Darryl Strawberry threw away a Hall of Fame career and blew through more than $30 million because he got caught up in addiction. It almost cost him his life. This much we know. But sit down with the 52-year-old today and you’re in for a lot of surprises—not the least of which is this: The man they used to call Daaaarrryl is now an ordained minister. These days, people call him Pastor Strawberry.
Those who know Strawberry well—his wife, Tracy; his brother, Mike; his old coach, Tommy Lasorda—will tell you there’s a magnetism about him. It doesn’t take long to see why. The man is instantly likeable, he laughs easily, and he’ll talk about anything.
For Sportsnet magazine’s feature, “The Final Straw,” I spent a couple days with Strawberry in Elizabethtown and Hershey, Pa. I heard him preach in a high school gym—and honestly, I can’t imagine a more entertaining sermon. Strawberry talks about hitting the most dingers in New York Mets history and his four World Series wins with the same honesty he uses to speak about crack houses and his past love of cocaine. The message he left the captivated audience in Elizabethtown: Never give up.
One of the most shocking parts of his story is this: Strawberry has nothing left from a life in baseball. I showed him a Darryl Strawberry figurine my older brother had held on to from childhood. Darryl just laughed and said it didn’t look like him. He hasn’t swung a bat since his last big-league rip. But while that seems unimaginable, his view on retirement is healthy. Strawberry isn’t holding on to the past; he isn’t incapable of leaving fame and fortune behind. He’s moved on, and he’s finally happy, married for the third time and living in a small town in Missouri.
Most surprising of all about the man with the looping swing, the guy who took what seemed like 10 minute-long trots around the bases after a homer: If he could do it all over again, Strawberry says he never would have played baseball.
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