Copyright The New York Times
Darryl Strawberry, the baseball slugger who won the World Series while with the New York Mets and Yankees, but whose career was tainted by drug use and other legal problems, received a pardon from President Trump on Thursday for his three-decade-old tax evasion conviction. In a social media post on Friday, Mr. Strawberry, 63, an eight-time All-Star, said that he received a call on Thursday from Mr. Trump telling him about the pardon in his 1995 tax case. “Half asleep, I glanced over and saw a call from Washington DC,” Mr. Strawberry wrote. “Curious, I answered, and to my amazement, the lady on the line said, ‘Darryl Strawberry, you have a call from the President of the United States, Donald Trump.’ I put it on speakerphone with my wife nearby, and President Trump spoke warmly about my baseball days in NYC, praising me as one the greatest player of the ’80s and celebrating the Mets. Then, he told me he was granting me a full pardon from my past.” A White House official on Friday confirmed that Mr. Trump had granted Mr. Strawberry the pardon, saying that the onetime baseball star had served his time and paid back taxes after pleading guilty to one count of tax evasion. “Following his career, Mr. Strawberry found faith in Christianity and has been sober for over a decade — he has become active in ministry and started a recovery center which still operates today,” the official said. The official did not answer questions about who had initiated the clemency process in Mr. Strawberry’s case. In 2010, Mr. Strawberry appeared on “The Celebrity Apprentice” when Mr. Trump was the host. Another contestant from that season, Rod R. Blagojevich, the former Democratic governor of Illinois, gained a full pardon from Mr. Trump in February. In 2020, Mr. Trump commuted Mr. Blagojevich’s 14-year prison sentence in his corruption case, which stemmed from a scheme to sell a Senate seat being vacated by Barack Obama. Some other prominent recipients of presidential pardons have made overtures to the administration, through people close to Mr. Trump or directly. “This has nothing to do with politics — it’s about a Man, President Trump, caring deeply for a friend,” Mr. Strawberry wrote. “God used him as a vessel to set me free forever!” A representative for Mr. Strawberry did not immediately respond to questions about the pardon. One of baseball’s most fearsome power hitters of the 1980s, Mr. Strawberry was a core member of the New York Mets team that defeated the Boston Red Sox in the 1986 World Series, the second title in franchise history. He enjoyed a late career renaissance with the crosstown Yankees, winning the World Series with them in 1996 and 1999. He also played for the Yankees in 1998 when they won the World Series, but was replaced on the playoff roster after a colon cancer diagnosis. For all of his accomplishments in baseball — he hit 335 home runs, was named National League Rookie of the Year in 1983 and won two Silver Slugger awards — Mr. Strawberry’s career was repeatedly derailed by legal troubles and substance abuse. In the tax evasion case, federal prosecutors accused Mr. Strawberry of failing to report more than $350,000 in income from autograph shows and other promotional appearances from 1986 to 1990. He could have faced 15 years in prison if convicted of three criminal counts, but was sentenced to six months of home confinement as part of a plea deal in which he admitted to cheating the government out of $100,000 in taxes. In 2000, Mr. Strawberry was suspended for one year by Major League Baseball for a failed drug test, his third violation of baseball’s drug aftercare program. In 2002, a Florida judge sentenced Mr. Strawberry to 18 months in prison for the latest of six probation violations. He had previously received probation in connection with a 1999 conviction on drug and prostitution solicitation charges. Mr. Strawberry served about 11 months before being released in 2003. In the years since his incarceration, he has frequently spoken to inmates about his poor choices and his struggles with substance abuse. Last year, the Mets retired his No. 18 at Citi Field.
