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High and Tight:: The Rise and Fall of Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry
Guaranteed to dominate the sports page, this inside story of the trials and tribulations of two of baseball's biggest and brightest stars relates the hopes, heartbreaks, excesses, and exorcisms of Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry. of photos.
228 pages, Hardcover
First published April 14, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 23, 2020
Enjoyable book for all Mets fans. However it seems to end a properly before the 1996 season. Strawberry ends up signing in 1996 again with the Yankees and plays three more years without any mention. Dwight Gooden also played for at least four more years (memory is shot, lol). Good and threw a no-hitter in May 1996 and that I felt should have been discussed more.
November 26, 2017
The book was ok. It provided good information but the whole time I just felt like I was reading a newspaper article. The book is written pretty bland and seems to jump around a repeat itself a few times but nonetheless it still conveys the story of Gooden and Strawberry pretty well.
October 26, 2014
The book High and tight was about two baseball players in the 1980's and 90's, Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden. This book to me showed the 'behind the scenes' of the MLB back in that time period, showing that not all MLB players were Heroes, but junkies, and aggressive people.
In the 80's, Darryl and Dwight were hooked on cocaine. Before those days, Darryl Strawberry was the nicest of players. His mom said "Darryl was someone who always wanted to be liked." She went on saying how he was always talking with fans acting like nothing was wrong. He was signing autographs, and she said he was nice to pretty much everybody. She also said Darryl's need to be liked, made him vulnerable to outside influences. Darryls first contact with cocaine came in his rookie season where he was introduced by two veteran teammates. This is an example of how Darryl was too nice and wanted to be liked as a rookie.
Darryl's teammate Doc had some of his own trouble when he was young. In his rookie season, he had some trouble with a drug dealer. "The next instant, he felt a blow to his face so devastating that his eyes rolled back in his head. He lost his footing and for a half second he could have sworn he was flying." This happened when Doc was attempting to purchase cocaine from a man Hawk. When hawks workers discovered that he was 'the young kid baseball star' they realized that they would scare him silly, and scare him away from drugs. This part in the book shows that even when he was a top prospect for the Mets, he still risked his well being even before he mad his appearance. This quote supports the idea that these stars weren't who the little kids who looked at them thought they were, they were criminals.
After those two instances, in 1985, Darryl was in trouble with drug and alcohol abuse and was taking it out on his wife. Darryl was fighting with his wife multiple times and in this certain instant, it was affecting his baseball career, "Take me back home. I ain't finished with her yet." This is occurring in a rough patch of Darryl's life, where he's fighting his wife and he's starting his life with addictions to drugs. This happened when Dwight and Darryl were pulling into Shea Stadium. Darryl was so frustrated with his wife, so he decided to delay what he and Dwight were doing to harm his wife. This shows more evidence of stuff that the fans didn't know until years later.
I thought that this book is a must read for any baseball fan, and specifically Mets fans. It will show the reader a different view of there former role models, and how much you don't know about some athletes in American sports.
In the 80's, Darryl and Dwight were hooked on cocaine. Before those days, Darryl Strawberry was the nicest of players. His mom said "Darryl was someone who always wanted to be liked." She went on saying how he was always talking with fans acting like nothing was wrong. He was signing autographs, and she said he was nice to pretty much everybody. She also said Darryl's need to be liked, made him vulnerable to outside influences. Darryls first contact with cocaine came in his rookie season where he was introduced by two veteran teammates. This is an example of how Darryl was too nice and wanted to be liked as a rookie.
Darryl's teammate Doc had some of his own trouble when he was young. In his rookie season, he had some trouble with a drug dealer. "The next instant, he felt a blow to his face so devastating that his eyes rolled back in his head. He lost his footing and for a half second he could have sworn he was flying." This happened when Doc was attempting to purchase cocaine from a man Hawk. When hawks workers discovered that he was 'the young kid baseball star' they realized that they would scare him silly, and scare him away from drugs. This part in the book shows that even when he was a top prospect for the Mets, he still risked his well being even before he mad his appearance. This quote supports the idea that these stars weren't who the little kids who looked at them thought they were, they were criminals.
After those two instances, in 1985, Darryl was in trouble with drug and alcohol abuse and was taking it out on his wife. Darryl was fighting with his wife multiple times and in this certain instant, it was affecting his baseball career, "Take me back home. I ain't finished with her yet." This is occurring in a rough patch of Darryl's life, where he's fighting his wife and he's starting his life with addictions to drugs. This happened when Dwight and Darryl were pulling into Shea Stadium. Darryl was so frustrated with his wife, so he decided to delay what he and Dwight were doing to harm his wife. This shows more evidence of stuff that the fans didn't know until years later.
I thought that this book is a must read for any baseball fan, and specifically Mets fans. It will show the reader a different view of there former role models, and how much you don't know about some athletes in American sports.
June 28, 2014
Meeting your heroes might be tough sometimes, if they don't quite treat you the way you expect. Reading about them can be even tougher. This book, while it seems to be an indictment of the life path chosen my our two Met heroes, can also be a cautionary tale. However, reading the wicked tales did not detract from my affection for these guys, although I promise not to emulate them.
December 31, 2009
This book deals with the tragic downfall of Darryl Strawberry and Dwight 'Doc' Gooden. It's a typical 'can't deal with fame' syndrome. What a waste of talent.
November 20, 2012
Not a bad book about two of sports biggest wasted talents. Kinda jumpy in regards to timeline, but an in depth look into the two superstars lives.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews