Gooden wore No. 10 when he played at Hillsborough High School in Tampa, Fla. When he was drafted by the Mets in 1982, he asked his Rookie Ball manager in Kingsport for the same number.
“I don’t care who you effing are,” Gooden remembers his manager saying, “you’re not getting it.”
So Gooden asked his trainer for something close to it, just not No. 13. His trainer gave him No. 16, which he wore again the following season in Single-A Lynchburg. After making the team in 1984, Gooden looked up at his locker and saw that he was assigned the No. 35.
Having found success with No. 16 in two minor league seasons — in 38 starts he posted a 24-9 record with a 2.47 ERA and 384 strikeouts — Gooden wanted to keep the number. So he went to the Mets general manager at the time, Frank Cashen, to …