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The New York Times Printer Friendly Format Sponsored By April 5, 2006 Ex-Pitcher Gooden Sentenced to Year in Prison By DAVID STOUT Dwight Gooden, the onetime baseball superstar who squandered much of his talent with self-destructive behavior off the field, was sentenced to a year and a day in a Florida state prison today for violating his probation by using cocaine. Mr. Gooden, 41, was sentenced by Judge Daniel Perry in State Circuit Court in Hillsborough County after expressing remorse over his latest run-in with the law, said Pam Bondi, an assistant states attorney. Mr. Gooden was on three years' probation for trying to evade a police officer who stopped him on suspicion of drunken driving. In pleading guilty last November to a felony count of fleeing the police, a misdemeanor charge of reckless driving and to an unrelated charge of hitting his girlfriend, he apologized to the court. But he admitted on March 22 that he had violated his probation by using cocaine, the substance that first started his downward spiral two decades ago. Ms. Bondi said Mr. Gooden will be sent to a prison with a substance-abuse treatment program and could be freed in seven or eight months with credit for time already served. Mr. Gooden retired from baseball in 2001 after pitching for the New York Mets, New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians, Houston Astros and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. His career record was 194-112 — impressive enough, to be sure, but far short of what was once expected of him. Dwight Gooden was the National League Rookie of the Year with the Mets in 1984, with a 17-9 record and a 2.60 earned-run average. That summer, at 19, he was the youngest player ever to appear in an All-Star Game. The next year, he won the Cy Young award with the Mets, winning 24 games. No one could have known then that his best seasons were already behind him. Twenty years ago this week, the Mets opened their season at Pittsburgh, and Dwight Gooden earned the victory, the first of 17 for the season, against 6 losses. But his blazing fastball, which had reminded some old-timers of Bob Feller, had obviously lost some of its zip and motion. Opposing hitters learned to wait on it, and he gave up more than a few long home runs. The Mets won the World Series of 1986, which endures in baseball lore as one that the Boston Red Sox gave away. The Mets triumphed not because of but despite Dwight Gooden, who failed miserably in the playoffs and lost two games in the Series. He never won a post-season game in his career. The following January, he pleaded no contest to two felony charges of fighting with Tampa police officers after he was stopped for a traffic violation. "I'm happy this is behind me," he said after being put on three years' probation. But his troubles were only beginning. In April 1987, he tested positive for cocaine use and missed the first two months of the season. Still, he won 15 games and lost just 7. There were more problems, with alcohol as well as drugs. He had a losing record with the Mets from 1992 to 1994 and missed the entire 1995 season. Gooden fans saw hope for a revival when he played with the Yankees, pitching the only no-hitter of his career at Yankee Stadium in 1996. His off-field problems continued, to the point of monotony. After retiring as a player, he was briefly a special assistant for the Yankees, but he left that post a year ago. The paperwork on his latest arrest listed him as unemployed. After Mr. Gooden was arrested last year, his former Yankees manager Joe Torre said, "I'm sure he wishes he could turn the pages back." The 1986 World Series was perhaps the most poignant moment in Dwight Gooden's career. The Red Sox had a phenomenal young pitcher of their own that season: Roger Clemens. He has kept himself in top condition, which is why he was still pitching well into his 40's. Roger Clemens will be in the Baseball Hall of Fame one day. Dwight Gooden, whose talent was arguably just as great, probably will not.

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Indian director hopes to cast Paris Hilton as Mother Teresa Mon Apr 3, 9:56 AM ET An Indian movie director said he hopes to persuade Paris Hilton to play the role of Nobel laureate and prospective Catholic Saint, Mother Teresa, in an upcoming film. "Her features resemble Mother Teresa," director T. Rajeevnath told AFP from the southwestern coastal state of Kerala. The filmmaker said Hilton is on his shortlist after a computer-generated image showed a close facial match between the hotel heiress and the Albanian-born nun. Mother Teresa, who died in 1997, worked among the poor in the teeming slums of Kolkata, formerly Calcutta, with the Missionaries of Charity. She was beatified by Pope John Paul in 2003, a significant step on the road to sainthood in the Catholic church. "A meeting with Paris Hilton is scheduled for the end of April," Rajeevnath said. The 54-year-old director is well-known in India for his Malayalam-language films, including "Janani" (Mother) -- the story of seven nuns who care for an abandoned baby, which won a national award. Hilton's prior movie experience includes appearing in a home-made sex video made by a former boyfriend that appeared on the Internet, and parts in several Hollywood B-films. The blond socialite, who is often the focus of US celebrity gossip columns, also starred in the US reality television show "The Simple Life". Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Agence France Presse. Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Questions or Comments Privacy Policy -Terms of Service - Copyright/IP Policy - Ad Feedback

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Gottlieb was editor of New Yorker Magazine for a few years, and in that capacity he came under the influence of Whitney Balliet, who encouraged him to do the book.

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Bluegrass: A History, by Neil V. Rosenburg. Astonishingly, this book was the first serious study of bluegrass music; apparently, at the time of publication (1985) no commercial presses were interested in the manuscript, because it wound up being published by the University of Illinois Press. Rosenburg would have profited from closer editing, but, that said, he's a perceptive writer who has long been engaged by his subject.

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