Darryl Strawberry: Another Life

0:00I call it that fake part of living because we want everybody to praise us. But at the same time, have I ever dealt with the brokenness on the inside? The reality of not having a father in my life? I think a lot of times we as African Americans, we don't have father figures in our life. And we have to search for it. And we try to search for it in everything else. Women, cars, money, drugs, whatever brings pleasure. But at the end of the day, you still have to go home to you and lay on that couch. And you're still empty on the inside. And I was no different than anybody else.

0:41Mick:Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another exciting episode of McUnplugged. And today I'm extremely honored. I'm humbled because I get to talk to my hero. He is a three-time World Series champion, eight-time All-Star. one of the most feared hitters in Major League Baseball history. But his life isn't about that. His most remarkable feat is him giving back to communities, helping lead others to Christ, and just making an impact on the world. Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome my hero, Mr. Darryl Strawberry. Well, thank you so much, Mick. Unplugged, I appreciate you having me on your show. Like we were talking before, you said you had reached out to me when I have some health issues.

1:25And I said, one day, maybe I'll have the opportunity to get on your show and sit here and break bread with you. And here we are, brother, Mick and the Strawberry. Yes, sir.

1:35Mick:Yes, sir. Mick and the Straw Man. Like, this is so surreal for me because when I call you my hero, man, like, it's on so many levels. It's because of you that as an African-American kid, I played baseball growing up, right? It's because of you that as a college student, I was okay talking about my faith and not being ashamed to say I love Jesus out loud. It's because of you, man, that I'm a better human being. And so I owe you so much gratitude, and I want to give you your flowers while you're here. Well, again, like I said, it means so much to me to be able to just have an impact for people in general, and especially for people of color, African-Americans and where we come from, because we come from the struggle, and we know how hard it is to get out of the struggle, but there is a way out, and we must always remind our people that you can't get out.

2:30Don't stereotype yourself and let people dictate who you are. You have to find out who you are through your journey more than anything, and I think the struggle of the journey that one goes through brings you to a greater place. A lot of times people want to project what you should be. I am what I am. I'm where I'm supposed to be. And I'm grateful for God's grace that he has given me this opportunity.

2:58Mick:Amen to that, brother. Amen to that. And when we talk about your life and we talk about another life in the book that we're going to get into, this amazing book that's released, I always ask my guests this first question about what is your because? Because. That thing that's deeper than your why, right? Like if I were to say, what's your why? You might say, you know, my wife, my kids. But when I say, but why, that sentence usually begins with, well, because. So if I were to ask the straw man, like all the amazing things that you're doing today, what's your because? Why do you continue to do the things that you do?

3:35Because of my mother, because of her raising five of us by herself, not having a male figure in the house, and having to go through your own personal challenges in life. Because of that gave me strength, gave me courage. What I mean by that is to never quit no matter what it may look like. I just remember quitting in high school my freshman year in baseball, and I realized from that day forward that I would never quit again. And no matter what came against me, and I had to go through some very difficult challenges through minor league baseball and people calling me out on my name and boys and this and that.

4:16I had to deal with some racial things, but I did not quit because if you give up, you never know the miracle that might be on the other side. I wouldn't be sitting here with a successful baseball career, playing 17 years in the major leagues, even with pain, but still at the same time, great because I wanted to achieve. I wanted to prove to my father that he was wrong about us. And that was my goal.

4:46Mick:I love that. I love that so much. And, you know, the standout that you were at Crenshaw High School and almost going to, I think it was Oklahoma State, right? Like, if it were 2026, I would have said, Daryl, Oklahoma State came with a bag to L.A., huh? Walk us through that illustrious high school career that you had, man. And, like, what was that like? One, being recruited and then saying, I think I'm going to go to the major leagues. Well, it was pretty cool going to Crenshaw High. A lot of people talk about L.A., talk about Crenshaw High like they really went to school there. But I actually went to school there and walked on those grounds and saw everybody and saw everything and saw great athletes that came out of there before me, like Marcus Johnson, Ellis Valentine, Wendell Tyler, Chris Brown.

5:35I just wanted to be another part of that. And I was a part of that history with our baseball team. But it started in basketball because of my basketball coaches, Willie West and Joe Weekly. They bought discipline. And if you wasn't disciplined enough, you wouldn't play. You'll sit on the bench, even though I was good. If you did any type of infractions in school, you were going to get a serious punishment. You were going to be on the line running suicides all day. So that was the learning curve. And it taught me a lot about who I wanted to be. And then when I went into baseball, I just kind of fell back into my lap after my junior year in high school.

