NorthJersey.com: Klapisch: Gooden sees self in Lincecum

Dwight Gooden can’t help but smile whenever he sees a clip of Tim Lincecum’s curveball. Big and aggressive, with a looping 12-to-6 trajectory, the pitch is practically extinct in the major leagues – which is why Gooden feels such kinship.

“You know, that’s the way I used to throw my hook,” Doc was saying on the telephone Monday afternoon. His links to Lincecum go deeper than that. The Giants’ right-hander will be the NL’s starting pitcher in tonight’s All-Star Game – a hard-throwing kid matched up against a heavy-hitting American League lineup.

Sound familiar? It was 25 years ago that Gooden became the youngest player to participate in an All-Star Game. He was only 19, barely two years out of high school, but blew away the American League over a two-inning span that launched his career.

Gooden, like Lincecum, had a DNA to die for – that massive curveball and a fastball that exploded upward through the strike zone. The difference, of course, is that Doc was a rookie in 1984 while Lincecum is in his third season, already the game’s premier strikeout machine.