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In the depths of despair, one of modern baseball's most feared hitters and long-suffering souls found Jesus Christ.
Now, after dedicating his life's second act to spreading God's message, the one-time MLB superstar isn't letting a sudden medical emergency stop him from glorifying God.
After surviving a heart attack on Monday, former New York Mets outfielder Darryl Strawberry expressed gratitude from his hospital bed.
On social media platform Instagram, Strawberry posted a photo of himself in his hospital bed with two women, including wife Tracy. Each woman took one of his hands, touching her forehead to his, while Strawberry smiled.
“I praise God for His amazing grace and loving mercy in saving my life from a heart attack this evening,” the outfielder turned Christian minister wrote.
Then, after thanking the hospital staff, Strawberry, who turned 62 on Tuesday, reiterated his faith in the ultimate source of healing.
“Your prayers are greatly appreciated as I am recovering, in the name of Jesus!” He added.
Finally, Strawberry concluded with the appropriate hashtag #savedbyHisgrace.
Those who doubt salvation through Jesus Christ have never read or heard the strawberry story.
In a 2015 interview with Southwest Florida's Sarasota Herald-Tribune, the former outfielder described depths of despair that would defy the belief of those who have never experienced it.
After years of substance abuse and several legal troubles that resulted in jail time, Strawberry told a judge in November 2000 that he had “no desire to live anymore.”
Then, at a Narcotics Anonymous conference in Florida in 2003, Strawberry met Tracy, herself a former drug user and twice divorced.
Although they started dating, they still struggled in various ways. In fact, at one time, Strawberry and Tracy lived in her parents' basement in Missouri.
One day, he decided that things had to change. And she knew how.
“He started saying we needed to straighten out our lives and go to church. She read and read the Bible every morning, and she just woke up one morning and said, 'We're not going to have sex anymore,'” Strawberry recalled.
That “defining moment” led the troubled former outfielder on a journey toward God.
In 20o6, Darryl and Tracy got married. Five years later, he founded Strawberry Ministries.
Today, according to his website, “Finding Your Way”, Darryl “travels across the country speaking and bringing the message of hope and restoration in Christ.”
Readers and baseball fans of a certain age will remember Strawberry as a standout talent of the 1980s.
The former outfielder starred for the Mets from 1983 to 1990 before moving on to other teams.
In a career that lasted till 1999, he hit 335 home runs.
But that number tells only part of the story. From 1991 to 1999, Strawberry was a frequently injured player for the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, and New York Yankees.
Contemporary accounts of his career emphasized poor effort and unrealized potential.
According to ESPN, former catcher and teammate Mackey Sasser once said, “When he feels like it, he can be the most exciting player in the game.” “The situation is whether he feels like it or not.”
And things got worse over time. Only 55 of his 335 home runs came in the eight seasons he played since 1992.
In other words, he was on pace to be one of the game's elite long-ball hitters in his early years. A healthy and motivated Strawberry would have even challenged Babe Ruth's then-record 714 career home runs.
Anecdotally, as a teenager in 1989 I visited Montreal's Olympic Stadium, then home of MLB's Expos, now the Washington Nationals. And I clearly remember the sense of awe I felt when a stadium employee pointed out the exact location where one of Strawberry's titanic home runs hit from the stadium roof on Opening Day last season, April 4, 1988. Had collided.
Readers can watch that huge home run below.
However these are simply athletic feats. At the moment, Strawberry does one thing extra necessary when he talks to individuals about Jesus.
In truth, as he informed the Herald-Tribune in 2015, the previous outfielder appreciated Tracy the second he met him as a result of she didn't deal with him like a baseball star.
“One factor that impressed me about her: She was variety and compassionate. He by no means talked about my baseball profession. Everybody else needed to speak about my baseball and the way nice I used to be. He thought it was simply stupidity. He thought, 'This man is dying, and other people need to discuss him as a baseball participant,'” Strawberry recalled.
However he didn’t die of habit and despair. Nor did he die of a coronary heart assault on Monday.
And he is aware of precisely why: #savedbyHisgrace.
This text initially appeared on The Western Journal.