For all his awards, Darryl Strawberry has never shied away from acknowledging the defining misstep of his career. After eight unforgettable years with the New York Mets, the slugger chose to sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers in free agency following the 1990 season. Looking back, Strawberry has been candid that the move away from Queens was labeled a turning point he would come to regret more than any other decision in his baseball journey.
Strawberry described that his regret had little to do with the Dodgers themselves, but everything to do with what he lost by quitting New York. “It wasn’t nothing against my hometown and the Dodgers,” he confessed on All the Smoke. “It was against the fact that I was used to playing in New York. I was eight years there, and didn’t realize that I would miss the animals—what I call fans. They act like animals when you don’t play well. And I love that. I thrived off that.”
That sense of responsibility, Strawberry confessed, simply was not the same in Los Angeles. The intensity of Mets fans made him sharper and more competitive. “New York fans come early and never leave. L.A. fans come late and leave early,” he told SNY’s Baseball Night in New York. “When you suck, they tell you you suck. And I was like, ‘Yeah, I do suck right now. I need to get better.’ I was more used to the aggressive fans in New York.”
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The Los Angeles-born shared how he would embrace the chaos of Shea Stadium by promising other teammates dramatic moments. “They sit over the dugout and yell at you and tell you you suck when you’re sucking. I thrived off that,” Strawberry recalled.
“I remember Debo saying, ‘What you going to do tonight, Straw?’ I said, ‘Man, I’m going to hit two off the scoreboard. They gonna call me out for curtain calls. I ain’t coming off for no curtain calls. I’m going down in the tunnel, smoke me a heater.’ And I did it. That’s what I miss,” he added.
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Though Strawberry’s first season with the Dodgers delivered elite numbers: 28 homers and 99 RBIs, the veteran said that he no longer felt the same drive. Injuries, personal battles, and the distinctive environment all mixed to derail his HOF trajectory.
“Signing with the Dodgers when I was a free agent after the 1990 season was the biggest mistake I really ever made in my career,” Strawberry shared. “New York fans really drove me. They made me go. I just didn’t have that same push out west.”
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While his regret over leaving the Mets highlights the professional side of the star’s journey, the rest of his story highlights a far more intricate picture, which is mixed with battles that stretched well beyond the baseball field.
A career overshadowed by struggles off the field
Despite an immense talent, Strawberry’s career was just as defined by what he did not achieve as by what he did.
ESPN’s retrospective highlighted the star as a player of “unfulfilled potential,” one who could dazzle with 30–40 homers a season yet seemed held back by personal demons. He said that the pressures of the Mets fed into destructive habits, saying, “The drinking and drugging, that was a way of punishing myself and the fans, too. I figured, ‘If you want to get negative on me, you won’t get the best out of me.’”
At the peak of his crises, Strawberry experienced suspensions, public battles with substance abuse, and even times of despair where he admitted he contemplated ending his life. Injuries further disturbed his path, cutting short the years he should have commanded the game.
And though he found redemption with the Yankees, helping them to World Series glory in the late ’90s, the record remained bittersweet. As veteran Mets manager Davey Johnson summed it up, “He had the swing, the grace, the power. When he wanted to be, he was as good as it gets.”
Darryl Strawberry’s take is one of brilliance, regret, and resilience.
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From flourishing under New York’s limelight to collapsing in Los Angeles and beyond, his voyage shows the fine line between greatness and downfall. For fans, this is a gentle reminder to adore talent while demanding accountability, because baseball always tells the truth…