Last Friday’s (Aug. 11) session of the St. Paul Saints summer baseball camp for teenagers wrapped up at CHS Field across the time the tall old ballplayer with the shaved head finished chatting with reporters. A lot of the 80 participants grabbed their backpacks and headed for the exit, but a couple of approached the old ballplayer with items to sign. The oldest kids looked about 13, far too young to have seen the old ballplayer in motion, but they definitely sensed the presence of somebody significant.

“Could I actually have your autograph?” one kid asked. “What’s your name?”

“Darryl Strawberry,” the ballplayer said, and not using a trace of irritation.

Imagine the response when that child went home and showed the autograph to his parents; even an off-the-cuff baseball of a certain age would recognize the name. Eight-time All-Star, four-time World Series champion, the toast of Latest York within the Nineteen Eighties and Nineties until drug and alcohol problems upended his life and profession. It’s very easy to assume the query that followed: “What the heck was Darryl Strawberry doing in St. Paul?”

Pull up a chair for this one.

For a couple of magical weeks within the spring and summer of 1996, Strawberry, a former Latest York Met, landed with the Saints in a last-ditch try to revive his profession. It could be one other decade before Strawberry finally and decisively shook his Triple Crown of addictions – booze, cocaine and sex. But for those 29 games in a Saints uniform, Strawberry regained his love for baseball while dominating Northern League pitching. He went on to spend parts of 4 seasons with the Yankees, a helpful role player for the team that dominated baseball through the top of the Nineties.

So when Saints decided to retired the No. 17 Strawberry wore in ’96, and general manager Derek Sharrer called Strawberry to inform him, the old ballplayer – now a clean, sober Christian pastor based in suburban St. Louis – rearranged his schedule to be here for Saturday night’s ceremony. At the identical time the Saints honored original owners Marv Goldklang, Mike Veeck, Bill Murray and Van Schley, who sold the club earlier this yr. That was fitting for Strawberry, who owed a debt to all the Saints staff.

“I actually had no idea I desired to play baseball again,” said Strawberry, now 61. “The wonderful people in St. Paul welcomed me and my family at that exact time. My life was in shambles. I have a look at life as a journey, and also you have a look at the role other people play in your life. They were an enormous a part of my journey. I believe that’s why I’m standing here, the person I’m today.”

The fundamental facts of how Strawberry got to St. Paul and returned to the Yankees, who cut him loose after the ’95 season, have been on the market for some time. But the complete story has never been known until now.

It starts with the late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and his unshakable belief in second possibilities, often overruling his baseball staff to amass players with troubled pasts. Like Steve Howe. And Dwight Gooden. And Strawberry, whom the Yankees signed to a minor-league contract in June 1995 and brought up for the ultimate two months of the season.

Six-foot-six and 190 kilos in his prime, Strawberry could do all of it – run, field, throw, hit and hit with power – the so-called five tools of baseball greatness. He starred on those great Mets teams of the Nineteen Eighties, a confident, rowdy yet troubled bunch that won the ’86 World Series.

Fact was, Strawberry had been abusing alcohol and medicines since highschool. MLB had already suspended Strawberry once for cocaine use before the Yankees signed him – more suspensions would follow – and he wasn’t making child support payments to his first wife. The Yankees remained interested enough to ask him to play winter ball, but Strawberry declined, unwilling to depart his then-wife Charisse and two young children.

“After that, I assumed it was over,” he said. “I assumed my window with the Yankees was done. I didn’t really take into consideration some other team.”

Enter Goldklang. Besides co-owning the Saints, Goldklang was (and still is) a limited partner within the Yankees.

As Goldklang tells it, in March 1996 one in all his sons – Jeff, he thinks – noted Strawberry remained unsigned and suggested Marv Goldklang pursue him for the Saints. For a club known for a pig delivering baseballs to home plate and a nun giving massages, it wasn’t the craziest idea ever suggested.

Through the Yankees, Goldklang got the variety of Strawberry’s agent, Eric Grossman, and cold-called him. Independent ball wasn’t a coast-to-coast thing yet, so Goldklang had to elucidate the Saints were a legitimate operation.

“My pitch was, the Saints could be a super first step back for Darryl,” he said.

On the time, Strawberry wasn’t sure he desired to play anymore – for anyone. It took multiple calls to persuade Strawberry, who had never been to St. Paul and wasn’t sure where it was.

“Most individuals don’t know I didn’t really need to come back to play,” Strawberry said. “My agent on the time kept calling me, saying, Marv has an independent team down in St. Paul and he desires to know if you wish to come play baseball there. I told him no. I assumed I used to be completely done with baseball.

“Eric had told me about players coming here and attempting to get back with a significant league team. I told him I didn’t know if I would like to get back with a significant league team. He said, `Well, just go and see when you prefer it have a good time with it.’ That’s exactly what I did.”

But not without one snag. The night before Strawberry’s introductory press conference, Goldklang, back in Latest Jersey, got a call from Strawberry and Grossman, who were already in St. Paul. Strawberry had second thoughts. Goldklang said it took 20 minutes of backwards and forwards before Strawberry agreed to undergo with the press conference.

“I never told Mike because I assumed he would have a heart attack,” said Goldklang. (He finally did – last week.)

About Veeck: Seems the one one that benefited probably the most from a second probability hesitated giving one to Strawberry.

