Yesterday’s news about Dwight Gooden has brought out a lot of old photographs of Doctor K, but this one is the one I like the best. Two young stars, their potential seemingly limitless — 1985 All-Star! — clowning around after a game in some wood-paneled office at Shea Stadium that still had NFL helmets on display years after the Jets had moved to New Jersey.

Unfortunately, the only images I have of it are in my head. I never really had a chance to get a picture of it, because my first camera — the cheap and perfect-for-kids Kodak Disc (I was probably influenced by the commercial) — wouldn’t have been able to handle shooting from behind the window of a moving car, and it wasn’t until the past four years that I found myself any further west in Manhattan than that exit to the tunnel, and with all the changes in New York, that building itself may not even be standing, let alone any monster billboards of the city’s biggest sports star that may be occupying the space. Gooden, it seems, came down shortly after his drug suspension in 1994, though if I took note of its disappearance at the time, I didn’t keep the memory for long.

That was truly a year in which everything came together, stars and planets included. The talent was undeniable and it should’ve carried over into another division title in 1987, if not another World Series win before the ’80s were out. It just wasn’t in the cards.
I really enjoyed reading your article. This was around the same time that I became a Mets fan. I used to travel with my dad to work when I was young coming in from Jersey through the Lincoln Tunnel. Always remember seeing Doc up on the building. Good memories for sure. I miss the city back then.