Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Rick Cleveland: Jackson made Darryl Strawberry

What I remember most about Darryl Strawberry's one summer in Jackson was the explosive sound of his bat launching the baseball. It was shocking, really, no matter how many times you heard it. And we heard it often in 1982.

When “Straw” got hold of one, it sounded more like a rifle shot than a home run. His home runs left Smith-Wills Stadium so quickly and often went so high and far into those pine trees behind the right field wall. Remember? We called that area behind the right field fence “The Strawberry Patch.”

In all my years of covering Class AA baseball teams in Jackson, there have been two players I would go to the ballpark to watch take batting practice, even when I wasn't working. Jason Heyward was the other. I told Heyward one time that his home runs were the loudest I had heard since Strawberry's. I meant that as the ultimate compliment.

This comes up now because of Strawberry's visit to Biloxi this past week to speak at the splendid “Our Love Affair With Baseball” exhibit at the Ohr-O'Keefe Art Museum. Strawberry told Biloxi reporters that his 1982 season with the Jackson Mets was what made him a baseball player.

Strawberry was a shy, slender 20-year-old at the time, a nice kid. I thought back then he might set all kinds of Major League records for power hitting.

With the JaxMets, Strawberry hit .283 with 34 homers and 97 RBIs. But those numbers, without perspective, do not tell the story. Smith-Wills is a ridiculously hard ballpark in which to hit home runs. The power alleys are vast, the air usually thick. Can't tell you how many times what looked like a sure home run turned into F-9 or F-8.

The fact is, nobody in Jackson Mets or Jackson Generals franchise histories ever came even close to Strawberry's 34 home runs in a single season.

Strawberry had hit only .255 with 13 home runs the year before in Class A ball. He had hit only five homers in Rookie League ball the year before that.

As Strawberry told Patrick Ochs of the Sun-Herald, “I can truly say that if it wasn’t for Jackson and what I did in the Texas League that year, I probably would have quit baseball.”

Strawberry had been the first pick of the 1980 Major League Baseball draft after a storybook high school career at of Crenshaw in Los Angeles. Those first two seasons in A-ball were a shock to his system. In Jackson, under manager Gene Dusan, Strawberry's talents were on full display. Not only could he hit, but he could run like a sprinter and was an excellent outfielder.

Nothing happened that summer to predict the future problems Strawberry would have with drugs and alcohol. Heck, Strawberry couldn't even legally buy a beer at that point.

No telling how great Strawberry could have been. As it is, Strawberry was a career .259 hitter with 335 home runs over 17 seasons, eight with the New York Mets, three with the Los Angeles Dodgers, one with the San Francisco Giants and five with the New York Yankees. He made millions, squandered millions.

As Strawberry once put it, “When I look in the mirror, I look at the enemy. There is nobody to blame for this but myself. I should have bought myself a mirror a long time ago.”

Those 17 years in the Major Leagues weren't the focus of Strawberry's speech at Ohr-O'Keefe. No, Strawberry, an ordained minister, talked about the 13 years he has been sober.

Barry Lyons, Strawberry's former Mets' teammate and guest curator of the Biloxi baseball exhibit, calls Strawberry's comeback in life “just amazing.”

Good for Strawberry. He did not have the Hall of Fame career some of us expected. But these days, he doesn't mind looking at himself in the mirror.

Rick Cleveland is a syndicated columnist and historian at the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. His email address is rcleveland@msfame.com.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I practically lived at Smith-Wills with my dad that summer. And yes, his swing was a thing of beauty. The 1980s was a great time to be a young boy in Jackson, MS who loved sports....with the Mets rollin' and SEC double-headers at Veterans Memorial Stadium in the fall. Rich!

Anonymous said...

Great story!

Anonymous said...

9:27 sounds like it could have been written by my son - although I know that could be said by a lot of Jackson "dads" of my age. SW was a fun place for an outing to watch good baseball 'just around the corner' from home. And Strawberry made it all the more exciting in the summer of 1982. Good column - again - by Rick.

-W said...

One of the earliest memories I can remember was when Will Clark was hurt and rehabilitating in the minors. He played at Smith Wills and I got his autograph when he was trying to sneak out the door. I had really great memories at smith wills eating ice cream from a Jackson Mets Helmet. Baseball camps in right field. Waiting for my number to be called out of my program so I could win a TV. Nolan Ryan stopping by to see if buying our team was a possibility. Jackson Generals. Jackson Senators. Hearing "Knock eem' out John" blaring from the speakers or CHARGE!

Anonymous said...

Actually you could buy beer at age 18 until 86'.

Anonymous said...

I remember watching the '86 NY Mets come to play Jackson Mets in an exhibition game right before opening day in 1986. Darryl was taking batting practice and hit a ball so hard that it knocked off a big pine tree limb above the right field fence. Great memories....

Anonymous said...

I remember MSU playing the Mets every year in an exhibition game. Usually spanked them. Wooden bats vs aluminum = MSU.

Anonymous said...

At least it's not another piece about Coach Willie Joe Smathers who coached the Nitta Yuma High Jack-o-Lanterns to the 1928 state badminton championship.

Anonymous said...

Lived on Lakeland Drive in the 1989-1991 time frame. Spent many evenings at Smith-Wills. I can still remember the announcer calling out "Ruuddyyy Herrrnnnnaaanddeeezz" He always drug that name out!!!

Anonymous said...

3:55 : I really enjoy Rick's writings on players and teams of the past.

Anonymous said...

I still have some Jackson Mets plastic beer pitchers. Didn't Lenny Dykstra also spend time in Jackson, or is my memory fogged from drinking from those pitchers?

Anonymous said...

11:37 : I think that might have been Dave Kingman knocking a pine tree limb off a tree in left field. Remember it distinctly. Remember Strawberry trying Copenhagen for the first time while he was in Jackson shagging balls during BP... he ran from right field to the dugout fast as he could trying not to puke the whole way.

Anonymous said...

5:49, Nails did play here. Got married before a game in the outfield.



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