Darryl Strawberry wants to bring that championship feeling back to Mets
Citi Field
123-01 Roosevelt Ave.
April 1 – September 29
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It’s strawberry season again in Queens. Darryl Strawberry, that is. From 1983 to 1990, the Crenshaw High School graduate propelled the New York Mets, belting 252 homers while leading them to a world championship in 1986 and the NLCS in 1988. He finished his career with a five-year stint with the Yankees, winning three more World Series titles, retiring with a total of 335 four-baggers and 1,000 RBIs. But seeing how troubled the Mets currently are in the outfield, this past weekend Strawberry reached out to manager Terry Collins and GM Sandy Alderson, offering his help, and the two men gladly accepted.
“I want to be the straw that stirs the drink again,” Strawberry said. “The restaurant might not have worked out, but I still want to show Queens what I’ve got and that I can make a difference,” he said, referring to his Douglaston barbecue joint, Strawberry’s Sports Grill, which closed last October.
When asked about Strawberry’s age — the eight-time all-star is fifty-one, born less than a month before the Mets played their first-ever game, against the St. Louis Cardinals on April 11, 1962 — Collins, who is sixty-three, pulled no punches.
“Look, Satchel Paige pitched till he was fifty-nine,” Collins explained. “Julio Franco was forty-nine when he retired a few years back. [Carlton] Fisk and [Pete] Rose played into their mid-forties. Minne Minoso was fifty-four. I betcha Gordie Howe is still skating somewhere. Darryl has shown us what he’s got, and what he’s got is a lot left in the tank.”
Strawberry will be trying to rescue a franchise in serious decline, suffering through recent financial woes and horrific late-season collapses that have made them a laughingstock in the baseball world. The current roster features a less-than-stellar group of no-name outfielders, consisting of Mike Baxter, Marlon Byrd, Collin Cowgill, Lucas Duda, Jordany Valdespin, and Kirk Nieuwenhuis, who have a grand total of 132 homers combined, with 82 of those dingers coming off the bat of the thirty-five-year-old Byrd.
“We were a special team in 1986, and I think this team can regain that feeling with the right chemistry. Ronnie [Darling] and Keith [Hernandez] are up in the booth, so maybe we can get them on the field too if we need to,” Strawberry joked after taking a secret batting practice at Tradition Field in Port St. Lucie. “And hey, Doc will be in Queens as well on July 21,” he added, referring to Dwight Gooden All-Star Bobblehead Day.
It remains to be seen whether Strawberry, who signed a one-year, incentive-laden contract, is the real deal or whether this was just a financial decision to help fill the many expected empty seats at Citi Field. Like they say, “A fool and his money….” It is April 1, after all.