Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 13, 1991 TAG: 9103130470
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: KEN DALEY LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
DATELINE: VERO BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Long
The light, Strawberry believes, is fueled by the fire of God burning within his heart, filling his once-barren soul with unfathomable warmth and peace.
"The Lord has come into my life and I'm going to talk about it wherever I go," he said.
The new cornerstone of the Dodgers' franchise, the team's $20 million man, says that his fortune means nothing and he would walk away from baseball if God told him to.
Others wonder if the Dodgers' star outfielder has been blinded by the light he embraced over the past few months, making him easy prey for those who would exploit his faith.
"Some people will try to take him and in this frame of mind, he could be taken," said New York Mets pitcher Dwight Gooden, one of Strawberry's closest friends.
Money and the trappings of fame are things of the "natural world," a realm in which Strawberry said he no longer walks.
Strawberry said he now dwells in the spiritual world, that he can speak in tongues and that his inclusion into the kingdom of God has purged his spirit of the "demon spirits" that tormented him during a stormy eight-year career in New York he called "a nightmare of hell."
The change in Strawberry appears to have been dramatic and swift, but it culminates several years of intense struggle, on and off the field, with the pressures of fame.
\ Bill Payne of Sherman Oaks, a recovering alcoholic and retired Los Angeles Police Department officer, remembers the phone call that would change the course of his life and that of Darryl Strawberry, husband of Payne's niece, Lisa.
Over the years, "Uncle Bill," as he is known to Strawberry, had tried with minimal success to interest Darryl in religion.
"It came to me in 1985," Payne said. "I had a drinking problem and I received supernatural deliverance from alcohol."
In February 1990, Strawberry said he, too, had a problem with alcohol. He entered the Smithers Alcoholism and Treatment Center in New York City for a monthlong stay. It was Feb. 3, eight days after police arrested Strawberry on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. Wife Lisa told authorities he hit her with an open hand and threatened her with a .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun. Strawberry was released on $12,000 bail and sought help. The charges were dismissed after he completed his treatment program.
"Satan's good," Strawberry said, recalling that turbulent time. "And he works 24 hours to try and destroy your life. Demon spirits, that's what it was, and now I don't have them inside me."
While at Smithers, Strawberry felt the desire to call Uncle Bill, who immediately adopted a new priority for his life.
"When he went to rehab, that's when I knew what the Lord wanted me to do," Payne said. "My assignment is to bring Darryl into the kingdom, and that assignment comes from the Lord."
Their discussions of faith increased during the next 10 months, as Strawberry played out what would be his final season with the Mets, embroiled in often bitter contract talks.
When the season ended, the graduate of Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles knew he wanted to come home, to play near his home in suburban Encino before family and friends. On Nov. 8, he signed what was then the second-largest contract in baseball history (it now ranks third), a five-year, $20.25 million deal with the Dodgers.
Meanwhile, Payne continued to minister to Strawberry, who in late October had asked to accompany Payne to a weekly church meeting at Crenshaw Christian, where Payne has worshiped for five years.
"To me, that was a big turning point," Payne said. "I could see how tentative he was to what was being said, but he was beginning to open his heart to the Lord."
Strawberry said, "I was just feeling more and more I wanted to go to church. But I had to make that commitment."
The two have also attended weekly meetings in rented rooms of the Overcomers Church at Cal State Northridge and the Root of David ministry in Encino, a Bible-study group led by Moroccan-born evangelist Roge Abergel.
But the turning point in Strawberry's conversion came the first week of January at the Anaheim Convention Center, where Strawberry, Payne and several thousand followers came to hear Morris Cerullo, a powerful evangelist hugely popular in the Philippines and Latin America who recently put together financing for a $52 million acquisition of former PTL leader Jim Bakker's Heritage USA complex and satellite television facilities.
Payne describes Cerullo as a "Christian prophet."
The conversion of Strawberry is the latest victory for the 59-year-old preacher who has said he is on a mission to reach "one billion souls for Christ by the year 2000."
Morris Cerullo World Evangelism operates on a $25 million annual budget, and the preacher has attracted audiences of more than 300,000 in Third World cities.
But Cerullo was not particularly well known in the United States until last year, when he paid $52 million for defrocked preacher Jim Bakker's 2,020-acre Heritage USA complex and PTL television network.
"Cerullo is an old-time leader in the independent Pentecostal charismatic revivalism, a kind of second-echelon player as opposed to people like Oral Roberts and Jimmy Swaggart, who were the headliners," said David Harrell, a historian who has followed Cerullo's career for 15 years.
The appeal of Cerullo and other Pentecostal preachers comes from their personal, hopeful and direct message to people in need, said Harrell, an Auburn University professor who has written several books on evangelists.
"It is a kind of joyous, upbeat religious message that God wants people to do well and prosper and enjoy themselves," he said.
Cerullo's message convinced Strawberry to change his life.
"I went down there with the intentions of opening up my heart and God started moving into my life," Strawberry said. "It was Jan. 6, and the power of God came and struck me and knocked me off my feet.
"Things started happening different in my life after that. The bitterness, frustrations, temptations, all those things were cleared away."
