It was a lazy, humid weekday afternoon at Citi Area, and the early birds have been taking a steam bathtub. Ed Kranepool, an authentic Met, was on the sector close to the Mets dugout, shaking fingers, making the scene. Charlie Hayes, the outdated Yankee third baseman, was sitting on a cushioned field-level seat close to third base. In a couple of hours, his son, Ke’Bryan Hayes, could be enjoying third and batting third for the guests, the Pittsburgh Pirates. Close by, on the sector in foul territory, Jay Horwitz, Mets PR man since 1980, was doing the Jay Horwitz Pregame Shuffle, toes out, head bobbing, checking on this, checking on that.
It solely appeared like Outdated-Timers’ Day.
After which, three hours or so earlier than the night time’s first pitch, an icon of New York baseball strolled into this summer-in-the-city scene. Darryl Strawberry, his personal self. Forty years in the past he was a Mets rookie with a 30-inch waist and about six ft of shoulders. For a very long time, Strawberry wasn’t an energetic Mets alumnus, however beneath the group’s newish possession — Steven A. Cohen, take a uncommon bow on this dismal season! — Strawberry has been coming round, no less than on occasion. The proprietor remembers Strawberry in his prime. He roots for him as all New Yorkers root for him. Darryl Strawberry — there was all the time one thing about him. You would see it in his face.
Strawberry can’t inform you a lot in regards to the Mets’ left-handed bats off the bench. His life in baseball has come and gone. However he is aware of and appreciates the doorways baseball opened for him, and he was on the ballpark on that latest night time to fulfill and greet some big-check donors to the inspiration he runs together with his spouse, Tracy Strawberry. Amongst different issues, the inspiration helps pay for therapy applications for addicts of each variety. Strawberry is aware of such applications intimately. So does his spouse. Tracy Strawberry is an ordained minister, has a doctorate in theology and, like her husband, is an addict in restoration.
“Seventy-eight, Jay?” Strawberry stated. It was Jay Horwitz’s birthday, not that he wished anyone to know. “Man. Completely satisfied birthday, Jay.”
Strawberry is tall as ever at 61, with a slight paunch, however with the identical bashful smile and highly effective arms and how-you-doin’ method that made him an adopted son in Queens (eight years with the Mets) and the Bronx (5 with the Yankees) and throughout the town’s three different boroughs, plus Lengthy Island and North Jersey and the elements of Connecticut that New York claims as its personal.
Horwitz appeared up at Strawberry, a member of the Mets Corridor of Fame, although his quantity has not been retired. Strawberry appeared good. He’s been clear and sober for — he doesn’t put a date to it, like some in restoration do. “Ever since I discovered God,” he’ll inform you. He’ll discuss to anyone.
Strawberry watched the Pirates-Mets recreation from an open-air personal suite the place passing followers might snap images of him or ask him to signal issues, his 2.0 studying glasses perched on the highest of his shaved head all of the whereas. The suite’s proprietor, a self-made building-services entrepreneur named Michael Rodriguez, stood beside Strawberry and stated, “Should you stroll right into a room, and Darryl Strawberry says, ‘M-Rod!,’ there’s no higher feeling.” Connecting with individuals is greater than a character trait for Strawberry. It’s nearly a calling. At Strawberry’s invitation, Hayes was taking within the recreation from the suite, too, and when his son stroked an opposite-field single, Strawberry stated, “Similar to his daddy!”
When the Yankees gained the 1996 World Collection in six video games over the Atlanta Braves, clinching it at Yankee Stadium, Hayes caught the ultimate out. Strawberry, the Yankee left fielder, got here dashing in to the victory pile. Dwight Gooden, who got here up within the Mets group alongside Strawberry, pitched for the Yankees in 1996 however wasn’t on the postseason roster. Fatigue, the group stated. They may all the time be linked, Strawberry and Gooden. Gooden’s struggles with alcohol and medicines, cash and relationships have been simply as properly documented as Strawberry’s. However for New Yorkers of a sure age, Doc and Straw and all their long-ago promise is a feel-good dream that won’t die. There’s a sure wistful loveliness in all of that, the thoughts drifting to what might have been.
Darryl Strawberry has no holy curler in him. He’s not making an attempt to save lots of you or to transform you. (Most of his pals are Jewish, he says.) There’s no spittle popping out of his mouth when he cites Matthew or Abraham. He grew up in Los Angeles. He turned a star in New York. He and Tracy dwell close to St. Louis. Of their blended household, they’ve 9 youngsters.
