It was a lazy, humid weekday afternoon at Citi Area, and the early birds had been taking a steam bathtub. Ed Kranepool, an unique Met, was on the sector close to the Mets dugout, shaking arms, making the scene. Charlie Hayes, the outdated Yankee third baseman, was sitting on a cushioned field-level seat close to third base. In a number of hours, his son, Ke’Bryan Hayes, could be taking part in 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It solely appeared like Outdated-Timers’ Day.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 evening’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 below the crew’s newish possession — Steven A. Cohen, take a uncommon bow on this dismal season! — Strawberry has been coming round, at the very least from time to time. 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 could possibly see it in his face.
Strawberry can’t let you know 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 evening to satisfy and greet some big-check donors to the muse he runs together with his spouse, Tracy Strawberry. Amongst different issues, the muse helps pay for remedy packages for addicts of each type. Strawberry is aware of such packages 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 needed anyone to know. “Man. Glad 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 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 let you know. He’ll speak to anyone.
Strawberry watched the Pirates-Mets sport from an open-air non-public suite the place passing followers may 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, “In case you stroll right into a room, and Darryl Strawberry says, ‘M-Rod!,’ there’s no higher feeling.” Connecting with folks is greater than a persona trait for Strawberry. It’s virtually a calling. At Strawberry’s invitation, Hayes was taking within the sport 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 crew stated. They’ll all the time be linked, Strawberry and Gooden. Gooden’s struggles with alcohol and medicines, cash and relationships have been simply as nicely 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 may have been.
Darryl Strawberry has no holy curler in him. He’s not attempting to avoid wasting you or to transform you. (Most of his buddies 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 stay close to St. Louis. Of their blended household, they’ve 9 youngsters.
In recent times, Strawberry has been visiting church buildings, colleges, hospitals — and, most particularly, prisons — about 200 days a 12 months. “I’m happiest once I undergo a jail gate and I see individuals who would possibly by no means see life outdoors once more,” he stated. He sees himself in these folks. He sees their promise. He was on his option to a late-summer Monday-night baseball sport, however the sport 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 through the George Washington Bridge. His trip 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 standard with ballplayers of a sure standing and males with made-to-measure shirts. It’s a world Strawberry is aware of. However he’ll let you know he’s extra snug in a jail rec yard, and he means it.
“I preach hope,” Strawberry stated, a larger New York street map on the display screen of his cellphone. He can speak 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 religious comebacks and second chances are high 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 habit and a path to restoration that began with Strawberry. Luppo units up the jail visits. The clearances and the paperwork might be daunting. Luppo is ill-suited to it. Nonetheless, he will get it performed.
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 Vanden Bos, Strawberry met an Angola inmate named Keith Morse, serving a life sentence for the 1994 taking pictures loss of life 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 considered one of Morse’s coaches. Dwight Gooden was considered one 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 cellphone 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’ll be able to 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 cellphone from time to time. “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 folks, athletes and celebrities, attempt to purchase their manner 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 as of late.
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 using within the passenger seat as Strawberry pointed his chilly BMW rental west on Astoria Boulevard on a heat summer season evening in Queens. They talked about Doc. They talked in regards to the automobile’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 house,” Strawberry advised 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 might be preaching hope wherever he finds himself. No spittle. No yelling. Simply Darryl, speaking about second probabilities. Simply Darryl, on Darryl, while you get proper right down to it.