Mets great Strawberry discusses life after heart attack
For former Mets star Darryl Strawberry, suffering a heart attack was life-changing.
Strawberry experienced the health scare on March 11 and underwent a stent procedure at Missouri’s SSM Health St. Joseph Hospital that he said saved his life.
“Having a heart attack is different,” Strawberry told SNY on Monday at St. Louis’ Busch Stadium, where the Mets are playing a three-game series against the Cardinals this week.
“It’s a different feeling inside. You feel fatigued. You feel weak. You take a lot of medication. You don’t think that you’re gonna be good again. It’s been a scary time. There’s no doubt about it.”
Strawberry, 62, lives in nearby O’Fallon, Mo.
“Without my wife [Tracy], I don’t know where I would be, because she has really helped me through this process,” Strawberry said. “It’s really been hard and very challenging, but I’ll tell you what, I’ve been able to watch a lot of baseball. I do have SNY at home, so I get a chance to see a lot of Mets games now.”
Drafted first overall by the Mets in 1980, the lefty-swinging Strawberry spent his first eight MLB seasons with the team, making seven All-Star appearances and winning a World Series in 1986. His 252 home runs with the Mets remain a franchise record.
Strawberry left the Mets before the 1991 season for a fiveyear, $22 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and he also played for the San Francisco Giants and the Yankees during his 17-season MLB career. He won championships with the Yankees in 1996 and 1999 but was not on the team’s 1998 World Series after being diagnosed with colon cancer.
Strawberry made a surprise appearance at Citi Field on April 14 – just over a month after his heart attack – when the Mets retired longtime teammate Dwight Gooden’s No. 16.
Shortly after Strawberry’s heart attack, Gooden called the former outfielder his “dearest brother.”
“Get well soon my pal as we
“So I figured any edge I can get on the field, if it’s flying the ball 15 yards further and being able to take out a bunker on a hole that other guys can’t, that will help me over the span of a season.”
If it works, it works. Few golfers have reached Schauffele’s level of consistency in recent years. The 30-year-old has the longest active streak of made cuts on tour at 45. Scheffler is a rather distant second at 35.
Schauffele’s streak is not in danger this week at the pre-PGA Championship signature event, which will feature 69 players and no cut after 36 holes.
“I think (my caddie is) actually the one who brought it up to me a couple weeks ago maybe, but it is what it is,” Schauffele said. “I don’t know who else is playing a lot of the events and making the cut. I think it’s definitely a testament to consistency. All of us out here want to win tournaments and I guess that’s a different question, but yeah, I’m aware of it.”