Strawberry Finds His Place in New York

To make Darryl Strawberry feel right at home, a few of the fans at Dodger Stadium the other night started beating one another’s brains out, which in some cases required very little beating. One woman spectator threw a roundhouse hook that glanced off a guy’s jaw, and later a brawl broke loose in the box seats beyond the first-base dugout, spilling right through a gate and onto the field. A Dodger ballboy actually ran over and pushed people back into the stands.

Strawberry watched from right field, amused.

“Just like being back in New York,” he said later.

Funny thing is, Strawberry’s real home is right here in Los Angeles. That’s where he’s from. He even has a brother, Michael, who played outfield in the Dodger organization for a while. Fast lanes and freeways were part of Darryl Strawberry’s life as a young man, but now, it is the subway everybody wants to talk to him about. Specifically, the subway that would carry New York fans from the Bronx to Flushing and back, for the 1988 World Series.

There are those who believe a Fall Classic between the Yankees and Mets is inevitable, an accident waiting to happen. What a World Series it would be. Apocalypse Now. The Yankees have their tipsy manager and their dipsy owner, plus Rickey Henderson and Don Mattingly and worst-selling author David Winfield. The Mets have their own problems. But, all else aside, these are two monster baseball clubs, and are heading toward one another like onrushing freights.

Strawberry was asked how he felt about a Subway Series.

“It’s something you think about,” he said. “It’d be nice, because New York City is a one-of-a-kind place. But, it’d also probably be sort of crazy, you know?”

Strawberry also was asked if he’d take the subway.

“Are you kidding?” he asked. “The bus, man. The bus.”

He even thought about that for a moment.

“The team bus,” he said.

However he gets there, Strawberry would love to get to another World Series. The last one was sort of crazy, you know? He batted .208 in it, and was so exasperated at the way things went down, he didn’t even feel like shaking Manager Dave Johnson’s hand after belting his only home run of the seven games. Keith Hernandez had to cajole him at home plate, saying, “C’mon, Darryl. Be a man.”

Strawberry feels older now, wiser. Although he is still a baseball baby at 26, he is a veteran player in his sixth full major league season, and already has been in four All-Star games. The talent is there, and he is fine-tuning it. He is a more complete player, and a more complete person.

“I’ve learned how to cope,” he said. “I’ve learned how to handle a bad at-bat, or a bad game, or a bad bunch of fans. I can always regroup and come back the next day. That’s what makes you a winner, the ability to shrug off anything bad and come back and do your best. That’s what our whole team is doing this season--shrugging off last season, when all of us were bad.”

Strawberry is kind to include himself in this last analogy, seeing as how anybody who hits .284 with 39 home runs did not exactly stink up the stadium. His point, though, is well taken. The Mets fell out of contention early, were devastated by injuries and never recovered. The hated St. Louis Cardinals took the division, the pennant and darn near the Series.

Strawberry said: “Everybody here knows 1987 was a rough time. It’s hard to get motivated when you’re 14 games out and it’s only May. But, it also probably was helpful to us. We learned not to take our talent for granted. We’re a lot more mature than our ’86 team was, and we’re more talented, too. We’re a lot stronger on the bench, and a lot deeper in the bullpen.

“As for me, I think every player decides at some point when he’s going to grow up. That can be tough in New York, because they can be murder on you there when you’re struggling. Look at me. For a while there, people were always trying to run me out of town. All of a sudden, I’m the greatest player in New York. It scares me sometimes, because in New York people demand so much.”

Not just New York people, either. Fans everywhere know Strawberry’s name by now, and not just because it’s such a catchy name. He’s a star, a sensation, and easy to spot, especially since there is not a taller non-pitcher to be found anywhere in the league. Strawberry is very visible. He’s the Straw that stirs the fans.

Take a recent day at San Francisco, when Darryl couldn’t seem to locate a high fly. It fell about a foot behind him, much to the audience’s delight. Within moments, there were chants of “Darryl! Darryl!” throughout the crowd, and a younger Strawberry would have been rattled by these raspberries. The older Strawberry just rolled with it, spreading out his palms and conducting the singers as if he were Mitch Miller.

“That’s part of the game. You learn to live with it,” he said.

So are errors. A ball short-hopped the Straw man in Friday’s game, and he had to go chase it. It got him an error, and more derision from the crowd. That’s OK. Strawberry can take a little kidding.

Pitcher Ron Darling happened by his locker during an interview after the game and said, “Hey, Darryl! Tell us for the record how you played that hop.”

Strawberry pretended to get his arms all entangled, and said, “Like this. Oops!”

He has become one of the best outfielders in baseball, adequate if not Willie Mays on defense, and not altogether unlike Willie McCovey at the plate. The guy’s got 157 home runs, and he should play another dozen to 15 years. A star is born, and a superstar is emerging. There are few limits as to how far Darryl Strawberry can go.

Teammate Gary Carter thinks things are even easier now, since the kid doesn’t have to keep proving and re-proving himself. “Ever since he got to New York, he’s been touted,” Carter said. “The expectations have been unreal. You look at his body, you look at those towering home runs he hits, and what are the expectations? What can’t he do? He’s just now realizing all that talent. He’s as good now as everybody kept saying he was going to be.”

Strawberry tends to agree. Asked to name his best baseball experience to date, he thought back on his World Series championship and his first big league homer and his first big league at-bat, then gave his answer.

“Now,” he said.