The Strawberry Statement

[batmagadanleadoff]

Darryl Strawberry says Mets’ organization is ‘an empty place’ for him now

Updated July 14, 2016 1:52 PM
By Neil Best neil.best@newsday.com

Darryl Strawberry expressed lingering bitterness over his relationship with the Mets, and in particular chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon, in an interview with WFAN’s Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton Thursday morning. Carton at one point asked Strawberry, “How long did it take you to reconcile with the Mets?” Strawberry answered, “How long will it?” indicating there are issues in the present tense. Strawberry said he participates in some Mets events, including the recent reunion of the 1986 World Series-winning team, for the sake of the fans and Mets employees with whom he remains close, such as public relations man Jay Horwitz. But, he added, “There’s nothing there for me. It’s an empty place.” Regarding his relationship with the Wilpons, Strawberry said, “I’ve never had a bad relationship with Fred. I just think that Jeff was very cold to the ’86 Mets and all of us and we take it personal. “We won and you should celebrate us and celebrate us in a great way. One day maybe they may come around to say, look, we’re not letting anyone wear No. 16 and No. 18 [Dwight Gooden’s and Strawberry’s numbers] for the Mets one day.” Strawberry spoke as part of a series of interviews in advance of Thursday’s night’s premiere of an ESPN “30 for 30” documentary entitled “Doc & Darryl” about the off-field troubles of the Mets’ young stars of the mid-1980s. When asked whether Jeff Wilpon has a problem with the ’86 Mets, Strawberry said, “He definitely has. I held the records for a long time. It’s no big deal. That’s on them, that’s not on me. I’m free from all that now.” What about the fact that Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling are SNY’s long-time Mets analysts? “They pick who they want,” Strawberry said. “Keith and Ronnie were great for us, too, don’t get me wrong. And I love them, just like I love [Gary] Carter and everyone. They did Carter wrong. They did Ray Knight wrong. So, c’mon.” Asked what ownership’s issues with the ’86 team might be, Strawberry said, “I don’t know. I know Fred loves us. He admires that team. But I don’t what the other reason is with the other guy.” The Mets declined to comment. In addition to a weekend honoring the ’86 team in May, the Mets are wearing 1986 throwback uniforms for Sunday home games this season. Several members of the ’86 Mets work for the organization, including third-base coach Tim Teufel, who wears No. 18.

http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/darryl-strawberry-says-mets-organization-is-an-empty-place-for-him-now-1.12043173

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Tuefel wears 11 -- wore 18 last few years.

I happened to have heard that interview this morning and Best appears to have been fooled by the hosts who asked "What do you think about Tuefel wearing 18?"

On a related note, keep this between us, a guy I met in the banking biz says the Mets needed to spring Dwight from another stint in drug rehab just to make the 86 reunion event this year. The banker guy was aware of that because he was in the process of having to repossess Dwight's car.

[Edgy MD]

Makes sense, as Gooden has looked mostly good the last few years, but certainly looked unhealthy at the reunion parade.

[batmagadanleadoff]

If anything's "empty", it's that Newsday article I posted.

As much as I can't pass up an opportunity to rag on Jeff, there's doesn't seem to be much substance to whatever Strawberry's griping about. And if there is, Straw apparently kept it to himself, because it's not in that article.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

No there really wasn't much behind Straw's complaint. The hosts began from the POV that all is forgiven now and Straw simply misunderstood them and went in a new direction.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I see. So the big news is that Straw's mad at the Mets about something that he doesn't wanna talk about.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Does Straw think his number should be retired? If the Mets retired numbers the way the Yankees do, it would have been retired years ago. And Doc and Carter and Koosman and Tug and Tommie and Cleon and Grote and Bud's numbers too. Did I leave anybody out? Kingman?

[Edgy MD]

Franco.

I would agree there isn't much there there. Other 1986 Mets have made similar complaints, but they seem to have been equally nebulous (or, when specific) misguided. I think there's a fan cause celebre that has long argued that 1986 Mets aren't respected enough and somehow the organization hasn't held them in high enough esteem, and they've put a bug or two in some of the players ears, so they voice it too.

But under the light of day, the complaints often don't have all that much substance — and turn out to be just a thing to say in order to stay relevant for a few moments — which is too bad because an open and real conversation about how the Mets honor and engage with their past would be a great thing.

I perversely like that our site has become so marginalized that The Yellow Hammer can drop the lede for an exclusive scoop and be confident that no outlet will find it and run with it.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

My complaint is the Mets don;t do enough to honor clubs other than 86 (which has produced maybe a dozen or more coaches, broadcasters, and resulted in 2 uni numbers going out of circulation if not on the wall already).

