Dwight Gooden relives 1980s dominance while opening '85 Fleer | Old Baseball Cards
1985 NL Cy Young Winner and 3-time World Series champions Dwight "Doc" Gooden join Yahoo Sports' Mike Oz to look through packs of 1985 Fleer and 1986 Topps baseball cards
Video Transcript
MIKE OZ: Hey, it's Mike Oz from Yahoo Sports. This is the great Doc Gooden, and we are gonna open some old baseball cards.
- Lifted in the air. In the infield, Derek Jeter waiting, waiting, waiting. Makes the catch. A no-hitter for Dwight Gooden.
MIKE OZ: So we have 1985 Fleer and 1986 Topps. This is like wheelhouse. This is your area right here. Which one you think you want?
DOC GOODEN: Let's go '85. That was a great year.
MIKE OZ: You want to do '85? That was a pretty good year for you, right?
DOC GOODEN: '85 was not bad. That was a great year.
MIKE OZ: 24 wins?
DOC GOODEN: 24 and 4.
MIKE OZ: They don't do that no more, man.
DOC GOODEN: It's a little different now. Jack Clark, how about that?
MIKE OZ: Guy could hit.
DOC GOODEN: Jack Clark could hit. We had a lot of battles. I remember Ike was with the Giants. He was hurt that year. Rusty Staub told me, Doc, you think you got a good fastball. I want you to face Jack Clark.
The next year, 1985, Jack Clark's with the Cardinals. Opening day, and I remember Jack Clark was coming up. I remember Rusty Staub says-- I got him 0-2, so instead of wasting a pitch, I want to go right at him. I decided to challenge him.
He hit a home run. I came to the dugout. Hey, Rusty Staub, that's the Jack Clark I was talking about.
MIKE OZ: Learned your lesson.
DOC GOODEN: Tommy Herr was a good ballplayer. A hard-nosed ballplayer for the Cardinals. Was my teammates for a couple years with the Mets. Great guy. Stole a lot of bases.
Another teammate of mine, Tony Fernandez. Played with a lot of these guys.
MIKE OZ: He could play. He could play.
DOC GOODEN: He could play. Von Hayes, a great player. I see Von Hayes-- one game in Philly, he hit two home runs in the first inning. Led off the game with a home run, and then came up later on and hit a grand slam same game.
- Here's another shot. Where's this gonna wind up? Got right on out of here. A grand slam home run. His second homer of the inning.
DOC GOODEN: Glenn Hubbard, great player. He never was like a power hitter. But if you made a mistake, he will hit a home run off you.
MIKE OZ: He's the guy that has the snake? He has a baseball card with a snake on it? Is that him?
DOC GOODEN: With a snake on it. That's him, Glenn Hubbard.
Jim Rice. We had battles in the World Series in 1986. Great hitter. And we had a thing that both of us did in 1986, where depending if he hit a home run or if I struck him out, we did this charity thing where we would donate so much money to the charity. I didn't strike him out, and he didn't homer off me, so we broke even.
MIKE OZ: Did you guys get together later and buy each other dinner or something?
DOC GOODEN: Well, we won the World Series, so he still owes me dinner.
Wade Boggs, good friend of mine. A great hitter. Same thing, in '86 played against him. Also was my teammate in '96 with the Yankees. Both from Tampa. So he's a great guy.
MIKE OZ: OK, so Wade Boggs is a guy-- I've heard a ton of Wade Boggs stories. What's your best Wade Boggs story?
DOC GOODEN: Wade Boggs is probably the only white guy to eat more chicken than me.
[LAUGHTER]
MIKE OZ: He is the Chicken Man.
DOC GOODEN: He's the Chicken Man.
MIKE OZ: His Twitter handle is ChickenMan.
DOC GOODEN: Yeah.
- The lemon chicken meal was eaten this afternoon as he has done for most of his Major League career.
DOC GOODEN: Carlos Martinez was a great ballplayer with San Diego. Had a lot of battles.
MIKE OZ: He looks like a 13-year-old kid in that picture.
DOC GOODEN: In that picture, yeah.
MIKE OZ: Oh, that's a Cleveland guy. Not in that picture, but--
DOC GOODEN: Dennis Martínez, another Cleveland guy. Yeah, he played in Cleveland. We had some battles when he was with Montreal.
MIKE OZ: Yeah, yeah.
DOC GOODEN: Great pitcher. Great curveball. Great guy. Battled back from alcohol addiction as well. So good guy.
MIKE OZ: All right, 1986 Topps. Let's see what we got here. Joe Beckwith, he's got some hair, man.
DOC GOODEN: There were some hairstyles back in those days.
MIKE OZ: Al Jones. Pete Vuckovich. You know Pete?
DOC GOODEN: Yeah, I remember Pete.
MIKE OZ: So since we're in Cleveland, people should know that he was in "Major League." He was in the movie "Major League."
- How's your wife and my kids?
- Vaughn kicks, fires. Here is a swing and a drive toward left field and deep. It is gone off the reservation.
DOC GOODEN: Great movie.
MIKE OZ: Roger Maris.
DOC GOODEN: How did Roger Maris get in '86?
MIKE OZ: Well, it's like a turn back the clock. It's like his 1961.
DOC GOODEN: Oh, got you.
MIKE OZ: Yeah.
DOC GOODEN: OK.
MIKE OZ: Yeah. Larry Andersen. Paul Molitor.
DOC GOODEN: Paul Molitor is a good one.
MIKE OZ: They got those '80s pants, right? Like with the waistband.
DOC GOODEN: Uniforms were different in these days.
MIKE OZ: Vance Law.
DOC GOODEN: Vance Law.
MIKE OZ: Expos.
DOC GOODEN: Yeah, that's him.
MIKE OZ: Johnny Ray.
DOC GOODEN: Johnny Ray was a good hitter. Second baseman.
MIKE OZ: George Wright, he had a nice little curl.
DOC GOODEN: Yeah, those were curl days.
MIKE OZ: There's a Met, Gary Carter.
DOC GOODEN: Gary Carter, great guy.
MIKE OZ: R.I.P.
DOC GOODEN: Great catcher. I think my favorite Gary Carter story was the 1984 all-star game. I come into the game and I'm very nervous. I'm 19 years old in San Francisco.
And Gary said, just relax. Throw the ball the way you've thrown against us the first half. Ended up striking out three guys. And I remember after that inning, Gary said, wouldn't this be nice the very first day, not knowing we was gonna trade for Gary in November.
And Gary became our catcher in 1985. And it was no coincidence that I had the season that I had in '85 because Gary was the catcher.
MIKE OZ: That's a nice one, man. I want to trade you Gary Carter then.
DOC GOODEN: All right, I appreciate that.
MIKE OZ: I want Wade Boggs.
DOC GOODEN: OK, head up?
MIKE OZ: I think that's a good trade, right?
DOC GOODEN: That's a great trade for me. Thank you.
MIKE OZ: I like Wade Boggs.
DOC GOODEN: Wade's a great hitter, but I'll take Carter any day.
MIKE OZ: Actually, so Wade Boggs was my grandma's favorite player.
DOC GOODEN: Is that right?
MIKE OZ: So a lot of the genesis of the show is my grandma's baseball cards.
DOC GOODEN: Oh, awesome. Sounds good.
MIKE OZ: Wade Boggs.
DOC GOODEN: Hey, man. And I got Carter.
MIKE OZ: Doc Gooden, it was a lot of fun, man.
DOC GOODEN: Thank you, buddy.
MIKE OZ: Thank you. Appreciate it.
DOC GOODEN: My pleasure.
