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versus 
When crime does pay
I met Darryl Strawberry once.
I was working the front desk as a night auditor at the Doubletree hotel in Norfolk, Virginia during one of Darryl's journey's to the minor leagues. His team was staying at the hotel, and after a game in which he showed why he was way too good to be playing "Triple A", he and his teammates came through the front lobby. No bodyguards, no press, no legions of fans, just Darryl and a couple of his minor league teammates. I walked over to him shook his hand and told him that I was honored to meet him and that it was a pleasure to watch him play, both sincere comments. I mean, here was Darryl Strawberry a man who could do one of things that sports reporters for eons had said was one of the hardest things to do in all of sports, hit a major league fastball, and he could do it with ease, casually walking through the Doubletree hotel in Norfolk, wearing a pair of jeans, a jean shirt and some loafers, looking not like a god, or a legend, but just looking like Darryl Strawberry.
My man-love was obviously very evident as one of the young ladies working with me said that I was awfully excited to see him, and by the way isn't he a drug addict; she would go on to ask. In my lifetime I've met a lot of drug addicts, as well as drug dealers, but none of the dealers and addicts that I've met ever won a World Series, that is, except Darryl Strawberry.
They say that which doesn't kill you can only make you stronger.
If Darryl Strawberry was playing professional baseball today, he would certainly be the recipient of a one-hundred million dollar contract, easily. Darryl Strawberry was a natural. He was an athlete so extremely talented that he played a career worthy of hall of fame mention in spite of playing on what was probably the equivalent of half of a body. Barry Bonds on the other hand has been playing most of his career with the equivalent of a body and a half.
Society is not made up of Barry Bonds'; it is made up of Darryl Strawberrys'. Most of society has to work for a living, often in jobs, or careers that we did not necessarily plan on performing when we were children. Our delusions of grandeur faced to meet head on with the realities of life and our own internal failures. Yet, we try to put on a straight face and go about our daily lives, with the hope that one day, our ship will come in and we can be rescued from the nightmare that is our ####-hum daily grind. Some of us enjoy rooting at sporting events and supporting our beloved teams as an escape from the harshness and struggle of trying to keep our jobs, and make a way for our families. Most professional athletes do not have to face those anxieties in their professional careers. Barry Bonds will not ever have to worry about how he's going to feed his family, that is, unless he shops at the same supermarket that Latrell Spreewell does. Darryl Strawberry did manage to improve the quality of life for his family if not himself, even though he never received the type of salary that today's juiced up sluggers earn. While that's neither his fault nor the fault of today's players, it just seems a little unfair, but then again that's been the story of Darryl's life.
We all watched as Darryl Strawberry continued to trash his future, place his and his family's lives in jeopardy, and let illegal drugs suppress his god given talent. Yet he still managed to be a force at the plate wherever, and whenever he played the game, picking up a couple of world championships along the way, something that to date Mr. Bonds has yet to accomplish, and therein lies the paradox of Darryl and Barry.
I can imagine Darryl Strawberry living in a small town similar to where my family lives in Windsor, North Carolina, working at the Perdue Chicken processing plant down the street, spending his summer evenings grilling some hotdogs and burgers at the local little league games, telling all who would listen his war stories about the big leagues. I can picture it because he was almost doing just that. That's what all of us Darryl Strawberry wannabees do everyday. I would sit there with Darryl, share some beer and burgers, and never once ask about the cocaine, the prostitutes, the spousal abuse or any of the decadence that went on his life. I wouldn't ask him about it because I already know that story. I would just be enamored, and ecstatic that one of us got his fifteen minutes of fame, and has the hardware to prove it.
I would relish being his friend, the guy who picked him up off a nightclub floor one night when he was in drunken stupor. I would long to be the guy that Darryl would call to come bail him out of jail at three a.m. for a D.U.I. Darryl, in return, would teach my son how to hit a curveball, and allow me to pick his brain about other players he played with and against, and how it felt to play in Yankee Stadium, and I would be so thankful for the opportunity to be that close to greatness. I don't think that I would've gotten the same type of bonding by being Barry Bonds' chauffeur or butler.
Darryl Strawberry abused illegal drugs, so did Barry Bonds. The drugs that Darryl Strawberry indulged in forced him to play on only partial potential. His vices always ensured that he would never be able to play to his full potential. The drugs that Barry Bonds indulged in, allowed him to reach his full potential and surpass it. The funny thing about it all is that it appears that Barry Bonds still played on a more level playing field than Darryl Strawberry ever did. I don't believe for one second that Bonds had an edge against, Mark Mcgwire, Jason Giambi, Jose Canseco, and Sammy Sosa among others. No in fact, I believe that those, as well as much of the current players on major league baseball rosters are all playing on a level field, which is why I don't care if they are juiced or not, and I think that's enough said about that. Baseball needed the Macquires, the Bonds', the Sosas' to save the game, because as I stated earlier, the kids of today don't have time for real baseball, they are too busy creating their own rosters on a PlayStation somewhere.
In video game terms, Barry Bonds is like a player with a 101 rating out of a possible 100, unstoppable, un-pitchable, automatic. Darryl Strawberry would be like having a player with a 55 rating that you have to master his swing to hit a homerun, and that mastery will only come with hours upon hours of practice, but once you got the swing down pat, it too would be automatic.
I can imagine what it must be like to be like Darryl Strawberry, despite your best efforts always falling short of the mark, and disappointing all of the people who love you despite being given chance after chance to succeed, but being like Barry Bonds is somewhat different. I don't know what it's like to be like Barry Bonds. I will never have to go to work in front of thirty-thousand people every day, many of whom despise me, and compete against superstars with millions of dollars at stake. To do what he did at his age as well, is really unfathomable. It is admirable, and impressive to see how a talent like Bonds manages to thrive in that kind of pressure cooker environment, even if it took a Popeye impersonation to get the job done. Unfortunately, as great of a player as Barry Bonds was, to me and many others, he's no Darryl Strawberry.