Strawberry Should Not Get Another Chance

No one had more power than Darryl Strawberry. No one has less will power.

Two months were all that separated Darryl Strawberry from his kids, the Yankees and the rest of the free world outside the Halfway House in Citra, Fla., where he’d spent the past 10 months. But Strawberry couldn’t follow the rules, couldn’t come close.

Can you imagine that one of the rules was not to shave one’s head, and he couldn’t follow that one? There is no way to hide a shaved head, either.

He wasn’t supposed to have sex in the facility. But he was caught with a female resident who is not his wife in a broom closet.

Strawberry broke so many rules in such outlandish ways it’s like he figured no one could ever touch him. He always begged for mercy when caught before, and he always received mercy. You can see why he got the idea he was untouchable. There aren’t too many people outside jails who have violated parole five times.

At least there was an excuse for past indiscretions. He has a disease called addiction. When he screwed up before, he was usually high or on his way to getting high. There is no addiction to shaving one’s head.

What he did in the Halfway House he did stone cold sober. He has no excuses this time. The report issued by the Florida Department of Corrections paints a picture of a man hellbent on breaking every last rule in the house, a man who either did not care what happened to him or thought his celebrity could buy him out of any fix.

He looks like nothing more than a two-bit scammer, hustling his way through the cushy punishment and flaunting his fame. He was caught bartering autographed baseballs and possessing $140,000. His friends told us for years he was indigent, and now even that looks like a hustle to win the chance for a lifetime job with George Steinbrenner, the chance he probably now has blown with a litany of house-rule violations that could make Amy Fisher blush.

Friends say his marriage was already in trouble before the broom-closet incident, that he believes he has little to look forward to after his release. But Strawberry should have counted his blessings. His colon cancer reportedly is in remission. He has three children. And he had a job with the Yankees waiting for him.

He is not accused of using drugs while in rehab, but that almost makes it worse. He had his wits about him while he was making a mockery of Judge Florence Foster’s last-chance ruling. He is in the Marion County jail today, and he will return April 1 to Tampa to face Judge Foster, who warned him in May when he was rounded up after a four-day bender that the next time, he’d end up in jail.

According to the reports outlined this week in his brief court appearance in Marion County, 80 miles north of Yankee camp, Strawberry broke house rules by smoking, exchanging baseballs for cigarettes, misusing telephone privileges, using bad language, and also by “contracting and exploiting himself “ (presumably, that was the broom-closet escapade).

Residents were asked to express their holiday feelings on the day after Christmas. Strawberry used that exercise to argue with a Phoenix House worker and use profanities.

One friend said when he visited Strawberry a few weeks ago, he could tell he was doing “terrible.” But the report paints a picture of a man behaving terribly, not doing terribly.

Strawberry acted like a man with a lifetime pass, but he’s out of chances now. His name normally elicits sympathy around Yankee camp because he was recalled as a kind man with a big bat. One player said only a day earlier that the difference between Strawberry and Ruben Rivera is that “Strawberry is only hurting himself.”

But Wednesday, Strawberry was back to having persona non grata status.

Joe Torre, a Strawberry supporter in the past, said “I have no thoughts” on Strawberry. Derek Jeter, who wrote the brotherly forward to Strawberry’s autobiography, said, “I don’t know what to think. It’s shocking.”

Bernie Williams said, “I feel for him and his family,” but Williams also pointed out that Strawberry had to know the rules, and now must face the consequences.

Steinbrenner issued a terse, unflattering statement, painting an unpromising picture of Strawberry’s Yankee future. Even if Strawberry somehow wins more mercy in court there’s no way he’ll be back with the Yankees anytime soon. Even sober, you can’t trust his word.

He can’t come back now. If he’s invited back, who knows what he’d do? You could picture him showing up with a cigarette dangling out of his mouth, wads of cash falling out of his pockets and a fellow rehabbing nymphet on his arm.