the epic Mets of the 1980s and Yanks of the ’90s. Before Gooden got his cinematic shot at redemption, Darryl Strawberry paved the way for a Big Apple redux.
Unless you were alive and lucid 30 years ago, it’s impossible to properly convey the impact both had on the Mets and our metropolis.