6:16We played at Dodger Stadium against John Elway, and then we lost the city championship. I got a real taste of it, and a lot of scouts were scouting a lot of players. And then my first day back out to play baseball after that basketball season, after winning the city championship, there I was in the spotlight. You know, 50 scouts there to see me play. And I, like, struck out three times. I was, like, laughing to myself and saying, why are you guys here to see me? And it was this big deal of who I was supposed to be. And I tell you, Mick, I just wanted to be normal. Growing up in South Central, you don't expect yourself to be a person where fame takes over you.

6:54Yes, I'm famous. And yes, I went on to be that. But at the same time, I had this great humility about myself because of being raised by a mother who taught me right, which was so important. And I think a lot of times we disregard that and realize how important that is because if you don't forget about that, you're going to come back to that place of where you was raised and who you were raised by. And eventually that will all play out in your life. And I think, you know, the whole journey was an incredible journey. We're good at showing our success of what we have and the stuff. And look at me from the outside perspective.

7:36but really deep down inside, who am I? And I think we all want to know that. We all ask that question when we reach that pinnacle to the top. And I reach that like no other athlete, just like all the same, no different. We're all the same when it comes to what we accomplish. I totally agree.

7:58Mick:And, you know, I've got a quote from you that I started reading it in high school and it kind of, it helped me balance the business life of me. And you said, success exposes who you are, right? And for me, that was so important to understand almost what you're talking about is to always stay grounded, right? Because if you're not grounded and you don't know who you are, having more money, having more fame, having more success is just gonna make that a hundred times worse, better or whatever that is. So talk to us a little bit about that and what you meant by success exposes who you are. Because we truly end up with the wrong identity.

8:37I think we all search for great success to have stuff. And a lot of times we all get to stuff, but still, who am I at the end of the day? I think a lot of us don't ever come to that place because there's an empty void on the inside. And that's why we accumulate more stuff to try to make us feel better. And it just doesn't. A car is a car. A house is a house. It doesn't matter how big the house is, how big of a car you have. We just have a little bit more fame, a little bit more open doors to open things. There's never no, no, as always, yes, wherever you go, people, that you walk and do whatever you want to do.

9:16And I tell people all the time, in this life, you can pick your sins, but you cannot pick the consequences. At some point, the consequences of life are going to come. And when they do come, where do you go? and most of the time you can't turn to what you have because it eventually stopped working. I had every lawyer, I had every doctor to go to. Of course, I ended up being healed from cancer twice and had every situation to go through with lawyers to get me out of trouble. But still, it's still always trying to fill this empty void on the inside of us. It's a match style side. The outside is what becomes that, I call it that fake part of living more than anything, because we want everybody to praise us.

10:14But at the same time, have I ever dealt with the brokenness on the inside, the reality of not having a father in my life? And I think a lot of times, you know, we as African-Americans, we don't have father figures in our life. And we have to search for it. And we try to search for it in everything else. Women, cars, money, drugs, whatever brings pleasure. But at the end of the day, you still have to go home to you and lay on that couch. And you're still empty on the inside. And I was no different than anybody else. I totally believe that, brother.

10:50Mick:I totally believe that. And I'm going to give you an unplugged truth right here.

10:59Mick:Because you don't know this, you wouldn't know this. You've also said something that forgiveness is harder than discipline. And I got to understand what that meant this year. And I'm about to say something that nobody really ever knows. But my dad passed away earlier this year in March, April, April 1st. But I didn't have a relationship with my dad. I grew up in the same household with my dad until I was 18. But he was never there, meaning he was physically there. But emotionally, like what that son needs, like he wasn't there. And I had a chip on my shoulder for a very long time because I didn't want to be him.

11:41Mick:and I didn't understand forgiveness when he passed until I got a book in the mail called Another Life and it helped me understand that I don't necessarily have to forgive him, but I need to forgive myself. I can forgive myself for maybe not trying to have the connection or maybe not trying to check in or whatever. So I wanna thank you for helping me understand forgiveness, but more importantly, forgiveness of myself, brother, because another life, and I know that that wasn't the whole theme of another life. We'll talk about that, but I needed you for forgiveness, man. Well, thank you for saying that.

