On
Aug. 25, 1985, the New York Mets defeat the San Diego Padres 9-3, making Mets
starting pitcher Dwight Gooden the youngest pitcher to ever win 20 games in a
season. At 20 years and nine months old, the second-year Met was a full month
younger than Bob Feller, who won 24 games for the Cleveland Indians in 1939.
The win was also his fourteenth in a row.
Gooden
finished the season with a 24-4 record, a 1.53 ERA, 16 complete games, and 268
strikeouts in 276-and-two-thirds innings -- all of which led the National
League. He won the Cy Young Award that year, just one season after winning the
Rookie of the Year Award, and joined Herb Score as the only pitchers to
strikeout 200 batters in their first two seasons. He was already being touted
as one of the greatest pitchers of all time and was a sure-fire Hall of Famer
just on talent alone.
Sadly,
Gooden never lived up to his expectations. 1985 was the final year he won 20
games, although he did follow that up with six solid seasons. After that, his
career became a bona fide trainwreck, as he struggled to overcome addictions to
both alcohol and cocaine. He retired with a record of 194-112, and as one of
the biggest what-ifs in baseball history.
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