Gooden, 45, was arrested in New Jersey for driving under the influence. What makes the situation so alarming is that his five-year-old son was riding, unrestrained, in the back seat.
"I knew it was Dwight Gooden right away," neighbor Ronald Schmidt said. "He was a boyhood hero."
Architect Ronald Schmidt says his famous neighbor rear-ended his car Tuesday morning along Old Mill Road in Franklin Lakes.
"I looked at him and I knew it was Dwight Gooden – I said, 'Dwight Gooden, right?'" Schmidt said. "I think he was a little surprised that I recognized him. He shook my hand, and I said, 'I've always admired you.'"
Did he know that Gooden was under the influence?
"I can't respond to anything…that would be an assumption, I just can't, I can't make it," Schmidt said.
It was an encounter that led to the baseball legend's arrest minutes later for driving under the influence with his unrestrained five-year-old in the back.
As accidents go, it apparently wasn't much according to Schmidt.. Both cars were going the same direction, and Gooden apparently hit Schmidt from behind. Both cars pulled over and the two drivers spoke for a few moments.
Schmidt says that Gooden's five-year-old son was in the back seat, and he appeared to be fine.
"All we did was exchange pleasantries – his child got out of the car and looked happy," Schmidt said. "If you didn't tell me those things, I wouldn't have guessed."
Schmidt told police that Gooden said he had to get his son to school and drove on, so one of the tickets the former pitcher received several blocks away was for leaving the scene of an accident.
The most serious charges, though, involved driving under the influence of a controlled dangerous substance with a minor in the car. It's a terrible setback for the former New York hero with a troubled past of drug and alcohol abuse who has struggled to stay clean for years.
Gooden was charged with driving under the influence of a controlled dangerous substance, endangering the welfare of a child, driving while under the influence of drugs, DWI with a child passenger, leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident, reckless driving, failure to keep right and failure to notify change of address regarding driver's license.
Gooden was released on his own recognizance.
Gooden has had numerous public relapses since early in his career with the Mets, and his most recent occurred four years ago. He recently told reporters he had been clean for more than three-and-a-half years.
The people who remember his time as a player in New York fondly are still pulling for him, including Schmidt.
David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer
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