* For purposes of book promotion, self-serving authors say the damnest things. But that was an unnecessary, undeserved cheap shot delivered the other day by Tampa native Dwight “Doc” Gooden, the former MLB all-star pitcher. He was being interviewed by Alec Baldwin on the actor’s WNYC radio show/podcast “Here’s The Thing.” The subject of Gooden’s drug addiction obviously came up. It’s well chronicled in his book, “Doc: A Memoir,” that he wrote with help from Newsday columnist and Fox political analyst Ellis Henican.
Gooden, who came to fame as a New York Mets’ phenom, explained that his youthful introduction to cocaine came in his home town. “There was so much to do in New York … then I’d go home to Tampa where there was nothing to do,” he sniffed.
* $ign of the times: Football coach Will Muschamp, 18-8 in his first two years at the helm of the Florida Gators, is getting a nice raise and will now pull down more than $2.9 million annually. Muschamp is now the 7th-highest paid football coach in the–SEC.
* An important subplot in the drugs-and-rehab Kabuki Dance going on between the New York Yankees and Alex Rodriguez is pure bottom line. Even the Yankees, who outspend everybody else in baseball on payroll, cannot ignore the obscene salary hit for a player with eroding skills and an annoying attitude. Each day’s delay means that much more of his $153,000 daily salary is reimbursed by insurance.
* How ironic that the Tampa Bay Rays, as respected an organization as there is in Major League Baseball, has an issue with drugs–specifically the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. Since the start of the 2012 season, 12 Rays’ minor leaguers have been suspended for drug-related reasons. That’s more than any other MLB organization.
* It’s well-documented what Rays’ All Star pitcher Matt Moore, in only his second full season, has been doing this year. Less well known is that Moore, 24, is also the team union representative, not usually the role assumed by a player one year removed from his rookie season.