Dwight Gooden- What a waste

The ex-MLB pitcher was sentenced to 366 days in jail. This was Gooden's choice, either he could go to jail or go to drug rehab. This was a result of his violating probation with cocaine use.

Gooden had a brilliant start in the majors before burning out. That burn out was at least partly attributable to drug use. This use by his admission has been going on for two decades. Throw your life away for drugs. I don't feel sorry for Gooden, but I do hope prison time will teach him to get his act together. Unfortunately his past track record of drug rehab and relapses doesn't make me optimistic.

Open Post- Bright & Early, Basil's Blog, Is it Just me?,

MIAMI (Reuters) - Embattled former baseball star Dwight Gooden chose on Wednesday to go to prison for a year and a day rather than enter a drug rehabilitation facility after using cocaine while on probation, court officials in Tampa said.

Gooden, a Tampa native who won the National League Cy Young Award in 1985, had been on probation since he fled from police after a traffic stop in 2004.

Submission to regular drug tests was one of the conditions of his probation and he was sent to Hillsborough County Jail last month after testing positive for cocaine.

Prosecutor Pam Bondi said Gooden was given the chance to accept treatment in an inpatient alcohol and drug addiction facility instead of prison time before his sentencing.

Bondi said Gooden chose the minimum one-year-and-one-day prison sentence instead because the judge said Gooden would receive a five-year sentence if he accepted the rehabilitation term and then slipped back into drug use.

"He let many people down but the most important person was himself," Bondi said.