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NEW YORK — Dwight Gooden still knows how to work a crowd.

Honored by the New York Mets with the retirement of his No. 16 on Sunday, the four-time All-Star recounted how his career in Queens was cut short by drugs and alcohol, forcing him to sign across town ahead of the 1996 season.

“I wanted to stay to make things right with you guys. I didn’t want to leave on the note that I did,” Gooden told the fans, “Unfortunately, they thought it was best that we go separate ways. I was lucky enough to stay in New York, play with the New York Yankees for two years, ’96 and ’97.”

The Citi Field crowd booed the mention of the Mets’ crosstown rival, and Gooden shook his head while putting his left hand over his heart.

“I’m always a Met. I’m not saying nothing. I’m always a Met. I’m always a Met,” he said, prompting cheers.

His number was unveiled high above the left-field side, joining 14 (Gil Hodges, 1973), 17 (Keith Hernandez, 2022), 24 (Willie Mays, 2022), 31 (Mike Piazza, 2016), 36 (Jerry Koosman, 2021), 37 (Casey Stengel, 1965) and 41 (Tom Seaver, 1988).

Darryl Strawberry’s No. 18 is set to be retired June 1. Gooden was moved by the presence of the 62-year-old Strawberry, who had a heart attack March 11.

“It’ll always be Darryl and Doc or Doc and Darryl,” Gooden said. “I was very happy to see him. It just brought joy to me that he took the opportunity to make it here today and enjoy this day with me.”

The ceremony began with rapper Chuck D, whose actual name is Carlton Douglas Ridenhour, narrating a montage that ended with Gooden watching and nodding in an empty Citi Field. Gooden entered through a “K Korner” outside the home dugout, a nod to how fans at Shea Stadium hung K’s for each strikeout.

Gooden was presented with a framed jersey and a bronzed pitching rubber listing his Mets accomplishments. After taking a lap around Citi Field, he threw out the ceremonial first pitch to his grandson Kaden.

Gooden told fans how he kept trying to return to the Mets but was rebuffed after the 1997, 1999 and 2000 seasons.

“The moral of the story is everything’s about timing,” Gooden said as a light rain fell during his three-minute speech. “Now, today, the time is right. My health is good, my mental health is good and today I get to retire as a Met. And I want all you guys to know, you guys are part of this. Thank you so much.”

Gooden, 59, played for the Mets from 1984 to 1994, winning the 1984 NL Rookie of the Year and the 1985 NL Cy Young Award. He went 194-112 with a 3.51 ERA and 2,293 strikeouts in 16 seasons, including 157-85 with a 3.10 ERA with 1,875 strikeouts for the Mets.

He helped the Mets win the 1986 World Series title but his career was interrupted by substance abuse. He was suspended from June 1994 through the 1995 season, then signed with the Yankees.

“Everything was compared to what I did in ’85 because I set the bar so high,” Gooden said during a morning news conference.

He had hoped to see his number retired but understood why the Mets held off.

“The things I did on the field, I’ve always had a chance,” Gooden said. “But unfortunately, the struggles I had off the field, I thought it diminished that, it probably wouldn’t happen.”

Gooden spent seven months in prison in 2006 and was arrested several times for DUI but has been clean since 2019. He regularly speaks at New York-area schools about avoiding drugs and alcohol and is also a staple at autograph shows.

A dozen of Gooden’s former teammates attended the ceremony along with Sandy Carter, widow of the Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter.

“Just being here today, to be able to speak to you guys and share the history all through his life — that’s the most important thing to our family,” said Gooden’s nephew, former big league slugger Gary Sheffield. “Baseball is secondary, always. We just want to make sure he is OK.”

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Giants sell 10% stake to private equity firm

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Giants sell 10% stake to private equity firm

The San Francisco Giants have sold a reported 10% stake in the team to private equity firm Sixth Street.

The team confirmed the deal Tuesday but not the amount of the investment, which was first reported Monday by the New York Times.

Sportico places the value of the franchise and its team-related holdings at $4.2 billion.

Sixth Street’s investment, reportedly approved by Major League Baseball on Monday, will go toward upgrades to Oracle Park and the Giants’ training facilities in Scottsdale, Arizona, as well as Mission Rock, the team’s real estate development project located across McCovey Cove from the ballpark.

Giants president and CEO Larry Baer called it the “first significant investment in three decades” and said the money would not be spent on players.

“This is not about a stockpile for the next Aaron Judge,” Baer told the New York Times. “This is about improvements to the ballpark, making big bets on San Francisco and the community around us, and having the firepower to take us into the next generation.”

