Darryl Strawberry: Dwight Gooden needs help to kick cocaine

Dwight "Doc" Gooden, the 1985 National League Cy Young Award winner who played 16 seasons in the majors, has relapsed in his recovery from a cocaine addiction, former teammate Darryl Strawberry said Sunday.

Strawberry, one of Gooden's teammates on the World Series-winning 1986 New York Mets, told the New York Daily News that Gooden is a "complete junkie-addict" and "won't listen" to behind-the-scenes attempts at an intervention.

"The condition Doc is in, it's bad, it's horrible," Strawberry told the Daily News. "It's like cocaine poison. I feel like I've got to get it out there because nobody else is doing anything to help him, and it might be the only way to stop him."

Gooden, 51, was scheduled to appear at a WFAN event with Strawberry last Thursday, but he did not appear after sending a text to the Daily News saying that he was experiencing "minor health issues."

That's when Strawberry decided to go public about Gooden's struggles.

"The worst thing we can do for him is stay silent," Strawberry said. "That was a common thread in some of these other celebrity deaths, like Prince and Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson. Silence can kill people."

An unnamed source told the Daily News that Gooden locked himself in the bedroom of his Jersey City apartment Thursday before his scheduled appearance with Strawberry and would not come out despite multiple pleas.

Strawberry believes Gooden is in an especially vulnerable state after the death of his mother in July.

Janice Roots, a woman who said she had a live-in relationship with Gooden for four years, told the Daily News that Gooden's most recent struggles began in January 2014.

"It got to a point where he just succumbed to his addiction," Roots said.

Gooden said in an interview with the Daily News back in May that he had not used cocaine since 2011.

Gooden played the first 11 seasons of his career with the Mets and was a four-time All-Star and won three World Series titles. He had a career 194-112 record with a 3.51 ERA and 2,293 strikeouts over 430 games.