FRANKLIN LAKES, N.J. - Former Major League Baseball starDwight Gooden has been charged in New Jersey with driving under the influence of drugs and leaving the scene of an accident.
Franklin Lakes police Capt. Joseph Seltenrich says the 45-year-old former pitcher for the New York Mets and Yankees had a child in his vehicle at the time of the two-vehicle crash around 9 a.m. Tuesday.
Police are not saying whose child it was but say no one was hurt.
Authorities say Gooden was also charged with child endangerment and motor vehicle violations. They would not release details, including the type of drugs.
Gooden was released on his own recognizance until a municipal court hearing. It wasn't clear whether he had an attorney.
He has waged a well-publicized battle with alcohol and drugs, including cocaine.
A couple nice little items today that put baseball in some perspective:
The NY Times has a profile of Nelson Figueroa. The minor league mainstay pitcher is upfront about his chances and his financial situation. And while it may be hard to feel sorry for someone who made over $400K last year, the fact is for players on the fringe, these are the prime earning years.
""I've been playing for 15 years and I haven't made a million dollars,"
he said. "I'd like some security for my family, of course."
Loge13 is thinking good thoughts for Nelson this year.
And I was heartened by a post from Optimistic Met Fan, who shares with readers his Citi Field ticket plans for the season. It was refreshing to read the musings of a fan, psyched for the new season and the joy of the game, nothing else. That's about all we have to look forward to this year anyways.
Loge13 was always a place where friends and family would sit and chat about all things, Mets and non-Mets.
During the lean years (pretty much every year except 1985 - 1988, 1999 - 2000, and 2006) we spent alot of time in our seats talking about everything BUT the Mets. That sort of between-inning banter has been missing from Loge13.com. Today that changes, as I feel like talking about music.
Alex Chilton has passed on. The winter has not been kind to cherished rockers. First Doug Feiger, now this. My favorite Alex Chilton story is more
about the song than the band. In 1988 the Replacements came to Boston for two
nights. So out of respect, my friends got really silly for two straight days and saw both shows.
During the day of the second show, the Mats were doing a record signing
at some music store in Kenmore Square. We showed up all wobbly, only to find the
band was even more tipsy. They were drinking 12 packs of Old
Swill and sniffing the markers they used to sign various parcels of crap. I had
them sign my copy of their rare live album "The Shit Hits The Fans" and a Ricky
Nelson tape (Paul Westerberg wrote "F*%# School" on it and told me he learned everything he
knows from Ricky).
My friend George then asked Paul to explain what
tuning he used for "Alex Chilton." It must have been the first serious question
he got all day because Paul seemed to immediately sober up and started
explaining the tuning, the chord structures, the song et al. Then he got
befuddled and said, "Tell ya what, we'll play it real slow for you tonight." He
didn't of course but my friend George swears Paul said "Pay attention" when he
started Alex Chilton that night. But we were all drunk so who really knows.
I guess I wrote all this because another great lover and creator of music has left us. So rather than wait for the next bummer news, go put on some Paul
Westerberg (or whoever your favorite shoulda-been-famous rocker is) and be
grateful they are still rocking.
Oddly, Alex received a special mention from the floor of the House of Representatives March 18th. So did the Replacements, another sign of the Apocalypse:
And here's a later version of "In the street" performed by the regrouped Big Star:
The 2010 WWE Hall Of Fame ceremony occurs at the end of March.
A few nominees have baseball ties. One is Bob Uecker for his several stints as a Wrestlemania broadcaster (Hmm that barrier to entry at the HOF is awfully high).
Perhaps the most deserving honoree is Japanese wrestler and sport ambassador Antonio Inoki. He is most famous in Loge 13 as the guy who fought Muhammad Ali live in Tokyo on June 25, 1976.
The hype for the matchup was tremendous, although the ffight itself was a dud.
"The rules of the match were announced several months in advance.
However, two days before the match a whole bunch of new rules were
added which severely limited the moves that each man could perform. The
rule change that had a major outcome on this match was that Inoki could
only throw a kick if one of his knees were on the ground. The truth
behind the last minute changes will never really be known as there are
many stories that have been floating around for the past three decades.
In this match, the only losers were the fans. The match itself
was declared a draw. Ali made over $6 million for the match while Inoki
made only $2 million. The wrestling company that he had a stake in got
to keep the gate from the live event and portions of the closed circuit
telecast."
Warning: include() [function.include]: http:// wrapper is disabled in the server configuration by allow_url_include=0 in /nfs/c01/h09/mnt/13075/domains/loge13.com/html/2010/03/index.php on line 971
Warning: include(http://www.blogsbyfans.com/ftn2.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /nfs/c01/h09/mnt/13075/domains/loge13.com/html/2010/03/index.php on line 971
Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening 'http://www.blogsbyfans.com/ftn2.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/local/php-5.3.15/share/pear') in /nfs/c01/h09/mnt/13075/domains/loge13.com/html/2010/03/index.php on line 971
Warning: include() [function.include]: http:// wrapper is disabled in the server configuration by allow_url_include=0 in /nfs/c01/h09/mnt/13075/domains/loge13.com/html/2010/03/index.php on line 1754
Warning: include(http://www.loge13.com/newfoot.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /nfs/c01/h09/mnt/13075/domains/loge13.com/html/2010/03/index.php on line 1754
Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening 'http://www.loge13.com/newfoot.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/local/php-5.3.15/share/pear') in /nfs/c01/h09/mnt/13075/domains/loge13.com/html/2010/03/index.php on line 1754
I am a fan of him, and hope that he either makes it w/the Mets, or w/another team.