His Girlfriend Said No Sex Until Marriage, and It Changed His Life
The former slugger says that refusal sent him back to church, and then to the pulpit.
Mick Unplugged · Darryl Strawberry: Another LifeThe conversation was not about baseball. Darryl Strawberry, the former Mets and Yankees slugger, was with Tracy, then his girlfriend, talking about living for Christ when she told him she was done living the way they were living.
"We're not married," she said. "I'm not having sex with you anymore."
Strawberry's reply was one word. "What?" Both of them laughed about it later, but he calls it the defining moment of his life.
It mattered because Strawberry had everything fame could buy and felt empty anyway. He has described that period as the fake part of living, searching for a father figure in women, cars, money, and drugs, and then going home at night and lying on the couch still hollow inside. By his own account, he was saying the name of Christ but was not living what he calls the wholeness of Christ. He was living with his girlfriend, not married to her, and doing what he calls all kinds of worldly things.
Tracy's refusal changed the terms. She had led him back toward church, and now she would not go along with a life that contradicted what they said they believed. Strawberry says that stand "sent me off to go get right with God and get my heart in the right place." He came to believe that God was not in the business of blessing people who ignored his principles, even if they talked about faith.
So he left, and then he returned. He and Tracy married and tried to live by those principles, and he measures the result not in possessions but in purpose. He says they are blessed now, not with stuff, but by being used by God.
That change led to another surprise. Strawberry says God called him to preach, and when he protested that he was not qualified because of his past, the answer came back, "No one is qualified. I qualify the call." He also says God told him, "I saw everything you were doing."
Strawberry says he surrendered, and his life became whole. He started using the scriptures to set him and his wife free to live what he calls the abundant life.
Questions people ask
Who is Tracy Strawberry?
Tracy Strawberry is Darryl Strawberry's wife and ministry partner. They lead Strawberry Ministries together and speak in churches, communities, and prisons about faith and recovery. She has also written and spoken publicly about her own past addiction and their marriage.
How good a baseball player was Darryl Strawberry?
He was one of the most feared power hitters of the 1980s and early 1990s. An eight-time All-Star, he helped the New York Mets win the 1986 World Series and later won three more titles with the New York Yankees. He finished his 17-year career with 335 home runs.
What does Strawberry do in prisons?
He visits maximum-security prisons to talk with men serving long sentences. His message is that no person is a mistake, even if they have made many mistakes, and that faith can give them a different life. He frames drug use as a dead end he knows from personal experience.