No sooner have the heroics of Johan Santana and Jason Bay combined to lift the sagging spirts of Mets fans than the continued trials and tribulations of former Amazins great Dwight Gooden take center stage. Gooden, scheduled for induction into the Mets Hall of Fame next Saturday along with Frank Cashen, Davey Johnson and Darryl Strawberry, has abandoned his wife and children, according to the New York Post’s Tim Bontemps and Doug Auer :
Monique Gooden said she and her children — 5-year-old son Dylan and 4-month-old daughter Milan — are living with her parents in their home in Columbia, Md., as the troubled 1985 National League Cy Young Award winner is nowhere to be found.
“He’s left us with no money,” his slighted spouse said. “When I got here to Maryland, I had to go apply for social services, food stamps and health insurance for the kids. He has offered no financial assistance to us.
Monique, a former flight attendant, said she is unaware of her estranged husband’s whereabouts — only that the 1984 National League Rookie of the Year had been holed up in a hotel somewhere in New Jersey back in May.
The couple wed in January 2009, but Monique claims they haven’t lived together since May 1.
“You know what, right now I’m so stressed, I’ve been so stressed that every day has been a struggle for me,” she said. “I just want support for the kids at this time . . . I just want to take care of them.”