Gooden Rejected

Dwight Gooden will have to wait until next year to return to baseball.

Bud Selig, baseball’s acting commissioner, has rejected Gooden’s request to shorten his one-year suspension from baseball for violating his drug aftercare program, the Cy Young Award winner said Friday in the Record.

Last week, Gooden wrote to Selig and asked him to come to Florida to look at his rehabilitation program. The former Mets starter also was considering filing a grievance, but decided against it when team owners fired arbitrator George Nicolau.