You know what would really be fun? A 1978 Mets reunion.

Hey! It's John Stearns! NL ERA champion Craig Swan!

Wait... is that BRUCE BOISCLAIR's music?!

[batmagadanleadoff]

Plus, they're mostly still alive so it's do-able from that perspective. Just one dead '78er.

[Ceetar]

Considering this was a Craig Carton interview, well..

I like how they paraphrased Carton's questions in the article. I can just imagine how leading they were.



This just feels like lingering jealousy that they went a different way at SNY. Bet you could get Bobby Ojeda to make similar allusions.

[soupcan]

I've got less of a problem with Strawberry than I do with Gooden but still, Straw can go suck an egg.

Take 16 & 18 out of circulation? Why? Because the two of them made some All-Star teams while they were Mets? Rookies of the year? World Champions? Cy Young?

How many ultimately mediocre players on every other team in the majors have similar accomplishments and don't have their numbers retired? Quite a fucking few I'm thinking.

The only difference to me between those two is that Gooden's performance while he was with the Mets was affected by his drug use and Strawberry's wasn't. The Mets dodged a bullet when the Dodgers signed Straw. Unfortunately for the organization and their fans, they weren't so lucky with Doc.

As to the revelation that Johnny Lunch just posted - I'm not nearly surprised. As Edgy stated, Dwight's looked pretty bad for a while now. Sad to say but I won't be surprised when in the next year or so we read about his ultimate demise.

I wish that neither of those guys ever got involved with drugs and then played their whole career with the Mets. That didn't happen but you know what did? I invested a lot of my personal fandom and emotion in both of them. Almost 30 years later, I still harbor resentment towards Gooden, and Straw doesn't help his case by acting like the Mets owe him something more than EVERYTHING they've already given him.

[Frayed Knot]

soupcan wrote: How many ultimately mediocre players on every other team in the majors have similar accomplishments and don't have their numbers retired? Quite a fucking few I'm thinking.

Sure, but a bunch of mediocre players (or at least mediocre careers) are honored too and that gets far too many fans to say 'Why Not Us?'.
I noticed during this AS week for instance that the Padres retired Randy Jones's number for his eight year SDP career and one CY award (which should have gone to Koosman). They also retired Steve Garvey's number who was a Padre for like and hour and a half, but I already knew that.



"The Mets dodged a bullet when the Dodgers signed Straw." -- Agreed, but that's another thing that's a tough sell to a number of fans who seem blind to the facts that he broke down during that first FA contract and wound up being dumped by LA before it was even over. Also, the attitude that the team screwed that one up wasn't helped by the authors of 'WORST TEAM MONEY CAN BUY' spending 3/4 of the book harping on the idea that not signing Straw was the worst NYM move ever and the one most responsible for killing the dynasty and that year's team when to me they mostly just seemed pissed that it made their jobs less interesting because they no long had their 6-1/2 foot go-to headline guy around every day.



Ultimately Straw is just doing some publicity for the mini-film airing tonight (haven't seen/heard Dwight anywhere) even though he's been pretty clear that he's mentally put his baseball career behind him in favor of his current life/family/recovery/ministry, which (assuming it's true) is all well and good but it also gives him little reason to care have he comes off in these things so I suspect he's mostly saying things that he thinks sound good at the time.

[Ceetar]

Frayed Knot wrote: I suspect he's mostly saying things that he thinks sound good at the time.

Indeed. And dropping "Had sex in the clubhouse while games were going on" quotes is not exactly the way you endear yourself to the Mets organization.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Btw, Straw also copped this morning to saying that signing with LA was his mistake, although he was mad at the Metsfor not having offered more than a 3 year contract. i don't recall the specifics of that but do know as a fan it felt like he was on the way out from the start of negotiations that season.

Finally i should say that like Soupy I was very much into Darryl, and when i met him at his restaurant a few years back i felt as though I understood how a guy like Francessa discusses Mantle.

Edited July 14, 2016 by Guest

[Edgy MD]

There's a post that needs a drug test.

Ceetar wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: I suspect he's mostly saying things that he thinks sound good at the time. Indeed. And dropping "Had sex in the clubhouse while games were going on" quotes is not exactly the way you endear yourself to the Mets organization.

Or the ministry.

[Guest d'Kong76]

I'm gonna start a facebook page like that Hodge's nut has for Gil in the Hall for the
Mets to retire Kranepool's #. Original Met, 18 years; what do they want, blood?

[batmagadanleadoff]

17 years.

18 seasons.

[Guest d'Kong76]

I saw 18 on bbrdotcom and went with it. I'd say no need to mince
whiskers, but we are a bunch of whisker mincers here most days!

[soupcan]

Kranepool?!

