Gooden Banned for Next Season : Baseball: Already suspended once this year, free agent pitcher is penalized for repeated drug violations.

If there is a 1995 baseball season, pitcher Dwight Gooden doesn’t figure to be a part of it.

Gooden, whose problems with cocaine surfaced seven years ago, was banned Friday for the entire season by major league baseball for repeated drug violations.

Gooden, who will turn 30 in two weeks, already had been suspended once this year after testing positive for drugs. He was treated at the Betty Ford Center last summer, but then tested positive again.

“Dwight Gooden needs to get his life in order,” said Joe McIlvaine, general manager of the New York Mets, Gooden’s team before he became a free agent last month. “Dwight needs to realize the problem and come to grips with it.

“He has been offered the best assistance baseball and the New York Mets have to give for his problem and he has not taken advantage of this guidance and help. All of us who love this man urge him to get the help he needs, put God into his life and exhibit the same tenacity he showed on the mound, especially in the early years of his career, when a lead in the seventh inning meant a victory in the ninth.”

Gooden was with the Mets for all of his 11-year career before becoming a free agent on Oct. 24. By the time he was 21, he had been National League rookie of the year and a Cy Young Award winner. But six months after leading the Mets to a World Series title in 1986, he admitted to a cocaine problem and voluntarily entered a treatment center.

Since then, he has been tested by baseball as many as three times a week.

This year, however, he failed four drug tests. He was suspended from baseball for 60 days on June 28 for failing two tests and then, in September, he tested positive twice more. Because of the still unresolved player strike, Gooden had 15 days remaining of the 60-day suspension.

Gooden’s agent, Jim Neader, met with the pitcher for about an hour Friday at Gooden’s home in St. Petersburg, Fla. Gooden chose not to speak publicly, but probably will make a statement next week, Neader said.

“He’s determined to beat it and get back to 100% health,” Neader told the Associated Press. “And when that is achieved, then we’ll think about baseball.”

The Major League Players Assn. has the right to challenge the suspension through its grievance procedure, which would be heard by arbitrator George Nicolau. The union had no comment Friday.

Gooden has been a larger-than-life figure in New York. A multistory portrait of him on the mound is painted on the side of a building in mid-town Manhattan, visible to all exiting the Lincoln Tunnel.

After helping lead the Mets past the Boston Red Sox in the 1986 World Series, Gooden won 15 or more games in four of the next five seasons. He was 13-7 in 1991, and hasn’t been back to .500 since. He is the last Met from the 1986 championship team.

McIlvaine, who has spoken with Neader about re-signing the right-hander, had only one message Friday: Get help.

“Dwight needs to demonstrate that same degree of competitiveness to defeat a far more insidious enemy that is sucking the life out of him, both personally and professionally,” McIlvaine said.

The last player to serve a one-year suspension was New York Yankee pitcher Pascual Perez in 1992. In 1988, Seattle Mariner John Rabb was suspended indefinitely for not complying with baseball’s drug-testing program. In 1983, Dodger pitcher Steve Howe and the Kansas City’s Willie Aikens also served one-year suspensions.

Baseball and Drugs

* Sept. 9, 1980--Texas Ranger pitcher Ferguson Jenkins suspended indefinitely after his Aug. 25 arrest in Canada on charges of cocaine possession. After a grievance hearing, arbitrator Raymond Goetz lifted suspension of Jenkins on Sept. 22.

* Aug. 27, 1982--San Diego Padre outfielder Alan Wiggins suspended 30 days after his July 21 arrest on California charges of suspicion of attempting to possess cocaine.

* Dec. 15, 1983--Dodger pitcher Steve Howe, Kansas City Royal first baseman Willie Aikens, Royal outfielder Willie Wilson and former Royal outfielder Jerry Martin suspended for one year. The three Royals entered guilty pleas Nov. 17 to federal charges of attempting to possess cocaine. Howe had tested positive three times in November for cocaine in voluntary tests. After a grievance hearing, arbitrator Richard I. Bloch on April 3, 1984, commuted suspensions of Wilson and Martin to May 15.

* April 17, 1984--Atlanta Brave pitcher Pascual Perez suspended retroactive to April 3 (opening day) through May 15 after his Jan. 9 arrest in the Dominican Republic on charges of cocaine possession. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn commuted Aikens’ sentence to May 15. After a grievance hearing, Bloch lifted suspension of Perez on April 29, 1984.

* July 26, 1984--Free-agent pitcher Vida Blue suspended through remainder of 1984 season for illegal drug use.

* Feb. 28, 1986--Joaquin Andujar, Dale Berra, Enos Cabell, Keith Hernandez, Jeff Leonard, Dave Parker and Lonnie Smith suspended for one year with provision that they still would be able to play if they donate 10% of their 1986 base salaries to drug-prevention programs, submit to random drug testing and contribute 100 hours of drug-related community service in 1986 and 1987. Al Holland, Lee Lacy, Lary Sorensen and Claudell Washington suspended for 60 days with provision that they still would be able to play if they donate 5% of their 1986 base salaries to drug-prevention programs and contribute 50 hours of drug-related community service during 1986 and 1987.

* Feb. 25, 1987--Free-agent pitcher LaMarr Hoyt suspended for the 1987 season after his involvement in three illegal drug incidents during 1986. On Nov. 13, 1986, Hoyt entered a guilty plea to two misdemeanors--possession of propoxyphene and Valium--after Oct. 28 arrest on charges of importing a controlled substance. Arbitrator George Nicolau on June 16 commuted suspension of Hoyt to 60 days.

* March 30, 1988--Cincinnati Red outfielder Eddie Milner suspended for one year without pay as a repeat offender after his admission of cocaine use to team officials. Suspension lifted June 19 after Milner completed drug rehabilitation and 20-day injury rehabilitation.

* June 25, 1988--Montreal Expo pitcher Floyd Youmans suspended indefinitely “for failing to comply with his drug-testing program.” Suspension set at 60 days on Aug. 10.

* Aug. 4, 1988--Seattle Mariner infielder John Rabb suspended indefinitely “for failing to comply with the major league baseball drug-testing program.”

* Sept. 22, 1989--St. Louis Cardinal outfielder Leon Durham suspended 60 days “for failing to comply with major league baseball drug-testing program.”

* Aug. 6, 1990--San Francisco Giant outfielder Rick Leach suspended for 60 days after a positive drug test.

* Sept. 16, 1991--Atlanta Brave outfielder Otis Nixon suspended for 60 days after a positive test for cocaine.

* Feb. 7, 1992--Montreal Expo catcher Gilberto Reyes suspended for 60 days after a positive test in the Dominican Winter League. After a grievance hearing, Nicolau ruled April 3 that Reyes should be treated as a first-time offender and lifted the suspension.

* March 6, 1992--New York Yankee pitcher Pascual Perez suspended for one year after a positive test for cocaine.

* June 8, 1992--New York Yankee pitcher Steve Howe suspended indefinitely after entering a guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Missoula, Mont., to a misdemeanor charge of attempting to buy a gram of cocaine. Nicolau reduced the suspension to time served on Nov. 11, saying Howe was suffering from Attention Deficit Disorder.

* June 28, 1994--New York Met pitcher Dwight Gooden suspended for 60 days for violating his aftercare program, reportedly testing positive for cocaine.

* Nov. 15, 1994--Gooden, who became a free agent on Oct. 24, suspended for 1995 for violating his aftercare program, reportedly testing positive for cocaine while on suspension.