Strawberry, Darryl E.
Baseball
b. March 12, 1962, Los Angeles, CA
Strawberry was called up from the minor leagues by the New York Mets in 1983 and won the National League's Rookie of the Year award by hitting 26 home runs and collecting 74 RBI in 122 games.
A 6-foot-6, 215-pound left-hander, Strawberry demonstrated power and speed, hitting 26 or more home runs and stealing 26 or more bases each of the next five seasons. He led the league with 39 home runs and a .545 slugging percentage in 1988.
However, he missed six weeks with back trouble in 1989 and it became a chronic problem for him. The Mets traded him to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1991. He hit 28 home runs and had 99 RBI in his first season with the Dodgers, but played in only 43 games in 1992 and just 32 in 1993.
The Dodgers released him and he appeared in just 29 games with the San Francisco Giants in 1994. After a suspension for cocaine use, Strawberry was signed by the New York Yankees late in the 1995 season and hit 4 home runs in 32 games. He opened the 1996 seasons in the minor leagues, but rejoined the Yankees in July and hit 11 home runs in just 63 games and 202 at-bats.
Strawberry hit .417 when the Yankees won the American League championship series, but he batted only .188 in the team's World Series victory over the Atlanta Braves. Injuries limited him to just 11 games in 1997. However, he bounced back with 24 home runs in only 101 games in 1998. He was diagnosed with colon cancer later that year and underwent surgery and chemotherapy.
In April of 1999, Strawberry was arrested for soliciting sex and possession of cocaine. As a result, he was suspended for 140 days. After hitting 6 home runs in 24 games with the Yankees late in the season, he batted .333 in limited post-season action and then announced his retirement.
Strawberry continued to have much-publicized problems with cocaine over the next several years. After spending nearly two years in prison, though, he remarried and went straight with his wife, also a recovering addict.
He became a hitting instructor with the Mets in 2005 and threw the first pitch before Game 1 of the 2006 National League Championship Series between the Mets and the St. Louis Cardinals. He has served as a frequent analyst on SportsNet New York.