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Community rallies around fugitive Gooden

The former baseball star fled police Monday morning after failing to take a field sobriety test.

By KEVIN GRAHAM
Published August 25, 2005

TAMPA - While the search for Dwight Gooden stretched into the third day Wednesday, his mother went to church.

The Rev. Gordon M. Curry, pastor at Greater King David International Church in St. Petersburg, said he offered words of encouragement to Gooden's mother, Ella.

"We love him," Curry said later in an interview. "He has to surrender to the will of God for his life and allow God to do the rest."

Tampa police want the former baseball star to surrender to them, too.

Police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said Wednesday that detectives think Gooden is still in the area.

"Maybe these new charges piled on top of his old charges will eventually bring him to a low enough point to realize he needs to get help, and the first step is turning himself in," McElroy said.

Gooden was out of jail on bail from an arrest this spring.

An officer stopped the 40-year-old about 2:40 a.m. Monday on Cleveland Street because Gooden's BMW was weaving in and out of his lane, police said. The officer said Gooden's speech was slurred, his eyes bloodshot and he smelled of alcohol.

When asked to get out for a field sobriety test, Gooden refused. He hit the gas pedal and drove off instead.

He hasn't been seen since.

"We've got nothing. He has not been in touch with us," McElroy said. "We've been in touch with everybody and anybody who might know how to get in touch with him."

Police have issued a warrant for Gooden's arrest on charges of DUI, fleeing and eluding police and resisting arrest without violence. Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober's office said it couldn't say anything about what potential sentence Gooden would face if convicted until he's caught and formally charged.

Once upon a time, Gooden was one of the most talked about pitchers in Major League Baseball. Now, his ability to run has taken center stage.

On Wednesday, longtime friends and former Little League coaches pleaded for Gooden to turn himself in to police and vowed to stand behind him.

"We're not giving up on him," said Monty Bostick, who coached a 13-year-old Gooden on a Belmont Heights Little League team in east Tampa.

Artis Gambrell coached Gooden at 14, when the rising star became the youngest Belmont Heights little leaguer at the time to be a No. 1 pick for the all-star team.

"He was such a well-mannered kid," Gambrell said. "I guess some people change as they get older. Growing up, you wouldn't think he would get into some of the things he's in now. But you never know what would happen to someone when they come into the kind of money he did."

During his 17-year career, Gooden played with the New York Mets, Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Houston Astros. He won the Cy Young award in 1985.

Baseball officials tossed him out three separate times for cocaine use.

In March, he was arrested after being accused of punching his live-in girlfriend. And in April, he lost his job with the Yankees.

"He still has a chance," said Bostick. "He's just 40 years old."

Bostick, who works as a mental health counselor, said that Gooden probably feels depressed, "like he's let everybody down and himself."

"Go ahead and turn yourself in," was Bostick's message to Gooden. "You've got to start somewhere. As long as you live, there's always going to be a chance of you falling."

Bill Sims, a Belmont Heights neighborhood activist, said Gooden attended Hillsborough High School with his niece. He, like others in the neighborhood, continue to pray that Gooden will come forward.

"We want him to understand that everybody makes mistakes," Sims said. "We just don't want anything bad to happen to him."

Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this story. Kevin Graham can be reached at 813 226-3433 or kgraham@sptimes.com

[Last modified August 25, 2005, 07:03:03]