Prior to his number retirement ceremony, Dwight Gooden said more than once on Sunday he wanted to “make things right” with Mets fans after the way his tenure with the team ended in 1994, when he tested positive for cocaine and was suspended by MLB for all of the 1995 season.

“The fans stuck with me through everything,’’ Gooden said Sunday prior to his number retirement ceremony at Citi Field. “After ‘94, when the Mets cut ties with me, I always wanted to come back here.”

He got the opportunity on Sunday, when he recounted that he tried to return to the Mets as a player on several occasions, but the team never gave him the chance.

During his brief speech prior to Sunday’s game during an ill-timed rain shower, Gooden said he called the Mets following his two-year stint with the Yankees, which elicited a round of boos from the crowd. Gooden responded, “I’m always a Met.”

Is the season slipping away from the New York Mets?

Edwin Diaz, who has forgotten how to save games, and Kodai Senga, who keeps getting further away from a return, are signed through 2027. Is Diaz, who blew his fourth save in his last five tries ever going to be elite again after his devastating knee injury? How about Senga after his shoulder woes?

Brett Baty, the third baseman of the future, can’t beat out Mark Vientos in the present. Has anyone heard much good about the Mets’ farm system this year, particularly its best position players? 

The Mets have lost five straight and at 21-30 are a season-high nine games under .500 and have the majors’ worst record (9-22) since April  21. 

The Mets had plotted wild-card contention this year but the product on the field currently looks ill-equipped to make a playoff run even with the third wild card being fought for among mediocrities.

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