Yesterday I had Doc Gooden on my weekly radio show… The World of The Big Leagues!… on WPAT.
The main host is the veteran radio sports personality Felix Dejesus. I had Doc on to talk about the Rookie of the Year selections.
Luis Gil won in the American League and Paul Skenes won in the National League.
Gooden was totally in agreement with those selections and then he proceeded to tell us why.
I honestly felt that Gooden was probably the most qualified in all of major league baseball because he too was a rookie of the year and at 19 he was the youngest ever.
What people don’t know or understand about Doc is the fact that he is a very true student of the game.
At one point Dejesus asked Doc about his opinion on the Juan Soto sweepstakes. Doc proceeded to break him down and why he fits in different situations with different teams.
At that moment I asked Doc how do you compare Soto with Darryl Strawberry at the same age. Doc convincingly said you don’t. Doc said that Darryl was the very best at the same age. He also broke down all facets of Straw’s game as opposed to Soto. He explained why defensively Straw was underrated and no one ever talked about the great arm that Straw had.
Doc said that he didn’t know how you pay Straw today if Soto is going to get what is rumored.
The bottom line is that it was nice to see the loyalty that Gooden showed Darryl Strawberry.
Knowing Gooden the way I do, I know he meant every word!
With all his life experience and incredible knowledge of the game, Gooden should definitely be a special assistant to anyone of the 30 major league teams.
