Pubdate: Tue, 07 May 2002
Source: Sun Journal, The (NC)
Copyright: 2002 The New Bern Sun Journal
Contact: (252)638-4580
Website: http://www.newbernsunjournal.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1733
Author: Chuck Fiebernitz

STRAW GETTING HIS DUE

I guess I'm more angry than sad. I'm sad that Darryl Strawberry has 
wasted his life, thrown away all the special talents that God gave 
him. This guy was a sweet baseball player.

He could hit, he could throw, he had great defensive skills and good 
speed and base-running instincts.

I am of the opinion he wasn't on a Hall of Fame track, but making the 
All-Star team eight times and playing on three world championship 
clubs wouldn't have hurt his chances any. He may have snuck into 
Cooperstown.

Strawberry could have been one of the best had he concentrated on his 
game. Who knows how good he might have been?

But that's all gone now, along with his reputation and his millions.

Once Strawberry wore a number on his back. Now he's wearing a longer 
one on the front of his jailhouse shirt, as he prepares for 18 months 
of incarceration for violating terms of his most recent probation.

And that's why I'm angry. Strawberry was the victim of those wacko 
left-wing, self rightoeus, do-gooders as much as he was his own 
weaknesses.

Six times Strawberry violated probation for a variety of arrests and 
convictions, the last one for drug possession and solicitation of 
prostitution charges in 1999.

Every time he got caught, somebody was there to prop him up. Yankees 
owner George Steinbrenner was one of the enablers and let's not 
forget Florence Foster, the Tampa judge who suspended the original 
18-month prison sentence last year in order to send Strawberry to yet 
another drug rehabilitation program.

This was after Strawberry had already busted probation five times!

I don't know if jail will straighten him out. In fact, I doubt it.

You can't help somebody get straight unless that person wants to make 
it happen. And Strawberry has yet to show that he wants to do 
anything other than anything he wants to do.

OK, so I'm a heartless so-and-so.

But I'm fed up with holding the hand of a guy who chose his own path. 
He had people falling over themselves trying to help him, to save him 
from himself. I don't expect prison to make a man out of him. I will 
be very surprised if he comes out clean and ready to begin a new life.

It would be a wonderful thing if he did, but don't hold your breath.

He's spent a lifetime being catered to, being taught that laws and 
rules that apply to the rest of us don't apply to him. It is so much 
a part of who he is that 18 months --less with good behavior -- 
probably won't be enough to turn his life around.

We are all responsible for who we are and what we do. For too long 
we've had the "it's not our fault" wackos shoving their liberal 
philosophy down our throats.

As ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption" host, Tony Kornheiser lamented, 
"Society didn't fail Strawberry, and the system didn't fail Darryl 
Strawberry. Darryl Strawberry failed Darryl Strawberry."
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