A Slugger Fueled by Hate for His Father Found Freedom by Forgiving Him
He imagined the baseball was his father's head, then learned at the hospital that forgiveness was for himself.
Mick Unplugged · Darryl Strawberry: Another LifeDarryl Strawberry, the former New York Mets and Yankees slugger known for one of the sweetest swings in baseball, walked into a hospital room where his father lay dying. For his entire career, Strawberry had carried unforgiveness toward his father. He went to extend forgiveness to him.
He forgave his father as his father lay dying, and in that same visit he led his father to the Lord. Strawberry said he had thought for his entire career that forgiveness was for his father the whole time.
He was wrong, and that is why the visit mattered. Strawberry said that despite his success in baseball, he could not get the release he had waited for while he was playing. That freedom, as he describes it, came only when he extended forgiveness to his father.
The rage had lived inside his swing. Strawberry said he "used to hit the ball so hard" because he imagined it was his father's head. Strawberry said his father "led me to be a broken, hated man," and that hating his father in return only made him suffer. He held that anger inside for many years.
He had tried to fill the empty places inside him with stuff and success, and he said it did not heal him. Healing, as he tells it, came when he forgave his father. That moment brought a release he had not found in trophies and achievements.
Walking out of the hospital, Strawberry said the Lord told him, "The forgiveness wasn't for your father, it was for you." Then, as Strawberry remembers it, the Lord asked him, "How dare you not forgive him and I forgave you?"
That exchange taught him what he now calls grace. As he explains it, grace means receiving good you have not earned and cannot claim by right. He says understanding that gift is what allowed him to move forward, with a greater freedom than achievement had ever given him.
Questions people ask
How good was Darryl Strawberry as a baseball player?
Strawberry was one of the most feared power hitters of the 1980s. He was the National League Rookie of the Year in 1983, an eight-time All-Star, and a four-time World Series champion with the 1986 Mets and the late-1990s Yankees, finishing with 335 home runs.
What does he mean by grace?
In Christian teaching, grace means unearned favor from God, often described as forgiveness and love given despite human failings. It is distinct from mercy, which is not receiving punishment, in that grace also includes receiving goodness. Strawberry uses it in that traditional sense, as a gift he did not earn.
What did Strawberry do after baseball?
He became a Christian minister with his wife Tracy, founding Strawberry Ministries in Florida. Much of his work involves speaking in churches, treatment centers, and prisons about addiction, recovery, and faith.