I had had it with the media.”ĭarryl spent three seasons with the Dodgers, and because of his drug habit, his career was hitting rock bottom. I had had it with New York, not the fans. Then in 1990, he accepted a lucrative deal to play with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Darryl strawberry series#
When I found that, I can escape away from everybody and everything.”Įven though Darryl’s personal life was crashing, he helped lead the Mets to the 1986 World Series championship. Later down the line, I got introduced heavily into cocaine, which was my outlet and my escape. Eventually, Darryl turned to drugs to deal with it. He doesn’t look like he’s playing hard.’ When I hit tremendous bombs and win games, ‘oh, he’s great.’ So it was a no-win situation.” “If I did something good, ‘he’s great.’ If you do something wrong, ‘he’s not hustling. But with all the fame also came the pressure to perform. He had a stellar rookie season and earned the Player of the Year award in 1983. After three long years in the Minors, he was brought up to the Majors. 1 draft pick in 1980 and was selected by the New York Mets. Now, this was my outlet, and this was where nobody was ever going to control me again.”ĭespite his bad attitude, his talent was undeniable. That wasn’t anything personal, it was always because of the fact that I had been controlled for so long. “I thought I was bigger than life and nobody could tell me nothing.
But he began to use baseball as an outlet to channel his anger. While Darryl’s life at home was finally peaceful, his father’s abuse stuck with him. It didn’t matter whatever the struggle it was going to be. Their mother was left with five kids to raise on her own. The police came to their home and told him to leave. Only one’s dying here tonight is him.”īig Hank backed down. Ronnie was thinking along the same lines I was thinking. He pulled out a shot gun and started making threats about, ‘I’ll kill all of you guys.’ Ronnie grabbed a butcher knife, and I grabbed a frying pan skillet. “Told him to just get out of here and leave us alone. My older brother Mike finally confronted him,” Darryl recalls. “That night when he came home, he was drunk, abusive to my mom. When Darryl was 13 years old, one night he and his brothers decided to take a stand. I was terrified inside of the fact that what he was saying to me I truly believed it.” You don’t do nothing right,’ and it was just so bad. He would beat us and tell us, ‘You’re never going to be nothing. We had our shirts off, and he would have like an extension cord. “Me and Ronnie was basically his whopping pole. Their father, “Big Hank”, was prone to fits of rage - mostly to Darryl and his older brother Ronnie. He was a very abusive, raging alcoholic.”ĭarryl grew up in south central Los Angeles with his four siblings Mike, Ronnie, Regina and Michelle. “My childhood always was a real disaster,” he tells The 700 Club, “due to the fact that I had a tremendous fear factor in my life from my father.
Throughout his 17-year career, he made eight consecutive all-star game appearances and captured four World Series championships! But his baseball prowess on the field at times was largely overshadowed by his controversial life off of it. He entering the league with the New York Mets in 1983. CBN.comDarryl Strawberry was perhaps one of the most electrifying players in Major League Baseball history.