Sixth Street is the primary owner of National Women’s Soccer League franchise Bay FC. It also has investments in the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs and Spanish soccer powers Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.

“We believe in the future of San Francisco, and our sports franchises like the Giants are critical ambassadors for our city of innovation, showcasing to the world what’s only made possible here,” Sixth Street co-founder and CEO Alan Waxman said in the news release. “We believe in Larry and the leadership team’s vision for this exciting new era, and we’re proud to be partnering with them as they execute the next chapter of San Francisco Giants success.”

Founded in 2009 and based in San Francisco, Sixth Street has assets totaling $75 billion, according to Front Office Sports.

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Ohtani ‘nervous’ in Tokyo but gets 2 hits, runs

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Ohtani 'nervous' in Tokyo but gets 2 hits, runs

TOKYO — Shohei Ohtani seems impervious to a variety of conditions that afflict most humans — nerves, anxiety, distraction — but it took playing a regular-season big-league game in his home country to change all of that.

After the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ Opening Day 4-1 win over the Chicago Cubs in the Tokyo Dome, Ohtani made a surprising admission. “It’s been a while since I felt this nervous playing a game,” he said. “It took me four or five innings.”

Ohtani had two hits and scored twice, and one of his outs was a hard liner that left his bat at more than 96 mph, so the nerves weren’t obvious from the outside. But clearly the moment, and its weeklong buildup, altered his usually stoic demeanor.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Shohei nervous,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But one thing I did notice was how emotional he got during the Japanese national anthem. I thought that was telling.”

As the Dodgers began the defense of last year’s World Series win, it became a night to showcase the five Japanese players on the two teams. For the first time in league history, two Japanese pitchers — the Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the Cubs’ Shota Imanaga — faced each other on Opening Day. Both pitched well, with Imanaga throwing four hitless innings before being removed after 69 pitches.

“Seventy was kind of the number we had for Shota,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “It was the right time to take him out.”

The Dodgers agreed, scoring three in the fifth inning off reliever Ben Brown. Imanaga kept the Dodgers off balance, but his career-high four walks created two stressful innings that ran up his pitch count.

Yamamoto rode the adrenaline of pitching in his home country, routinely hitting 98 with his fastball and vexing the Cubs with a diving splitter over the course of five three-hit innings. He threw with a kind of abandon, finding a freedom that often eluded him last year in his first year in America.

“I think last year to this year, the confidence and conviction he has throwing the fastball in the strike zone is night and day,” Roberts said. “If he can continue to do that, I see no reason he won’t be in the Cy Young conversation this season.”

Cubs right fielder Seiya Suzuki went hitless in four at bats — the Cubs had only three hits, none in the final four innings against four relievers out of the Dodgers’ loaded bullpen — and rookie Roki Sasaki will make his first start of his Dodger career in the second and final game of the series Wednesday.

“I don’t think there was a Japanese baseball player in this country who wasn’t watching tonight,” Roberts said.

The Dodgers were without Mookie Betts, who left Japan on Monday after it was decided his illness would not allow him to play in this series. And less than an hour before game time, first baseman Freddie Freeman was scratched with what the team termed “left rib discomfort,” a recurrence of an injury he first sustained during last year’s playoffs.

The night started with a pregame celebration that felt like an Olympic opening ceremony in a lesser key. There were Pikachus on the field and a vaguely threatening video depicting the Dodgers and Cubs as Monster vs. Monster. World home-run king Saduharu Oh was on the field before the game, and Roberts called meeting Oh “a dream come true.”

For the most part, the crowd was subdued, as if it couldn’t decide who or what to root for, other than Ohtani. It was admittedly confounding: throughout the first five innings, if fans rooted for the Dodgers they were rooting against Imanaga, but rooting for the Cubs meant rooting against Yamamoto. Ohtani, whose every movement is treated with a rare sense of wonder, presented no such conflict.

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Cardinals shortstop Winn out with wrist soreness

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Cardinals shortstop Winn out with wrist soreness

JUPITER, Fla. — St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn was scratched from the lineup for their exhibition game on Tuesday because of soreness in his right wrist.

Winn was replaced by Jose Barrero in the Grapefruit League matchup with the Miami Marlins, with the regular-season opener nine days away. Winn, who was a 2020 second-round draft pick by the Cardinals, emerged as a productive everyday player during his rookie year in 2024. He batted .267 with 15 home runs, 11 stolen bases and 57 RBIs in 150 games and was named as one of three finalists for the National League Gold Glove Award that went to Ezequiel Tovar of the Colorado Rockies.

Winn had minor surgery after the season to remove a cyst from his hand. In 14 spring training games, he’s batting .098 (4 for 41) with 12 strikeouts.

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