(I used the Moneyball image on my own, it’s not like MSG sent that to me.)
Thirty-one years after he won Rookie of the Year and started a 17-year Major League Baseball career filled with towering home runs and a list of off-the-field issues equally as impressive, Mets legend Darryl Strawberry is finally at peace with his past and his life. On an all-new episode of “The Game 365” (Monday, April 7 at 10pm on MSG+), “Straw” sits down with host Fran Healy to talk about his second chance at life as a preacher and ministry leader.
Strawberry recently opened a number of Christian recovery centers in Texas and Florida and hopes to use his experiences to prevent others from making the same mistakes while helping those that have.
“When I was in treatment, I was the star of the treatment center and that’s a very difficult place to be, when you’re not with your peers who are struggling. My center will be a place to help athletes understand that they’re not alone.”
The episode includes Strawberry preaching to an audience in Lynchburg, VA where he shares a story about his abusive father.
“I grew up in a real dysfunctional situation, you see, my dad was a raging alcoholic, he beat that crap out of me, told me I would never amount to nothing…and I actually believed it,” Strawberry tells the crowd.
He later tells Healy: “Any young man that grows up without a hug from his father or has the love and compassion from a dad and the support of a dad, being at a ballgame when you’re playing Little League, that’s very important and I missed out on all of that.”
Strawberry’s long road to recovery, which he attributes to meeting his wife Tracy 11 years ago, has been a journey of personal discovery and acceptance.
“Now I speak from my spirit, I don’t speak from my head. The head has to get out of the way because it always led me the wrong way.”