Stop with the crazy talk!!

[Guest d'Kong76]

Follow us on twitter, like us on facebook #retkrane7

[Guest Mets Guy in Michigan]

I think the problem with honoring Doc and Straw is balancing the great things they did with the potential to do so much more.

These were self-inflicted wounds, and I look at them and have trouble getting past the part of me that says "What a waste of gifts." Maybe we will would not have needed the miracle of the sixth game had Doc not been on coke during the series.

I also recognize the terrible grip of addiction and how they needed help then and, in Doc's case, maybe now.

[Guest cooby]

They should retire both numbers

[Edgy MD]

d'Kong76 wrote: I'm gonna start a facebook page like that Hodge's nut has for Gil in the Hall for the Mets to retire Kranepool's #. Original Met, 18 years; what do they want, blood?

That guy is a nut's nut. He went nuts on me and then I backed away slowly and quietly withdrew from the Facebook group, and he kept re-adding me unsolicited. He's so unstable and out there and un-self-aware about it, I almost kind of like him, but I tend to think he's hurting the Hodges case more than helping it.

[soupcan]

cooby wrote: They should retire both numbers

Didn't you say in the Piazza thread that you were opposed to number retiring?

[Fman99]

Ceetar wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: I suspect he's mostly saying things that he thinks sound good at the time. Indeed. And dropping "Had sex in the clubhouse while games were going on" quotes is not exactly the way you endear yourself to the Mets organization.

I dunno, that seems pretty endearing to me. But, you know, YMMV.

[G-Fafif]

Edgy MD wrote: d'Kong76 wrote: I'm gonna start a facebook page like that Hodge's nut has for Gil in the Hall for the Mets to retire Kranepool's #. Original Met, 18 years; what do they want, blood? That guy is a nut's nut. He went nuts on me and then I backed away slowly and quietly withdrew from the Facebook group, and he kept re-adding me unsolicited. He's so unstable and out there and un-self-aware about it, I almost kind of like him, but I tend to think he's hurting the Hodges case more than helping it.

Nuts' nuts think this guy is...nutty.

[batmagadanleadoff]

soupcan wrote: How many ultimately mediocre players on every other team in the majors have similar accomplishments and don't have their numbers retired? Quite a fucking few I'm thinking.

I disagree with this many ways over. First of all, every ML'er is, at best, mediocre at the end of their careers. Even Willie Mays. Otherwise, they'd still be playing. Mike Piazza would still be backstopping for the Mets, catching Tom Seaver's 96 MPH fastballs. So to characterize Strawberry based on his end of career mediocrity, to imply that Straw was a mediocrity is wholly unfair to Straw and a distortion.

Straw was a superstar and, I think, an underrated superstar, playing in an era when having to hit half your games in Shea Stadium was still murder on a batter's stats. I'll tell you something ... I secretly chafe a little bit every time I have to read that David Wright is the Mets best home grown hitter because I don't really believe it. Wright isn't the hitter that Straw was, and in fact, if you compare Wright's first eight years to Straw's first and only eight Mets seasons, (they were both 21 in their debut seasons, btw, making for a convenient comparison) Straw comes out on top overall, even though Wright had the best singular season. If Wright is the better Mets hitter than Straw, it's only because Wright outlasted Straw as a Met and took many more PA's, which enabled Wright to pass Straw in the career totals categories.

But pound for pound, I'd take Straw.

Also, I don't think it'd be unprecedented if a player like Straw were to have his number retired. He's certainly more deserving of that honor, by like orders of magnitude, than say Gary Carter, who seems to have the most support among Mets fans for that kind of treatment. Lesser players than Straw have had their numbers retired. Not that that means anything, because we're now delving into a discussion in which rules and standards don't really apply and ownership can retire whatever numbers they feel like retiring.

[nymr83]

Strawberry has 2 more WAR in 8 years as a Met if you make the most favorable comparison of 8 years to 8 years that includes Wright's half season rookie year, if you instead include Wright first FULL 8 years then he is the one who leads by 2 WAR - I'll take the 3B ahead of the corner outfielder when output is similar.

I wouldn't retire the number either.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Comparing their first eight seasons is fair. Yes, Wright's rookie season was a partial one, but Straw missed about a quarter of his rookie season, and missed about a third of the '85 season --when Straw was on pace to have what would've been his best season ever.

Even though Wright appeared in just 69 games in his debut season, overall, Wright still had 258 AB's more than Strawberry in their first eight Mets seasons -- 4,161 to 3,903. So that's 2 less WAR's for Wright, if you wanna use WAR, which you do, in 258 more AB's. That doesn't help your case, WAR-wise.

Edited July 15, 2016 by Guest