He spent 2½ years in the minors before joining the Mets. He made the varsity baseball team as a sophomore, but after his coachĭisciplined him for an incident in which Strawberry didn't hustle, he quit the team and wasn't allowed to return until the next season.Ĭrenshaw High baseball games became a gathering place for scouts as Strawberry hit. Neighborhoods, Strawberry channeled his energy into basketball and baseball. At Crenshaw High, in one of the city's toughest got to see Strawberry at his best for only one season - when he hit 28 homers in '91.īefore high school, Strawberry's prodigious homers made him a local When Darryl was 13, Henry, a postal worker who enjoyed gambling and drinking to excess, separated from Ruby, a telephone-company employee. The youngest of Henry and Ruby Strawberry's three boys - two daughters came later - Darryl was born on Main Los Angeles. Stricken with colon cancer in 1998, Strawberry has twice undergone surgery to remove cancerous tissue. "I figured, 'If you want to get negative on me, you won't get the best out of me.'"īy the time Strawberry received his last drug suspension - a one-year ban inįebruary 2000 - he was in a new kind of battle, one for his life. "The drinking and drugging, that was a way of punishing myself and the fans, too," he said. Strawberry disliked the expectations and pressure that came with playing in New York early in his career. Situation is whether or not he feels like it." Player in the game when he feels like it," teammate Mackey Sasser said. Unfulfilled potential that frustrated many.
"When he wanted to be, he was as good as it gets."Īlthough Strawberry was one of the game's best power hitters, it was his "He had the swing, the grace, the power," Johnson said. Davey Johnson, his Mets manager for seven seasons, said Strawberry was comfortable hitting 30 homers a season and stealing 30 bases, even when he could have accomplished more. 259 lifetime average.Īn eight-time All-Star, Strawberry also drew the wrath of teammates and fans for what was perceived as a lackadaisical attitude. Over his final eight seasons, he averaged only 42 games and finished with a. Assorted injuries, drinking and a cocaine addiction sabotaged the 6-foot-6, 215-pound Strawberry in his prime.
He was part of four world championship teams, settling into a complementary role with the Yankees after starring for the Mets for eight seasons. The Mets' all-time leader in homers (252) and RBI (733), the lean rightfielder burst on the scene in 1983 as a 21-year-old rookie who became revered for his smooth left-handed swing, with a sweet last name impossible to forget. In his 17-year career with the Mets, Dodgers, Giants and Yankees, Strawberry was suspended three times by Major League Baseball for substance abuse. His 335 home runs and 1,000 RBI seem impressive until one considers how many more he might have recorded had he avoided drugs and alcohol. What he didn't achieve in baseball was more the story of Darryl Strawberry's career than what he actually accomplished.
#Darryl strawberry series
Strawberry helped the Yankees win their first World Series in 18 years with their victory over Atlanta in 1996. "All that was left now was to blow his brains out and hope the life insurance policy would take care of his family," says Bergen Record sportswriter Bob Klapisch on ESPN Classic's SportsCentury series. Strawberry's story one of unfulfilled potential
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