12:22And that's probably why I'm on your show, because I thought of the fact of you reaching out to me. This has to be a real person that really want to have a real conversation. A lot of times people just want to have conversations, and I rejected a lot of conversations of getting online. And it's about getting to the place of being real with ourself more than anything and being able to unplug all these things that are in our life because we have a lot of things that we don't deal with. And that I didn't deal with my entire career was forgiveness of my father. I thought that forgiveness was for him the whole time, but God had to stop me and allow me to go to every stop that I needed to go to before I reinvented my life and became a different person and became a man of faith.

13:20And now when I come to this place, I see the difference and understand the symbol of the cross. That's where forgiveness was at for all. And once you understand that, then you understand you how to go back and extend it to someone else. Because my father led me to be a broken, heathen man. So hating him only made me suffer. And when I finally got to the place of going to extend my forgiveness to him, which he received in a conversation on his deathbed, and leading him into the Lord at that same time brought me to a greater place because the forgiveness was not for him, it was for me. And that's the reason why so many of us walk around trying to fill these empty plugs inside of us with stuff and think it's going to heal us, and it doesn't.

14:21I didn't receive healing until I extended that to my father. I had all this great success, worldly success and achievements and trophies, and I had done all these great things. But in that moment of time, that's when I experienced freedom. That's when I experienced the release like I always been waiting for. I couldn't get it when I was playing baseball. I used to hit the ball so hard and thinking that it was my father's head because I was so angry and mad because I was holding all this stuff inside of me for many years. And when I finally experienced that, I walked out of the hospital and I remember the Lord speaking to me and saying, the forgiveness wasn't for your father, it was for you.

15:09And then he questioned me about the fact of, how dare you not forgive him? And I forgave you. I extended grace to you. So you need to understand what grace is. So now I truly understand grace more than anything. That's why I've been able to move forward, because grace is something you don't deserve, but he gives it to you anyway. And I'm so grateful that I do know that today.

15:38Mick:Matt, you just helped me and you didn't even realize it, because I've been trying to express what this emotion is. And it is freedom, right? Like it's freedom and it's fulfillment. And you just helped me label that emotion, man. Thank you so much for that. Well, it's a greater freedom than we think of achieving things. You've achieved. So many have come on your show that have achieved poorly stuff like me. I've achieved all that. But have I achieved that freedom that I want to walk with every day, that where I do like today? where I could teach my kids by not talking about it, but living it, being an action, living and being a living epistle for Christ.

16:29What does that mean? That means written not in ink, but written in spirit and truth. And that's how you live your life out. And everybody looks at it and say, well, he needed that. Well, I'm glad I figured it out before it was too late. Because a lot of us will be here and we'll still be chasing after the affirmation of what everybody else want us to be. And I don't do that. I only chase after what Christ want me to be and what he's already done and how he's already completed the task for me to be this man that I always wanted to be. Not a baseball player, not an athlete, not what everybody else think is important.

17:08But at the end of the day, it's what type of man are you gonna be when God sees you? And that's what I was always concerned about when I was playing baseball and winning. and having the success. And even when I was lost in sin like I was, I just always throw it out there because it is important for people to understand that God does not condemn us. I mean, he truly loves the sinner more than you can ever imagine, but he hates the sin. And it's myself that make that decision to live a sinful lifestyle. So I am separating myself away from the love of God and I can experience his goodness. His goodness is greater than any home run I ever hit.

17:54Anything I've ever done and had success with is because it's true freedom. You have victory in it. Freedom is different than just being. And I think so many people haven't experienced that freedom in their life. And I'm just so glad we get the opportunity to share this moment and just have you open up like that because that's how we get free.

18:20Mick:Yes, sir. I needed every moment of that too. I needed every moment of that. So I thank you so much. I have a segment that I call the hot takes.

18:33Mick:And here's the hottest take that I have for Daryl Strawberry. Is this right here? I told you that you helped me understand that I could be outward with my faith, but also to understand, and I heard this from you, that Jesus was always there. He was just waiting on you to accept him. Like, talk to us about that journey of you finally saying, yes, okay, yes, I can't do it on my own anymore. Well, I think so many of us don't recognize that he's already completed the task for us. He's already done it. And he's always been there. And he's very patient and he just waits for you. People always ask people, well, how did you find Jesus?

