page_title: History of the New York Mets
section_title: 1994 strike-shortened season
hierarchical_section_title: History of the New York Mets / Franchise history / 1994 strike-shortened season
caption_attribution_description: English: A ticket for a April 4, 1994 Major League Baseball game featuring the New York Mets versus the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.
context_page_description: The history of the New York Mets began in 1962 when the team was introduced as part of the National League's first expansion of the 20th century. The team's history includes two World Series championships and five National League pennants.
context_section_description: The following season was filled with some bright spots, but there was still trouble for the franchise, and for the team's franchise player. Gooden, who had a 3–4 record with a 6.31 ERA in the final year of his contract with the team, shocked not only New York sports fans, but baseball fans around the country by testing positive for cocaine and was suspended by Major League Baseball for 60 days. Shortly after he began serving his suspension for the positive drug test, it was announced that he had again tested positive for cocaine and was now being suspended by Major League Baseball for one year, thus ending his Mets career and nearly his life. The day after receiving the second suspension, Gooden's then-wife, Monica, found him in his bedroom with a loaded gun to his head.
  Still, the 1994 season saw some promise for the troubled Mets, as first baseman Rico Brogna and second baseman Jeff Kent became fan favorites with their solid glove work and potential 20–25 home run power, Bonilla started to become the player the Mets expected, and a healthy Saberhagen, along with promising young starter Bobby Jones and John Franco, helped the Mets pitching staff along. In the strike-shortened 1994 season the Mets were in 3rd place behind first-place Montreal and Atlanta when the season ended on August 12.
caption: A ticket for the Mets' 1994 Opening Day game against the Chicago Cubs.
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