Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 23, 1993 TAG: 9309230053
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARYANN HUDSON LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
\ There were times this season, Darryl Strawberry says, when he considered suicide, believing that maybe then people wouldn't have anything to say about him anymore.
He claims not to read what is written about him, or hear what is said about him, but he does.
Strawberry hears the talk about Orel Hershiser having a higher batting average, about Dodger fans hating him, about his being a bust on the field. He reads about his being investigated for possible tax fraud, and he has heard all about the alleged homeless couple that is suing him, claiming he struck one of them. Strawberry says he was trying to help them.
But it was Strawberry's most recent controversy that had the Dodgers combing his contract to see if there was a way to void it. Glendale, Calif., police came to his home and arrested him in front of his children for striking his live-in girlfriend.
Other times in his storied off-the-field career, Strawberry could, and did, silence his critics with his bat. But this season, trying to come back from back surgery last September, Strawberry only drew more negative attention to himself.
Every day he woke up feeling as if he had played football the day before, he says.
He was never a star fielder, but this season, mediocre would have been an improvement.
And at the plate, the quick-wrist shots that propelled balls over fences turned into awkward half-swings that popped balls over backstops. Much of the time, foul balls were the best Strawberry had to offer Dodger fans this season.
In one game in San Diego, he helped a ball over the fence with his glove while in left field, a position he felt uncomfortable playing. Three days later, he destroyed a water jug in the dugout after having been scratched from the lineup for skipping his back therapy.
Three games after that, in Colorado, he made some crucial misplays in right field, his normal position. In the same game, he struck out three times.
That was June 16, and that was it for Strawberry, who put himself on the disabled list. He hasn't played since.
But if his bad back stopped him, it didn't stop the critics. As the Dodgers' need for a left-handed power hitter - or any kind of hitter - kept them out of the race, Strawberry says his spirits plummeted.
The Dodgers took a hard-line stance, treating him as one of the pack instead of a superstar. That had not happened before. Fred Claire, Dodger executive vice president, let it be known that Strawberry was considered merely one of 25 players.
And the next time Strawberry was late for his rehabilitation program, Claire fined him a day's pay - more than $19,000 - and issued a news release about it.
"I thought, `What would it be like if I wasn't around anymore?' " Strawberry said Tuesday of his thoughts about suicide. "There wouldn't be any problems if I wasn't around. Then people wouldn't have anything else to say.
"I had been stressed out and in deep depression all year. The one thing I didn't want to have to do this season is go through everything again after going through it in '92. And that's what happened. It was a living nightmare."
On Monday, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office said it would not seek charges against Strawberry, saying that Charisse Simons had provoked him into hitting her by poking his tender back with a bat.
Strawberry said it bothered him when he heard that the Dodgers were looking for ways to void the two years left on his contract - but not because of the $8 million he stands to lose. The Dodgers have already paid Strawberry $12.25 million over the past three years.
"I don't want my money for free," Strawberry said. "I want to stay a Dodger. I want to pay them back for what they have given to me. And it will happen. Darryl Strawberry will be back, and it will be fun again."
by CNB