Dwight Gooden to continue Yankee-connection tradition on this season's "VH-1 Celebrity Rehab"

Apparently, Daryl Strawberry can't make it, and -- happily -- King Leyritz may have finally tethered his self-esteem to planet Earth. He's off the drug called Charlie Sheen.

But Doc Gooden will star this year on VH-1's "Puking With the Stars" in a cast that would put a smile on the face of the late P.T. Barnum. He'll compete for camera time with Lindsay Lohan's dad, some non-Hasselhoff male who was on "Baywatch," and the two White House gate-crashers, who probably don't do drugs but found themselves reduced to this gig. Face it, folks: They're going to be turning up on TV for the rest of our lives.

Gooden keeps up the Yankee-linked boozejunky tradition on the Celebrity Rehab team.

In Season 2, rapidly sagging former supermodel Tawny Kitaen -- who achieved fame for doing to Angels lefty Chuck Finley what the Yankees never did: beating him like a tin drum -- came to the program. Ironically, she appeared with Rodney King, the famed LAPD pinata, raising concerns that they would be attracted to each other, like a hammer and nail. Both achieved fame on the side of a road.

In Season 3, former teen-sensation/country singer Mindy McCready, who was rubbing oils into Roger Clemens loins long before he met his gut-spilling trainer, joined the squad. She'd been hooked on Oxy and uppercuts from boyfriends. Not sure whether Clemens ever threw a bat at her.

Note to self: Isn't it time we start ripping on the U.S. Justice Department for spending millions to prosecute Roger Clemens, while those assholes on Wall Street walked away scot-free with the nation's money?

Please remind me of this if I forget.