On This Date in Sports September 23, 1984: The K-Korner
In collaboration with the Sportsecyclopedia.com
Dwight Gooden makes his final start in his rookie season with the New York Mets. Gooden earns the win as the Mets beat the Montreal Expos 6-1, striking out nine to end the season with a league-leading 276 Ks. During the season enterprising fans began hanging Ks for every Gooden strikeout forming the K Korner in Leftfield at Shea Stadium. Dwight Gooden would go on to win Rookie of the Year.
Dwight Eugene Gooden was born in Tampa on November 16, 1964. Drafted fifth by the New York Mets in the 1982 MLB Draft, he quickly moved through the Mets system, earning a spot on the Opening Day roster. Gooden made his debut on April 7th at the Astrodome earning the win as Mets beat the Houston Astros 3-2. Gooden became an instant fan favorite, as the Mets after seven straight losing seasons, in which they lost 90 or would have lost 90 if not for the strike fought all season for the National League East with the Chicago Cubs.
The Mets ultimately would fall short of making the playoffs, though a 90-72 season was good enough to awaken a sleeping fan base. In 1983, the Mets had finished dead last in attendance, with just 1,112,774 fans visiting Shea Stadium. The 1,842,695 was the Mets largest attendance figures 11 years.
The Mets 19-year-old phenom was a large part of the renaissance at Shea Stadium. That year Dwight Gooden went 19-7, with 2.60 ERA and 276 strikeouts. As a result, Gooden was the first teenager in the All-Star Game, striking out the side at Candlestick Park in his one inning of work. Gooden would earn Rookie of the Year honors and finished second to Rick Suttcliffe of the Chicago Cubs in voting for the Cy Young.
The 276 strikeouts set a new record for rookies, breaking the mark set by Herb Score of the Cleveland Indians nearly three decades earlier. At the end of the season Gooden who earned the nickname Dr. K, was a strikeout machine, striking out nine or in each of his final nine starts. This included back to back games with 16 strikeouts in September.
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While Dwight Gooden was racking up the strikeout, fans at Shea Stadium began hanging K’s to signify each strikeout, with K being used in scorecards to signify strikeouts. The idea to put up strikeouts was from 21-year old fan Dennis Scalzitti and his friends from North Haledon, New Jersey. The Mets so liked that the “K-Korner” got fans pumped up that he was given passes to section 42 in the leftfield corner where they would hang K’s for every Gooden start. Soon K-Korners became popular throughout all of baseball. With other fans copying the idea of Scalzitti when their team’s ace was on the mound. The idea continued to grow that today several stadiums, including Citi Field home of the Mets have a digital strikeout counter in the ballpark.