Former Teammates Can’t Believe the Mets Let Strawberry Slip Away

The Mets spent much of last season underestimating their prowess as a team. Apparently, they also underestimated their appeal to Darryl Strawberry. Teammates thought the relationship they had forged with Strawberry would prompt him to return to the Mets. They found out Thursday it would not.

“Oh my God,” Dave Magadan said by telephone from Tampa when he was told Strawberry had signed with the Dodgers.

“I still don’t believe it,” Dwight Gooden said from St. Petersburg. “I might not believe it until next year when we get to Shea and see his locker with somebody else in it. Even then, I won’t.

“I still think I’m going to see Davey (Johnson) back in his office someday.”

Such were the reactions of players who had just lost their most valuable player, players who thought the Mets might have done more to retain such a valuable commodity, players who lost a friend. But they generally were happy for Strawberry.

“It’s probably the best for Darryl to leave,” Mackey Sasser said. Gooden and Magadan had similar comments.

“We always talked about playing our whole careers together,” Gooden said. “We just about started together and the team turned when we were in our first and second years. We thought we were important. People called us franchise players. Well, you don’t let a franchise player get away like that.

“I’m hurt. I felt like we were brothers. I feel like I’m getting divorced. We had a special relationship. I had that special feeling with Davey, Mookie (Wilson) and Straw, and now they’re all gone. This is a tough pill for me, coming so close to Davey.”

Gooden added: “They didn’t appreciate all he did for them. When he realized that, that was the last straw. You know Straw. They knew him. Darryl needs to hear he’s the No. 1 man. You got to puff him up once in a while, and he’s better when you do. Look what happened when Buddy (Manager Bud Harrelson) asked him to be a leader. Straw went crazy.”