Dwight Gooden

Dwight Gooden threw a no-hitter for the New York Yankees a month after the team nearly released him. That sentence alone tells you everything about his Bronx chapter -- three separate stints and one all-time redemption arc, from a guy whose career had already peaked a decade earlier in Queens (yes, we know about the Cy Young, the '86 ring -- this isn't that story). This is the guy who found a second act in pinstripes, twice.

Path to the Bronx

Gooden's fame belongs to the Mets -- 1984 Rookie of the Year, a 1985 Cy Young season that's still one of the greatest any pitcher's ever had, a title in '86. But cocaine addiction chewed through that career fast. He got popped for a positive test in June 1994, did a stint at the Betty Ford Center, then tested positive again while serving that suspension. MLB banned him for the rest of '94 and all of 1995 (the whole season, gone). The Mets moved on without him.

George Steinbrenner didn't. In February 1996, the Yankees signed Gooden to a modest, incentive-laden deal and reunited him with Mel Stottlemyre, his old Mets pitching coach who'd since taken the same job in the Bronx (small world, tight circle). It didn't look like a great bet early on -- through his first three starts, Gooden was running an 11.48 ERA and got bumped to the bullpen. The Yankees were seriously considering cutting him loose.

The No-Hitter

Then came May 14, 1996, in the middle of the Yankees' 1996 championship season. Facing a Mariners lineup that had a young Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr., and Edgar Martinez in it, Gooden walked six, struck out five, and didn't allow a single hit across a laborious, dramatic, more-than-130-pitch outing at the Stadium. He walked A-Rod to lead off. He got Griffey to ground out. He walked Edgar and threw a wild pitch to Jay Buhner before striking him out. Derek Jeter squeezed the final out, a Paul Sorrento popup, and that was it -- a freakin' no-hitter, 2-0.

It got heavier than that, too. Gooden's father was set for open-heart surgery in Tampa the next morning, and Gooden wept on the mound once it was over. A guy nearly cut a month earlier had just thrown the first no-hitter by a Yankees right-hander since Don Larsen's perfect game in 1956.

Gooden finished 1996 at 11-7 -- his first winning record since 1991 -- but a tired shoulder wrecked his September (9.77 ERA), and Joe Torre left him off the postseason roster entirely. He didn't throw a single pitch as the Yankees beat Atlanta for the title. He still got a ring. Sometimes that's just how a championship season works out -- you don't have to be on the mound in October to have earned your way onto the team photo.

1997, Then Gone, Then Back Again

1997 was a quieter, uglier year (9-5, 4.91 ERA), capped by one ALDS start against Cleveland where he left with a 2-1 lead in the sixth before the bullpen let it slip away. The Yankees didn't bring him back for '98 or '99.

Then 2000 happened, and it happened fast. Gooden signed with Houston that January, made one real appearance in April, got shipped to Tampa Bay for cash, and was released by his own hometown team on May 25. Seventeen days later, the Yankees signed him again -- a third stint, this time on a minor-league deal nobody expected much from.

He made them look smart. As a spot starter and long man down the stretch, Gooden went 4-2 with a 3.36 ERA -- his best in pinstripes -- including a July win over the very Mets team that made him famous. He pitched in three games that October's earlier rounds, sat out the World Series itself, and watched the Yankees beat the Mets in five anyway. Second Yankees ring. Third of his career, counting from Shea.

Two teams, two fanbases, three championship rings -- and the Bronx chapter almost didn't happen at all. Gooden's real fame will always live at Shea. But the no-hitter, the tears on the mound, the guy the Yankees almost cut loose twice and kept anyway? That one's ours.