19:23Jesus has never been lost. It is us that are lost. And when we recognize that and when we look for him and when we come to the foot of a cross, Now we will find him because we are looking for somebody that's totally different than any one of us. Why? Because he's a holy man and he's a righteous man. And he's going to purify you and he's going to clean you up and he's going to make you holy. He's going to make you separate than your own natural fleshly body is. And that's the importance of understanding that. And that's what it was for me. I didn't understand that until I actually went through discipleship and start understanding the Word of God.

20:16I mean, we understand worldly things. We understand every conversation, every news outlet, every politics that people want to fight over. But they don't understand the Bible. And it's all been there. It's been here forever. However, the problem is, the Bible said my people perish because of lack of knowledge. We have knowledge about everything else, but we don't have knowledge about eternal life. We don't have knowledge about living. And it wasn't until I actually opened the Word for myself and dove into it, and that's when He poured it down inside of me, and that's when I started to live. That's when you start to live the abundant life.

20:56Not the life here. I have homes. I have success. but that's not an abundant life. That's an earthly life. He's talking about an abundant life where this doesn't have you. I have you. Now you get to experience the purpose of why I created you and the job that I have for you to do. You thought your job was baseball. You thought your job was football or basketball or you thought your job was business. No, he says, I got a job for you to be a light in darkness, an example of what Christ is. Christ is good. And the thing about what we failed to realize is he's never lost a battle and he's always been on time.

21:37So that's what we have to learn as people. He's on time God and he's on time for you. And he was right on time for me. I'm grateful for every storm that I had to go through because it got me to this place where I'm at today. Yes, sir.

21:54Mick:Yes, sir. And that's a great segue to a question that my high school baseball coach, because Brian Swartz, he wanted to ask you this question of, you know, being a baseball player at the highest level and all the discipline that it takes to be a professional athlete, plus the struggles that you've acknowledged. How has that shaped your life now as a minister to help reach other people? Well, training is so important to train yourself and learn how to be disciplined. You don't need anybody else to teach you. The coaches do teach you that, but you have to eventually grab a hold of it and you have to really put it down inside of you to learn what discipline is if you want to be great.

22:37I didn't need nobody to go out to the ballpark with me when I needed to train. I needed to go out there and run the bases by myself. And I needed to go out there and talk to myself and look up in the sky and tell myself how great I wanted to be. and it's sort of the same thing when you get a calling upon your life. This is the highest calling that a man can get when God calls you and I realized that when he called me, it was time to go. It was nothing to play with anymore. So I had to separate myself from all the worldly people, not that I'm any better than them. I just made a better decision for myself And when I made that decision, I became a different person because that's when you start disciplining yourself and that's when the transformation starts to come into your life.

23:27That's when God starts to train you up. Now you start hearing from God instead of hearing the outside noise of others' opinions. If you continue to listen to the opinions of others, you're going to always stay stuck in the same place and you're not going to grow. And I needed to grow. I was already great at what I was doing from an earthly standpoint, but I was nowhere close where I needed to be from a kingdom standpoint. So I had to discipline myself. I had to saturate myself in the Word. I had to turn off the television. I had to turn off the cell phone. And I had to lay and I had to wait to hear from the Holy Spirit to teach me the Bible, which he taught me the Bible supernaturally.

24:10I didn't go to school, but I went to the school of the Holy Spirit. And I think a lot of people think all these things are spooky, but that's how you learn who you are, and that's how you learn how God wants to put you in a place to be his masterpiece. He takes you from a mess to a message, and the message is greater than the mess you've ever been in. And I think that's what happened to me. and people look at my life and say, well, maybe that's something he needed. No, we all really need it. It's not saying that you need to be a preacher, but we need to be an example of what Christ really is all about.

24:53And that's what I live today. I don't try to preach at people. I just try to live my life according to the scriptures and what the word of God has taught me. Amen to that, brother. Amen to that.

25:06Mick:Was there a room, a dinner, a meeting, a moment that you remember that changed your life forever? I could probably say a lot of moments, but I think it was just the fact of my wife who led me back into church where I needed to be. Because I was out doing all kinds of worldly things. And like I said, having everything and still living, saying Christ. but I'm still not living what Christ is. I'm not living the right way, not living the wholeness of Christ. I'm not living being married. I think it was a moment where me and Tracy came together and we were boyfriend and girlfriend, and she finally looked at me and said, I can't do this anymore.