Blackballed from Major League Baseball for his part within the 1979 Disco Demolition Night fiasco with the Chicago White Sox, Veeck was out of the sport for greater than a decade until Goldklang hired him in 1990 to run the Miami Miracle within the Florida State League. Three years later, Veeck and Goldklang created the Saints. It’s no accident the brand new Netflix documentary about Veeck’s life is titled “The Saint of Second Probabilities.”

And yet, when Goldklang told Veeck of his plan to sign Strawberry, Veeck was against it, petrified of how Saints fans might react. Veeck was driving to a speaking engagement in Owatonna together with his wife Libby when he mentioned his reticence. Libby, incredulous, called him a hypocrite. That shook him.

“I got here around the subsequent day after Libby didn’t consult with me,” Veeck said.

Amid all of the goofiness and off-the-wall promotions in those early days, the Saints fielded team, winning two of the primary three Northern League titles in 1993 and ’95 before adding one other with Strawberry in ’96. Strawberry quickly showed he could still hit, belting 18 homers and batting .435 with 39 RBI in those 29 games.

He felt comfortable. He enjoyed all of the gimmicks and between-innings shenanigans. He became fast friends with Dave Stevens, the congenital amputee and Augsburg grad Veeck signed for his remarkable athletic ability. Strawberry told Stevens to pinch-hit for him late in a game where he had hit three home runs, one of the vital memorable unscripted moments in club history. Stevens fouled off several pitches before striking out.

And Strawberry especially appreciated the fans, who never booed him.

“That’s a miracle in itself,” Strawberry said with a chuckle.

“I got here here and I noticed baseball was fun again. I had never felt like that in such an extended period, how fun baseball was, until I actually got here to St. Paul and got around Marty Scott [the manager] and Mike Veeck. It was a fun a part of my life. It caused something good.”

In June of ‘96, Goldklang called Steinbrenner and asked him to provide Strawberry one other shot. So Steinbrenner dispatched general manager Bob Watson and super scout Gene Michael individually to have a look. Michael, the club’s most trusted set of eyes, really useful the Yankees purchase Strawberry’s contract, which they did on July 4 – Steinbrenner’s birthday – for $3,000. Strawberry agreed to a Class AAA take care of no guarantee of a Sept. 1 call-up to the majors.

Goldklang said the Yankees made an analogous contract offer to Jack Morris, also attempting a major-league comeback with the Saints. But Morris declined, and retired.

Steinbrenner had already lucked out with Gooden, Strawberry’s former Mets teammate who threw a no-hitter in May of ‘96 after well-documented drug problems and two lengthy suspensions. Strawberry’s arrival, after a transient stop in Class AAA Columbus, was an enormous deal in Latest York. But plenty of individuals weren’t sold on him.

Goldklang and his wife Sheila were within the owner’s box at Yankee Stadium with Steinbrenner when the Yankees decided to bring up Strawberry. Goldklang recalled Steinbrenner telling him, “If he [messes] up, it’s your ass.” Goldklang said he told Steinbrenner, “He won’t, and it isn’t.”

Strawberry didn’t mess up, at the very least not instantly. He went hitless his first 10 at-bats before pulling two long homers July 13 within the second game of a doubleheader in Baltimore.

Used mostly as a left fielder and DH by manager Joe Torre, Strawberry hit 11 homers with 36 RBI in 62 games. Strawberry and Cecil Fielder, acquired from Detroit on the trade deadline, added power to an already tough lineup with Bernie Williams, Tino Martinez, Paul O’Neill and a promising rookie named Derek Jeter.

The Yankees went on to win the World Series, with Strawberry contributing three home runs in the ultimate two games of the American League Championship Series against the Orioles. Strawberry remained with the Yankees through 1999, winning three world championships and surviving two bouts of colon cancer. But by the top he couldn’t avoid drug problems, and a final season-long suspension for cocaine possession in 2000 ended his profession.

“I’m thankful to the Boss [Steinbrenner] and to Joe Torre,” Strawberry said. “Joe Torre believed in me and he played me. He didn’t need to play me. But he made a choice he was going to play me and I used to be going to turn out to be an enormous a part of what the Yankees were about in those years.”

In trouble with the law and out and in of drug treatment programs for the subsequent three years, Strawberry said he finally got clean after meeting his current wife Tracy, a recovering drug addict whom he married in 2006. They run a Christian ministry, Finding Your Way, and their blended family includes nine children and five grandchildren.

“Tracy has had the largest influence on my life, to assist me discover a purpose in life,” he said. “She was the one one that ever told me, `When are you ever going to take that baseball uniform off and discover yourself as someone different than a baseball player?’ And she or he was right. I’d never thought of that. The uniform only represents what you do, but who’re you? I discovered myself and I discovered great peace.

“Sometimes I actually have to pinch myself. I get to face in front of 20,000 people and preach and help others now. What a joy that’s, to be an individual to return and help any person since you were helped.”

As of late Strawberry says he spends greater than 200 days a yr on the road chatting with groups about Christ, hope and redemption. He’s grateful, knowing only too well where his life was heading. And if a child wants an autograph without knowing his name, well, that’s OK too.

“My mother raised me right,” Strawberry said. “Don’t ever think I wasn’t raised right. I’m the one who made the choice to live a heathen lifestyle. You pay a price for that. I tell those who on a regular basis. There’s a price to be paid for the way in which you reside and the way in which you conduct yourself.

“I just hope my mother’s happy with me greater than anything. That’s all that basically matters at this point.”