The prince of baseball, who struck out the All-Stars as a rookie, struck himself out last week. Pitcher Dwight Gooden, 22, will start his fourth Mets season at a drug rehabilitation center in New York City. A urinalysis he was not required to undergo, but which he pretended to welcome as a remedy to last year's rumors, revealed traces of cocaine. Forestalling a certain suspension by Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, Gooden elected immediate treatment and a disabled status that could extend for months.
When he struck out 276 in 1984, shattering the rookie records of Grover Cleveland Alexander and Herb Score, baseball...