Strawberry Greets Mets in a Big Way : Dodgers: He has 400-foot home run, run-scoring double and a bull’s-eye throw against former team.

The New York Mets got their first look at the new Darryl Strawberry Friday when the Dodger outfielder greeted his former teammates with waves, warm embraces and autographs that referred to Bible verses.

They also saw the old Strawberry, as he shut up a stadium full of boo birds with a 400-foot home run, a run-scoring double and a throw from right field that nailed Gregg Jefferies at home plate.

The Dodgers lost a game, but Strawberry made a point.

“The man just made a big-time statement,” teammate Brett Butler said after the Dodgers had lost, 4-3, in their first meeting with the Mets since Strawberry left for Los Angeles last winter.

“Whenever you leave a club, you want to return there and tell everyone, ‘Hey, whatever happens, I’m OK,’ ” Butler said. “Today Darryl did that. Everyone over there now knows that he is going to be all right.”

Maybe even better than that. In two exhibition games, Strawberry has a home run, two doubles and two outfield assists.

“You are seeing what I’ve been trying to tell you all winter about the guy,” Manager Tom Lasorda said. “He is awesome! People think that I was just kidding when I said that. I was not!”

Strawberry handled Friday’s circus atmosphere before 6,764 at St. Lucie County Stadium as he has handled everything in recent commotion-filled days.

His smile was distant, his voice delicate, his words docile.

“I was not trying to make a statement today,” he said. “I’m not looking to get back at anyone. It’s not me. In New York, that was the way I looked at it, but not now. It’s not going to be that way with me ever again.”

Of the Mets, he added: “I love these guys. I played here so long, I know all of them, I care for all of them.”

Apparently even Mackey Sasser, the Met catcher who was loudly critical of Strawberry when he signed with the Dodgers.

Sasser said Strawberry had quit on the team at the end of last season and that Strawberry “sometimes acts like he doesn’t give a damn.”

Yet when Strawberry took the lineup card to home plate before the game Friday, he made a special effort to shake Sasser’s hand.

“I pray for him,” Strawberry said of Sasser. “I don’t wish nothing bad on nobody. There was a lot of misunderstanding that went on in his mind toward me, but I wish him well.

“Really, I have no negative thoughts toward anybody. I don’t play for regrets anymore. I play for happiness.”

What about that home run off Ron Darling in the third inning, a ball that nearly dropped through the roof of a black sports car parked far beyond the outfield fence?

And what about the first-inning double off David Cone, a ball hit to left field into the teeth of a strong wind?

And since when do All-Star outfielders throw out runners at home plate in the second game of spring training?

“I have learned that motivation starts in spring training,” Strawberry said. “Spring training is not a place where you can say, ‘Hey, let’s just go through the motions.’ Many times I have played that way, and it hasn’t been right. I will not play that way anymore. Like I’ve been saying, my game is never going to be the same again.”

But his reception among the New York media and the Mets’ fans was the same as it has always been.

“See what I had to go through?” he said softly just before leaving the clubhouse Friday morning and facing nearly a dozen television cameras and fans who were already chanting, “Darryl! Darryl!”

An hour later, he left a batting cage behind the left-field fence and was greeted by hundreds of fans lining the box-seat railing. They pointed fingers at him while booing and jeering as he made the long walk back to the Dodger clubhouse on the other side of the field.

But if any of that upset him, he never showed it. He even paused to sign autographs from many of the same fans who were booing him.

“Even if he was fired up, he wasn’t showing it,” Chris Gwynn said. “So far, it looks like nothing bothers him.”

The change in Strawberry was noticed by the Mets when he greeted infielder Howard Johnson with a prolonged hug. The change was further observed from the mound by his friend Cone.

“We all remember a real upbeat Darryl,” Cone said. “He had this fire, almost like he was arrogant. But now it’s almost to a point where--his eyes are just different. Softer. It’s tough to describe.”

Considering that last week Strawberry had said he wasn’t even going to make this trip, he was certainly glad he did.

“The Dodgers are going to try and be real protective of me,” Strawberry said. “But I realized, I have prepared for days like this. I expect to be booed in every town in the league this year, but I can handle it.”

Strawberry will not play here today but will face the Mets again in Vero Beach on Sunday.

Dodger Notes

The Dodgers lost the game on a ninth-inning homer by Mark Carreon against reliever Jim Gott on Gott’s first pitch of the spring. The Mets tied the game in the eighth on a homer by rookie Chris Donnels off reliever John Candelaria. . . . In two spring games, prospective Dodger bullpen pitchers have allowed five runs in eight innings. . . . Lenny Harris had two hits and made a diving catch into a photographers’ booth down the third base line.