To achieve that, Strawberry moved out of his home, leaving Lisa and the couple's two children for 40 days. He visited his family during the days but spent his nights at Payne's home, where the two studied the Bible intensely in seclusion.
"He wasn't a monk, as such," Payne said.
Lisa Strawberry could not be reached for comment and Strawberry's Woodland Hills, Calif.-based agent, Eric Goldschmidt, did not return phone calls. Payne said Strawberry's wife was "working toward" a deeper understanding of her husband's faith but said he didn't know if she accepted it.
"As far as Darryl, it's been a big turnaround for anyone to see," Payne said. "For those that know him, I'm sure it's been a big shock to the system."
The Dodgers publicly have nothing to say about Strawberry's spiritual development. Dodgers executive vice president Fred Claire declined comment, explaining he felt it was inappropriate to discuss the religious beliefs of any team member.
The secluded study period ended last Monday when Strawberry left for spring training in Vero Beach, Fla. He plans to move back home with his family when the team breaks camp in early April.
"That's what I needed, 40 days seeking the Lord," Strawberry said. "I couldn't be around distractions. I had a normal schedule during the days, worked out, and at night we'd just talk about the Lord. That's all we know."
It was during these sessions that Strawberry discovered he could speak in tongues, an ability he demonstrated last week in the Dodger clubhouse. Speaking in tongues is a form of speech unintelligible to the common listener, but Christian charismatics claim it is understood in the spiritual world.
"It was new," Strawberry said, "something different I'd never experienced. That's how you talk to the Lord in spirit. It just happens."
Payne, who said he has spoken in tongues since 1985, admitted he used to be skeptical of the phenomenon.
"They call us charismatics, holy rollers," he said. "I used to laugh at them, too, but I've found they were right. Once you find God, you don't care what people think. [Clippers general manager] Elgin Baylor goes to our church; he speaks in tongues. So does [former NFL player] Rosey Grier. And Darryl has been chosen, as I have, to be spiritual warriors."
Obligations of such warriors, according to the Old Testament, include tithing 10 percent of one's means to help serve the Lord, Strawberry said. Neither Strawberry nor Payne would elaborate on the amount or the recipients of Strawberry's contributions, but Payne said believers can donate time to charities as well as money.
Strawberry, who will earn a signing bonus and salary of $5 million this year, $3.75 million in 1992, $3.5 million in 1993, $3 million in 1994 and $5 million in 1995, merely shrugs at questions of money.
"That's the Lord's money," Strawberry said. "The Lord gives that to you. He gives you the gift to be blessed and, like the Bible says, 10 percent of your earnings should be tithed to feed the children of Christ. That doesn't bother me at all.
"Look at Donald Trump. Satan destroyed him. People need to wake up and realize this is no game."
Strawberry said he is so committed to his new-found belief, he would walk away from baseball today if he felt it was God's will.
"Right now, this is what He wants me to do," Strawberry said. "But when He calls me, I'll be there. He'll tell me in my spirit it's my time. 'Til then, this [playing baseball] is my best testimony and His glory."
Strawberry also said he has given up the lucrative baseball card shows, where his autographs often went for upward of $20. Now, his autographs will be free, bearing his signature and "John 3:16."
"The Lord spoke to me [about card shows] and said, `No more. That's not my will,' " Strawberry said. "He didn't have to give a reason. Just `no.' "
Strawberry dismisses skeptics who fear he could be exploited.
"Those people that think that are sick, and that's sad," Strawberry said. "You tithe to the church and it comes back 30 times more. You don't know how, but it will come.
"Other people don't understand because they walk in darkness. But when you're born again, you don't relate only to the natural."
Being seduced by the trappings of "the natural" - money, alcohol, women and other elements of baseball's glamorous but often seedy night life - is what Strawberry said allowed an evil presence to dominate his life in New York.
"It was just unhappiness deep down inside," he said. "The bitterness of people always being negative. I always thought I was a giving, kind person and I felt people were using me. I felt I really couldn't trust anybody.
"The Lord gives you tools to protect yourself, if you know how to use them. Satan's always going to test you and you've got to know what you've got. I just got to laugh about it. Satan, he's funny."
Gooden admits some surprise in his longtime friend's sudden change.
"When I'd first heard about it, I thought it was maybe a joke or something," he said.
Gooden soon realized it wasn't and said he has never seen Strawberry happier. "No, never, not for such an extended period," Gooden said. "I think it's a great move, there's nothing wrong with that. He's been through so much, but deep down he's a terrific guy. Money isn't everything if you're not happy."
But Gooden admits concern that Strawberry's money might make the wrong people happy and doesn't want to see someone take advantage of his friend.
"They will try that and he has to know when to say no," Gooden said.
David Cerullo, who manages the business side of his father's San Diego-based ministry, said the evangelist is putting no pressure on Strawberry.
The younger Cerullo said he has "really tried not to contact Darryl too much because I didn't want him to feel that he was being imposed upon."
He said he did not know how much money Strawberry might donate to the ministry but added any amount would be welcome.
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