After watching Roger Clemens get spanked and David Cone struggle all year, George Steinbrenner is giving Dwight Gooden one more chance to be a Yankee, The Post has learned.
“George has been there for me again,” Gooden told The Post yesterday, hours after he agreed on a minor-league deal with the Yankees, who will announce the move before tonight’s game against the Mets.
Gooden, who was released by his hometown Devil Rays on May 25, will report to the Yankees’ minor-league complex in Tampa today. When he is ready for game action, he will join Columbus (Triple-A). From there, Gooden has his eyes on rejoining the team for whom he went 20-12 in 1996-97.
“It’s in my hands now,” Gooden said. “How I throw will determine how long I am there.”
Gooden, who is 10 wins shy of 200 with a 190-110 record, was 2-3 with a 6.63 ERA for the Devil Rays who obtained him from the Astros early in the season. When he was released, he was cool to the idea of going to Columbus, not that the Yankees showed an interest.
But after two weeks out of the game he once dominated went by with barely a nibble, Gooden called the Mets, the team he won the 1984 NL Rookie of the Year Award with as well as the 1985 NL Cy Young Award but left in disgrace after being banned from baseball for the 1995 season after violating terms of his substance abuse program.
“I talked to the Mets a little bit and they were cool,” Gooden said. “But when I found out George wanted me, that was it.”
Gooden, who left the Yankees for Cleveland as a free agent following the 1997 season when the Yankees didn’t pick up an option, has no guarantees from the Yankees. Nor does he yet have a role. He said he will start or relieve and enjoy it.
“Either / or is fine,” said Gooden, whose first taste of the bullpen last year with the Indians when he appeared in four games in relief. Of his 412 big- league games, 405 have been as a starter. “At this point, I will do what ever is best. I got a feel for the pen last year.”
With Steinbrenner orchestrating the signing, if Gooden pitches well, you can book it that he will return to the Yankees, for whom he threw a no-hitter in 1996.
Since being released by the pitching-poor Devil Rays, Gooden has heard whispers that his career was over at 35. However, he firmly believes he can knock off the rust and return to the big leagues and repay Steinbrenner’s faith in him.
“I can’t say enough nice things about George,” said Gooden, who felt The Boss’ wrath in 1997 when Gooden got into a fight with a Texas cab driver over a $5 fare.