In recent times, Strawberry has been visiting church buildings, faculties, hospitals — and, most particularly, prisons — about 200 days a yr. “I’m happiest once I undergo a jail gate and I see individuals who may by no means see life outdoors once more,” he stated. He sees himself in these individuals. He sees their promise. He was on his approach to a late-summer Monday-night baseball recreation, however the recreation itself was about the very last thing on his thoughts.
Strawberry was staying with a pal, Nelson Braff, in Demarest, N.J., and driving to Citi Area by way of the George Washington Bridge. His experience was a big, boxy BMW rental, with air con he couldn’t management. Braff is an proprietor of the Hunt & Fish Membership, the Midtown restaurant widespread with ballplayers of a sure standing and males with made-to-measure shirts. It’s a world Strawberry is aware of. However he’ll inform you he’s extra snug in a jail rec yard, and he means it.
“I preach hope,” Strawberry stated, a higher New York street map on the display of his telephone. He can discuss baseball, after all, his electrifying at-bats within the Mets-Houston Nationwide League Championship Collection in 1986, his .435 batting common throughout a quick comeback stint with the St. Paul Saints 10 years later, all of that. However non secular comebacks and second likelihood is the themes that curiosity him most.
He generally makes these jail visits together with his private supervisor, John Luppo, a 56-year-old break-dancing, sports-mad Bronx native and a former Wall Avenue dealer together with his personal harrowing story of dependancy and a path to restoration that began with Strawberry. Luppo units up the jail visits. The clearances and the forms might be daunting. Luppo is ill-suited to it. Nonetheless, he will get it completed.
About 5 years in the past, Len Vanden Bos, then the Chicago Bears chaplain (now the Buffalo Payments chaplain) requested Strawberry to hitch him on a go to to Louisiana State Penitentiary, the infamous however evolving maximum-security jail typically referred to as Angola. Angola is bigger than Manhattan and has greater than 6,000 prisoners. Vanden Bos had introduced many N.F.L. gamers there, however Strawberry was the primary former main leaguer.
By way of Vanden Bos, Strawberry met an Angola inmate named Keith Morse, serving a life sentence for the 1994 taking pictures demise of his son’s aunt. Morse entered jail at age 19. He had been an outfielder at Airline Excessive in Bossier Metropolis, La. He modeled his right-handed swing on Strawberry’s left-handed one. The daddy of Albert Belle, the previous American League slugger, was one in every of Morse’s coaches. Dwight Gooden was one in every of his baseball heroes. None of that appeared to curiosity Strawberry.
“The primary time he got here in, there was nothing there,” Morse stated in a telephone interview. “I assumed, ‘He doesn’t like me.’” However the second time, one thing clicked. Strawberry gave Morse signed baseball playing cards. “He stated, ‘What can I do for you?’ I stated, ‘You may pray for me.’ He stated, ‘What extra can I do for you?’”
Strawberry wrote a letter to the Louisiana parole board on Morse’s behalf. He sat with the sufferer’s household, who supported Morse’s launch, at a parole listening to. Morse was launched in 2020. He and Strawberry communicate by telephone on occasion. “Keith has his ups and downs,” Strawberry stated. “Like all of us.”
When Strawberry talks to inmates, he typically finds himself sharing an commentary with them: We’re all prisoners, of a sort, whether or not you’re doing life or chasing the excessive life. “I’ve seen so many individuals, profitable individuals, athletes and celebrities, attempt to purchase their approach out of loneliness and vacancy with their bank cards, with medication, with alcohol, at strip golf equipment,” Strawberry stated the opposite day. “I did it myself. You’re nonetheless a prisoner.” Enter God. Sure, that’s the place Strawberry’s head is lately.
Strawberry stated goodbye to M-Rod in his open-air Citi Area suite and left Flushing Meadows with the Mets batting within the fifth. Hayes was driving within the passenger seat as Strawberry pointed his chilly BMW rental west on Astoria Boulevard on a heat summer season night time in Queens. They talked about Doc. They talked in regards to the automotive’s local weather management. They talked in regards to the tacos on the Queens restaurant the place Hayes was headed. Strawberry wasn’t coming in.
“I’ve received to get residence,” Strawberry instructed his outdated teammate. They talked briefly in regards to the upcoming Outdated-Timers’ Day at Yankee Stadium, on Sept. 9. “I’ll see you there, bro,” Strawberry stated.
Between from time to time, Strawberry will likely be preaching hope wherever he finds himself. No spittle. No yelling. Simply Darryl, speaking about second possibilities. Simply Darryl, on Darryl, while you get proper all the way down to it.