Strawberry to Join Dodgers : This Late-Night Phone Call Brings Good News to L.A.

We have met the enemy, and the enemy is no longer a Met.

Darryl Strawberry is a Dodger.

Ah, let it be April again. Put him in right field, put him in center field, put him in any field, as long as it’s the ballfield.

Darryl Does the Dodgers.

When your telephone rings late at night, it makes you jumpy.

Nobody usually calls you at 11:30 p.m. with good news.

But that wasn’t true Wednesday.

I just got a call telling me that the Dodgers have Strawberry almost signed, almost sealed and almost delivered.

This isn’t good news. This is great news.

Strawberry and Los Angeles were made for each other. He was born here. As a child, he played here. He belongs here.

Even his brother Michael played the outfield in the Dodger organization at the beginning of the decade. Proving all Strawberrys should be blue.

Speaking for myself, I can’t wait to see what Darryl has in store for us on opening day. I can’t even wait to see what message he has his barber carve into the hair on his temple for opening day.

You never know what to expect from Darryl. One August night in 1985, he smacked three home runs in a game. Another time, he smacked Keith Hernandez in spring training. Darryl’s always hitting something.

And do the Dodgers ever need him now. Kirk Gibson’s presence no longer can be counted upon. Kal Daniels’ presence--because of his knees--can never be counted upon. Juan Samuel has come and probably gone. Mike Marshall is long gone. Tom Lasorda needs a dependable slugger to bat back-to-back with Eddie Murray.

Darryl’s going to dent some fences. He’s going to swat some sliders toward South Pasadena. He’s going to step up there with those long legs and those long arms, swing that lumber and circle those bases.

And, occasionally he’s going to mess up. It’s in his nature. It’s in everybody’s nature, but it’s in Strawberry’s nature more than a lot of other natures.

Every now and then, as most baseball fans know, Strawberry goes a little bananas. He oversleeps. He gets into a hassle with somebody, on or off the diamond. He nonchalants a lazy flyball and turns it into a triple. Roberto Clemente, he ain’t.

But Strawberry also happens to be a truly splendid player, a good teammate and leader much of the time, a polite and articulate young man most of the time, and the kind of guy who can run, hit, catch, hit, throw, hit, take charge and hit, in that order.

About all he can’t do is bunt, but the Dodgers aren’t paying all this money to have him bunt. Hell, let Jose Offerman bunt. Tell the Straw Man to swing that thing.

It could go wrong for the Dodgers, this sudden and spectacular acquisition of one of baseball’s headline players. It could backfire. You never know how things will go.

But this was one call I wanted to receive, any time of day or night. Darryl Strawberry a Dodger? Hey, if you root for Los Angeles, wherever you live, it might as well be spring.

Dwight Gooden, undoubtedly Strawberry’s best friend in New York, recently was asked how Straw would do for the Dodgers if he played against the Mets.

Gooden said he wasn’t sure, but he did know what Darryl would do against him : “Walk four times.”

Darryl Strawberry is changing stadiums, Shea to Chavez. For anybody with season tickets in the right-field seats, we have the following advice for 1991:

Bring your mitts.