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Former New York Mets star Darryl Strawberry expressed his gratitude to President Donald Trump during a church sermon in Oklahoma on Sunday.
Trump pardoned Strawberry earlier this month for past tax evasion and drug charges. Strawberry was greeted at a Tulsa church by Jackson Lahmeyer, the founder of Pastors for Trump. He received cheers from the congregation of more than 400 people when he mentioned forgiveness.
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Former New York Mets player Darryl Strawberry speaks during a pregame ceremony to retire his number 18 before a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Citi Field on July 1, 2024. (Brad Penner/USA TODAY Sports)
“God completely set me free when he granted me a pardon from President Donald J. Trump,” he said. “Other presidents had opportunities, but they didn’t do it.”
Strawberry was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1980 MLB Draft. He debuted at age 21 in 1983 and played for New York until 1990. He spent time with the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, and New York Yankees.
He won three World Series titles, hit 335 home runs and hit .259 with an .862 OPS.
Strawberry faced legal, health and personal issues throughout his career. He served 11 months in a Florida prison for a probation violation in 2002.
The 63-year-old credited his Christian faith with helping him turn his life around and allowing him to stay clean for more than two decades.
“Praise God for he found me in a pit and put me in a pulpit,” Strawberry said.
The devil “should have killed me when he had the chance,” he joked.
Former Major League Baseball player Darryl Strawberry, second from left, poses with some of the people who heard him preach Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, at Sheridan Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (AP Photo/Bobby Ross)
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Strawberry said he was surprised to hear from Trump on Nov. 6 when the president revealed he would pardon the former MLB star. The two met on “Celebrity Apprentice” in 2010.
“We just talked about my baseball career in the 1980s and what kind of player I was,” Strawberry told the Associated Press. “He was just telling me what a good player I was…and he just joked that he couldn’t hit a baseball. I said, ‘Well, the same way you hit a golf ball, you can hit a baseball.'”
He said the two men talked about his guilty plea in 1999 to tax evasion for failing to report $350,000 in income from autographs, personal appearances and memorabilia sales.
“He told me, ‘You know you’ve done some really bad things,'” Strawberry said. “But he said, ‘Today, based on the way your life is and what you’re doing, your faith, the fact that you’re helping people and you’re sober, I’m granting you a full pardon. You’re going to be clean. I’m clearing it all.'”
Strawberry and Doc Gooden are notoriously linked due to their immense talent while playing for the Mets while battling drug and alcohol abuse. Strawberry was able to turn his life around much earlier than Gooden, but Gooden seems to have stayed on track in recent years. The two appeared together during last year’s National League Championship Series between the Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers and were the subject of ESPN’s 30 for 30 show, “Doc and Darryl.”
New York Mets outfielder Darryl Strawberry hits against the Cincinnati Reds at Shea Stadium on July 6, 1989. (USA TODAY Sports)
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Both of their numbers were retired by the Mets last season.
