Strawberry has new followers

Opinion

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This article was published 20/03/2019 (2393 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

No. 1 overall draft pick. Rookie of the year. Four World Series rings. Eight straight all-star appearances. Seventeen years in the big leagues. These are the incredible numbers associated with Darryl Strawberry, one of the most famous players of his generation.

But there’s also no getting around this cold, hard fact — he would have been a sure-fire Hall of Famer had he not flushed a lot of that potential down the drain chasing what he admits was a life of alcohol, drugs and debauchery.

Three suspensions for substance abuse. Multiple embarrassing arrests. Countless stints in jail and rehab. Three marriages. These are the grim numbers associated with Darryl Strawberry, the deeply flawed human being.

“I’ve tried it all, had it all, did it all, seen it all,” Strawberry told me Wednesday evening as we sat down in the lobby of a Winnipeg airport hotel for a wide-ranging, 30-minute one-on-one conversation.

“I was a heathen. I was the ringleader. A straight heathen. People followed me.”

Now 57, Strawberry has a whole new group of followers, albeit for much different reasons. He says he found God in 2003 and has been an ordained minister since 2007.

He now travels the globe speaking openly about his many demons, no longer hiding the truth.

It’s a powerful message.

“Why hide? Who are we? We’re not that important,” said Strawberry, who is in Winnipeg for the Impact Men’s Conference at The Source Church on Sargent Avenue.

Strawberry’s first talk was Wednesday night, and he’ll do it again tonight at 7 p.m. in an event open to the public. Tickets are $25 at the door.

Pastor Ralph Hoehne and Carlos Seise, a solo tenor who has performed around the world including at Carnegie Hall, are also speaking at the events.

“I sit here today victorious in my life because I’m not afraid to show my wounds. So many of are consumed with opinions and the thoughts of others. At the end of the day it means nothing what others think of you,” said Strawberry.

Yes, victory has a much different definition these days for the man simply known to fans around the world as “Straw.”

‘I’ve tried it all, had it all, did it all, seen it all. I was a heathen. I was the ringleader. A straight heathen. People followed me’
– Darryl Strawberry

The 6-6 slugger with the sweet, natural swing was drafted first overall by the New York Mets in 1980, leading the team to the World Series in 1986. Three more championships followed in 1996, 1998 and 1999 with the New York Yankees, although he was a bit player and shell of his former self by the end.

Still, at one time he was the toast of the town, one of the biggest sporting heroes in one of the biggest sporting markets.

You’d think that would have been all that was needed in life for a guy who appeared in 1,583 regular-season games, swatted 335 home runs, drove in exactly 1,000 runs and was a career .259 hitter.

You’d be wrong.

“Famous people live more lies than anybody. They’ll tell you they don’t, but I know for myself. Nobody’s happy,” said Strawberry.

“At the end of the day you go home and look at yourself, there’s an emptiness there that we all try to fill inside with so many things. At the end of the day it just does not work. We’re chasing after all the wrong things. I chased after all the wrong things for so long.”

Rock bottom came in the late 1990s, with his addiction out of control after his baseball career had crashed and burned in somewhat humiliating fashion.

The downfall included a brief stint in the now-defunct Northern League playing for part of a year with the St. Paul Saints as he tried to repair his tattered reputation.

There was a string of arrests and lawsuits — everything from failing to pay child support and legal fees to drug possession, impaired driving and soliciting sex from a female police officer posting as a sex-trade worker.

He was also diagnosed with having a sex addiction, which admittedly included having relations with women he’d meet during baseball games he was a part of.

‘Famous people live more lies than anybody. They’ll tell you they don’t, but I know for myself. Nobody’s happy’
– Darryl Strawberry

“I don’t think (athletes) should be role models. Parents, teachers, people who have the most impact on young people’s lives. Not athletes. Athletes are just people born with a gift who go out there and use it to elevate, what, himself, to stardom? Then what happens, then what’s next? You win, you have trophies. After it’s all said and done, what am I still doing?” said Strawberry.

No, money didn’t buy Strawberry happiness, despite career earnings of more than US$30 million. But it nearly got him killed.

“If I continued to play baseball and made another $50 million I’d have easily been dead, with a lifestyle of sin,” said Strawberry, who gave away all his major awards including his four World Series rings.

“That does not make me happy, that does not define me,” he explained.

Strawberry doesn’t want to play the blame game, although he admits the “emptiness and rejection” of an abusive father certainly played a role. And his fame and fortune made it easy to fuel his destructive habits.

He said his life turned when he met what became his third wife, Tracy, at a drug recovery centre. Now married for 12 years, she’s also a minister helping him spread the word through Strawberry Ministries, while also being involved in three drug rehabilitation facilities in Florida and Texas.

The born-again Christian and father of four currently lives in Missouri and no longer has any association with baseball, by choice. He says he now has the “greatest job a man could ever want.”

“Good luck to ‘em. We’re living in a time in society where its broken. We’ve got kids from all over the globe overdosing and dying, and we’re more focused on a fricking game. We’ve lost the principles,” said Strawberry, who absolutely bristles when you bring up contracts such as the 12-year, US$430-million contract handed out this week to Los Angeles Angels superstar Mike Trout.

“Don’t get me wrong. Sports can be great for kids. It’s a great outlet. But you shouldn’t be consumed by it.”

Speaking of kids, Strawberry said his biggest worry these days is the kind of drugs now flooding the streets. That’s what keeps him up at night these days.

‘I have no regrets. Some people sit home with a belly full of regrets. I have zero regrets. I’m glad I went through that because had I not, I would have made another $50 million playing baseball and I would have never found Jesus’
– Darryl Strawberry

“It’s a big difference from when I was using cocaine and smoking marijuana. But the kids today are not living. They are overdosing and dying. So many of them never had a chance at what life is all about. That’s the difference today,” Strawberry said, his voice cracking.

Regrets, you’d think he has a few. But Strawberry has now come to believe everything that’s happened in his life was for a bigger reason. Even if it wasn’t always clear at the time.

“I have no regrets. Some people sit home with a belly full of regrets. I have zero regrets. I’m glad I went through that because had I not, I would have made another $50 million playing baseball and I would have never found Jesus,” he said.

“I found Jesus, which is greater than baseball, which is greater than money, which is greater than anything that a man can taste. There’s nothing else I need. I’m looking at the bigger picture here. My life today is more fulfilling because it has to do with a greater purpose.”

 

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg