TROY, Mo. -- The lost and the saved arrived at noon and scattered in the church rows -- the lost soon lost in prayer, the saved yearning to share their savior.
Sixteen souls sat or stood inside the sanctuary on a September Wednesday for "open prayer." One by one, a person walked to the front, took hold of the microphone and let the spirit take hold of them. It was like preacher karaoke. Each person had a distinct cadence and intensity to their testimony. One woman went up three different times, while sobbing during the third.
And toward the back, a seated 6-foot-6 man slowly raised his arms. He held them up for a minute. And then another minute. And another. He was in it.
"This is the greatest life I've ever lived," he said after. "It wasn't my baseball career, it wasn't my success."
Darryl Strawberry lives in the St. Louis area. The eight-time All-Star and his wife, Tracy, reside in O'Fallon, Missouri. And they belong to -- actually, they were "called to" -- Journey Church in Troy.
Yes, Darryl Strawberry ... the larger-than-life slugger from the 1980s Mets ... a New York celebrity who epitomized '80s pizzazz and excess with nightlife and drugs ... a World Series champ on the iconic '86 Mets ... a man whose career was destroyed, resuscitated and destroyed again ... a player who's both an all-time great and an all-time "what if" ... and a man who famously obliterated baseballs thrown by rival Cardinals pitchers ... lives in near St. Louis.
"When I started reflecting on it, I said, 'God, why would you send me to a place where I was hated when I played baseball?'" said Strawberry, 62, who hit 27 home runs in 140 career games against the Cardinals. "They thought we were a bunch of pond scum. I then just thought -- God has got a great sense of humor."
In 1985, Strawberry hit his famous 11th-inning homer off Ken Dayley -- and off the outfield clock at Busch Stadium II. But even though the Mets won 98 games, the 101-win Cardinals won the National League East.
In 1986, the Mets won the National League East.
In 1987, the Cardinals won the National League East.
In 1988, the Mets won the National League East.
That year, Strawberry hit a career-high 39 homers.
"My reputation? I was a killer," said Strawberry, who had 280 homers through age 29. "I seek to destroy the other team. My understanding of the game was clear. Play hard. I grew up watching Pete Rose play, 'Charlie Hustle,' and I realized that if your uniform is not dirty, you're not doing anything."
So how the heck did Strawberry end up in St. Louis?
"We first met at a recovery convention in Fort Lauderdale, Florida," Tracy said.
It was 2003. Three years prior, Major League Baseball suspended Strawberry for a whole season due to, once again, drug abuse. Out of the game by 2003, Strawberry was still using, even crack.
"I was not doing well," he said. "I was deep in the darkness of struggle of addiction."
But upon attending the 2003 Narcotics Anonymous convention, he met Tracy, who was raised in St. Charles, Missouri. She was in recovery.
"I had been lost, broken and hurting -- and I was severely addicted to drugs and alcohol," she said. "I lost custody of my three sons from active addiction."
Tracy brought Darryl back home to the St. Louis area. They lived with her parents as Darryl worked to find sobriety. Along the way, they both found Jesus -- a bigger save than even in the '86 World Series.
And they became the Strawberrys in 2006.
"We have one job -- to help a multitude of people," explained Darryl, who said he's been sober for about two decades. "Giving back is the No. 1 thing for us. It's not about: 'Look at us.' We say: 'Look at God.' ... My whole life completely changed and transformed. Had it not been for St. Louis, I don't know where I would be. ... And why I'm sitting here today, the man I am today, is because of my wife. Because of her gift and her love and compassion and kindness towards others -- it's special."
Strawberry immersed himself in Christianity. He believes God uses people to help people. He's an evangelist. Strawberry spends more than 200 days a year on the road, meeting people, mentoring people, challenging people, changing people.
He speaks to prisoners and millionaires, delivering his words at penitentiaries and fundraisers, as well as congregations and men's retreats. He goes to the biggest of cities and the smallest of towns.
And in February of 2010, Strawberry was invited to speak at a small, new church in Troy.
Beginning of the 'Journey'
He was just 13. Startlingly just 13. Heartbreakingly just 13.
"I was into drugs and crime," Jesse Quiroz said.
He lived out in Troy. There was this big house. He and some buddies broke in. As they robbed this home, he came across a room dedicated to baseball memorabilia. So, he grabbed some stacks of expensive cards.
"I was arrested for burglary in the first degree," said Quiroz (pronounced "key-rose."). "So, I of course go to 'juvie.' And had to return everything."
Back home and 15, Quiroz ultimately faced an ultimatum.
"My parents said, 'You've got to straighten up or you've got to get out of this house,'" he recalled.
They also persuaded him to attend church.
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"And that's when I met Christ," he said.
The next year, 1994, Quiroz was adjusting his mattress one day when he spotted a baseball card wedged in the bed.
"It was a card I had stolen and didn't know I still had," said Quiroz, 46. "A Darryl Strawberry rookie baseball card.
"I'm a Christian at this point. And I just felt this voice inside me being like, 'You need to go return that card.' ... God wanted me to give back the baseball card, and in return, I got the real thing."
In the summer of 2009, Quiroz became Pastor Jesse. He and his wife, Missy, felt called to open a church. But they didn't want to, simply, open a church.
"We really wanted to impact this community at the core of the needs," Pastor Jesse said about Troy and the surrounding areas. "So, the first thing we did is we called the police department. 'Where are you tired of getting calls on Friday and Saturday?' And they're like, 'These three areas.' That's where we started knocking on doors. ...
"We started really reaching a lot of people. And, like, 50% of our people had felonies in their records. And, like, 80% of the people in our church had never had a church background. So we were really reaching that need. And we were seeing people with addiction reach out."
One day in 2009, Pastor Jesse was at a St. Louis Bread Co.
It couldn't be.
Impossible.
At a table across the way was ... Darryl Strawberry?
Pastor Jesse was too nervous to introduce himself. But he later asked around. Sure enough, Strawberry indeed lived in the area -- and was a proud Christian, involved with a bigger church. Pastor Jesse took his shot. He reached out and invited Darryl to his six-month-old Journey Church in Troy.
Tracy encouraged her husband to go.
So in February of 2010, "a week before he was going on 'The Celebrity Apprentice,'" Pastor Jesse said, "Darryl Strawberry comes to our little church at the time. We probably had 120 members and we were (based) in a school auditorium at this time. We packed out the school auditorium, about 600 people were there. And after, probably 150 people responded: 'I want to get to know the Jesus that restored this guy's life.' So our church just transformed, like, overnight."
In the early 2010s, though, the Strawberrys moved to Florida. They linked up with an investor who operated facilities for addiction treatment. They opened the Darryl Strawberry Recovery Center near Orlando.
"We've helped a lot of people -- that's been the biggest celebration that we've had over all the years of doing ministry," Darryl said. "But, also, we've lost a lot. And when I say that, we lost more young people from an age of 18 to 25 through addiction that overdosed and died. You talk about heartbreaking."
In time, the Strawberrys had a major falling out with the company over philosophies, so they pulled Darryl's name off the center and moved back to St. Louis.
"I just remember," Darryl recalled, "that my wife kept saying, 'I think we're called to Journey Church.'"
Saved in St. Louis
They reconnected with Pastor Jesse and joined the church they first helped grow.
And they poured themselves into the Journey community. Darryl and Tracy are on the executive board.
"They always make themselves available," Pastor Jesse said. "Oh my gosh, they do it all the time. They'll go have lunch with somebody in this church that's just struggling -- an out-of-work construction worker that just needs to learn how to put a bottle down. They just hang out at IHOP with them and their story just inspires. ...
"With Darryl, I see humility and hunger. He just wants to dive into your life, not make the conversation about him, but about you. He's able to use his life, his story, to serve your need. He and his wife just give of themselves, I mean, tirelessly."
The Strawberrys helped Pastor Jesse open the Troy Dream Center, a 24/7 substance abuse recovery facility. It's a 3,200-square-foot home across four acres of park land. The Dream Center program provides housing, meals, counseling, help with employment and social services and a curriculum based on biblical principles. And it's all free.
The program is nine months. Pastor Jesse said they've had 49 graduates who became part of the Journey Church community.
"To see men and women come out of drug addiction," Tracy said, "somebody's getting their mom back, their son back, their daughter back, their father back, their kids back. Families are getting restored.
"You come in to obliterate darkness and to overcome evil with good. And that's what Journey Church does here."
Darryl doesn't question God, but he has a question for God.
"Why has God kept his hand over me for some particular reason?" Strawberry said. "He'll probably tell me when I get there, you know? I don't understand it most of the time, but I run with it."
In addition to all of his addiction battles, Darryl has defeated cancer twice, losing a kidney the second time.
"I always tell people, 'If you've never seen a miracle, you're looking at one, still walking around with one kidney,'" he said. "I've had some serious journeys. You know, six months ago, I experienced a massive heart attack here in St. Louis. And being saved here in St. Louis in the hospital here, you think about it -- I was a Cardinal killer, and the Lord is saving me in St. Louis."
Strawberry recovered in time to attend a New York ceremony in his honor. Finally, the Mets retired his No. 18. Pastor Jesse joined the Strawberrys for the occasion.
Back at Journey Church, as "open prayer" ended on that September Wednesday, Pastor Jesse called for Darryl and Tracy to meet in the front.
He wanted to pray for them.
Darryl and Tracy stood in front of each other, Tracy leaning her forehead onto his chest. The others gathered close around. They reached out and placed hands on the Strawberrys. For five minutes, Pastor Jesse -- and then his wife, Missy -- prayed loudly and proudly for this couple who invigorate others.
"We make God as the centerpiece of our life," Darryl said. "And that's how we live our life. We're not living for fame. I didn't come to St. Louis to be famous. I've already been famous. I already know that doesn't work. So I came here to blend in and just live a simple life -- and to give back and be involved."
Benjamin Hochman
@hochman on X (formerly Twitter)
bhochman@post-dispatch.com
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