Baseball / Ross Newhan : Players Union Told of Gooden Drug Use in August

The test was taken last Thursday. The results were back Monday. The decision was made Wednesday.

There is reason to believe, however, that the Major League Players Assn. knew about Dwight Gooden’s problems in August of last year but either could do nothing about it or chose to do nothing about it.

Gooden will open the 1987 season on the New York Mets’ 15-day disabled list, having agreed Wednesday to enter an evaluation and rehabilitation program after a voluntary test for illegal substances showed a trace of cocaine.

The decision by Gooden to accept medical assistance forestalls possible suspension by Commissioner Peter Ueberroth.

There were rumors linking Gooden and drugs since midseason of last year, but the confirmation still represented a shock and seemed to refute Ueberroth’s contention that baseball has won the war against drugs.

It also seemed to demonstrate baseball’s continuing need for a joint drug program that would include mandatory testing, which the union still opposes.

Would a testing program have been a deterrent or gotten Gooden into rehabilitation sooner?

David Pinter believes that.

Pinter, a millionaire in the steel business in New Jersey and New York, also represents Angel relief pitcher Donnie Moore and has represented other players in the past. He said Wednesday that he called union counsel Arthur Shack in August with what he considered reliable information regarding Gooden’s use of cocaine.

“I heard from neighbors who knew Gooden that he was doing coke,” Pinter said. “I didn’t want to see another Len Bias. I wanted it checked out.

“I mean, how does a 22-year-old kid lose the best fastball in baseball? You only had to look at how he was pitching to know something was wrong.

“I wanted Gooden confronted, grabbed by the neck if need be and put in a drug center. To hell with the pennant and World Series. Something should have been done for the kid.

“Arthur thanked me, told me he would give it to the proper people, but they didn’t do anything as far as I know.

“What the players’ association needs is a leader with the strength of a Peter Ueberroth. There’s no leadership.

“I kept calling and they’d say, ‘What can we do, our hands are tied.’ ”

Asked Wednesday if he recalled that August conversation with Pinter, Shack said: “I’m not saying he did or didn’t (call). I can’t comment.”

Donald Fehr, the union’s executive director, was traveling from California to New York Wednesday and was unavailable for comment.

A union official who requested anonymity said there are informal avenues the union can travel with information of the type that Pinter says he gave Shack.

“We can talk to the player, the agent, the people close to the player,” he said.

“We can’t put a gun to his head and demand that he get help. We can’t discipline him. We can’t go to management.”

Did the union ever travel any of those avenues with Gooden?

“I really don’t know what was done,” he said.

What the union did earlier in ’86 was file a grievance in response to Ueberroth’s unilateral attempt to initiate a drug program that included mandatory testing.

The arbitrator supported the union’s contention that Ueberroth violated the collective bargaining agreement. The union hailed it as a victory for the Constitutional right of privacy and continues to oppose mandatory testing, erasing any likelihood of a joint agreement and substantive program.

Was Gooden on drugs when he struck out 68 fewer batters and went 17-6 last year compared to 24-4 in 1985?

Was he on more than a natural high while allowing 17 hits and 10 runs in the nine innings of his two winless World Series starts?

That isn’t clear.

What does seem clear is this:

Isn’t it time for the union to drop the privacy issue, untie it’s own hands and support testing? If admittedly unable to help a player, then why not let a legitimate drug program do it.

The Tampa Tribune, Gooden’s hometown newspaper, sent a reporter to local playgrounds Wednesday and was told that, yes, the kids knew their hero was a user.

A user! Didn’t the Mets, who paid him $1.5 million, have a right to know? How about the teammates who were relying on him, or the fans who bought their tickets expecting an honest effort?

All of this is a familiar argument, but more than ever a valid one. The Bill or Rights is important. A clean bill, considering the stakes, may be more important.

In some ways, of course, Wednesday’s announcement was no surprise. Beset by problems away from the field, the Mets have appeared to be a time bomb, unable to enjoy their World Series championship. The ticking has been accompanied by police calls, brawls and indictments.

Gooden, for his part, responded to the drug rumors by asking that a testing clause be included in the $1.8-million contract he signed last winter. It wasn’t. He volunteered for tests, but the test he took last Thursday was his first.

His lawyer said that only a trace of cocaine was detected. It is not known how long he will be in rehabilitation. A second offense, under the Ueberroth program, would produce punishment.

It was at the conclusion of last season, a season that began with Ueberroth having levied conditional suspensions against the players involved in the Pittsburgh drug trials of 1985, that he said baseball had won the war with drugs, that there may be an occasional brush fire but never a scandal similar to Pittsburgh.

On Wednesday, Edwin Durso, the commissioner’s executive vice president, put it this way:

“It would be naive to think there won’t be an isolated incident, but the collective effort has produced substantial results (in confronting the drug problem). Pittsburgh was a scandal. This is not a scandal.”

If a former Cy Young Award winner named Dr. K needs his own special doctor, that would seem to be a scandal.

Only the absence of a legitimate drug program, a program that includes testing, a program that might have helped Gooden last year when it was first being suggested that he needed this kind of help, is a bigger scandal.