“I’m so sorry for every leaving you guys,” Darryl Strawberry said as he addressed the crowd at Citi Field in Flushing, Queens. “I’m truly, deeply sorry that I ever left you guys. I never played baseball in front of fans greater than you guys.”
For the second time this season, the New York Mets honored one of its greatest stars from the 1980s, triggering enormous interest from fans and collectors throughout the country.
Strawberry had his number 18 retired by the Mets on Saturday following a ceremony before their game against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Strawberry’s close friend, Dwight Gooden, had his jersey number 16 retired by the Mets earlier this season to bring the total of retired Mets jersey numbers to 10. Aside from Strawberry and Gooden, other Mets with their numbers retired are their 1986 Mets World Series teammate Keith Hernandez. The others are Willie Mays, Jerry Koosman, Mike Piazza, Tom Seaver, Gil Hodges, Casey Stengel and Jackie Robinson
As Strawberry entered the center field at Citi Field, Mets fans were passionately chanting “Darryl!, Darryl!”. His friends and family sat on chairs on the field as Strawberry addressed the City Field crowd. The home run apple beyond the outfield wall at Citi Field was transformed into a big strawberry for the afternoon.
“Today I come back to thank a lot of people,” Strawberry said, thanking Mets owner Steve Cohen and manager Carlos Mendoza. “Thank you for what you have done on this very special day remembering the players of the history of this organization. Myself today, I celebrate you, your team, and the fans.
“There was nothing like playing in Queens, there was nothing like playing in Shea Stadium. The memories I hold will be forever. I will always cherish now.”
Among the former teammates and friends from his baseball career in attendance for the ceremony were Eric Davis, Sid Fernandez, John Franco, John Gibbons, Dwight Gooden, Howard Johnson, Barry Lyons, Kevin Mitchell, Jesse Orosco, Rafael Santana, Mookie Wilson, as well as Mets broadcasters and former teammates Keith Hernandez, and Ron Darling.
Sandy Carter, the wife of the late Mets catcher Gary Carter, was also a guest. Strawberry spoke from the heart about the influence that Gary Carter had on him during and after his career.
In a press conference before the ceremony, Strawberry spoke of the impact Carter and Mookie Wilson had on him.
“I wanted to be what they were, not just a guy playing baseball, putting the uniform on,” Strawberry said. “I wanted to be that kind of man. I just didn’t have the guts to do what they were doing at the time that they were doing it, and it means a lot to me because they were drinking milk and I was drinking alcohol.”
Strawberry’s legal problems with drugs and alcohol are well documented. He also had two battles with cancer more than 20 years ago and at one point had stopped chemo treatments and said he had lost his will to live. He also had stints in jail and an 11-month stay in prison for his legal troubles.
During the press conference, Strawberry also addressed the heart attack he had earlier this year. His wife, Tracey, took him to the hospital when he was having chest pains in March. He had suffered a heart attack and his heart was operating at about 40 per cent capacity. He underwent a stent procedure and was able to attend Gooden’s jersey retirement ceremony in April.
Strawberry’s life has been complicated but 40 years ago, his profile in the world of sports collecting was about as strong as it gets.
Strawberry’s Early Cards
Drafted first overall by the Mets out of Crenshaw High School in 1980, Strawberry spent three seasons in the Minor Leagues before making it to the Majors on a full time basis. He had two TCMA cards produced during that time, which remain popular among Strawberry collectors.
His first was in the 1982 Jackson Mets team set, in which he was wearing uniform number 11.
He was also in the TCMA 1983 Tidewater Mets team set. This is a classic Strawberry card as he is photographed wearing one of Tidewater’s vintage-style hats that returned to prominence when the Pittsburgh Pirates wore them in the late 1970s.
They’re readily available, including autographed versions.
Strawberry reached the major leagues in 1983. He was the NL Rookie of the Year after hitting 26 home runs and 74 RBIs with a .257 batting average.
The baseball card industry, meanwhile, was well on the onramp for the boom that was to come later in the decade. Strawberry was the superstar that the hobby was looking for.
Sports card stores were starting to pop up around the country. Convenience stores were selling more baseball cards than ever before, and there were now three brands instead of one. Sports card shows were also starting to become popular. Strawberry’s 1984 rookie cards were so in demand that some dealers at shows were getting as much as $5 or even $10 per Strawberry rookie card.
Strawberry was one of the players that drove sales of the 1983 Topps Traded boxed set. Ron Kittles and Julio Franco are also included on a Topps card for the first time in the set, but Strawberry has been the player who has made this set extremely popular through the years.
One of the oddities of the set is that there are two variations of the cards. In the bottom left corner of the back of the card, there is either one asterisk or two asterisk. There are no other differences to the cards – the card stock is the same in weight and color.
Over the years, the hobby media and price guides have virtually ignored this 46-year-old mystery. There is no difference in value between the two versions of the card. There are some theories floating as to why there are two different variations, with the most common being it was done at the printing plant for inventory management. Officially, however, there has never been an explanation given by Topps.
The 1983 Topps Traded Strawberry card is not considered his rookie card – it is listed as XRC or “pre-rookie card” – because it does not fit into the criteria of being distributed to the market in packs. Today, the Strawberry card is still worth $30 and up.
His true rookie cards were released in the 1984 sets.
Strawberry’s 1984 Topps rookie has an interesting story. Strawberry and Don Mattingly were the two most sought after cards in the 792-card Topps set. In fact, they still are the two most sought after cards from the set.
Topps tried a marketing promotion in 1984 where collectors could mail in to Topps and get 10 cards of their choice. The promotion was intended to help collectors finish their sets. What they did not foresee was that there was an overwhelming demand for Strawberry and Mattingly cards. Topps had to produce another sheet with multiple Strawberry and Mattingly rookie cards to fulfill the orders. It is certainly not enough to designate the cards as DP – that is when the card is on a form twice and there are double the amount of a certain card that its counterparts. But they are among the very few examples were there are extra copies of rookie cards out there in a world of shortprinted rookies.
It was the only year that Topps ran that promotion. Perhaps not surprisingly, Strawberry’s Topps rookie can be had for a few bucks in all but the highest grades.
The 1984 Donruss set is one of the more iconic sets of the 1980s, and Strawberry and Mattingly both have rookie cards in that set as well.
Donruss Baseball had a much smaller print run than Fleer and Topps in 1984, which is the main reasons why collectors have gravitated to it both at the set level and for individual cards.
The Rated Rookies subset and banner were introduced in Donruss Baseball that year, however, Strawberry and Mattingly had regular cards instead of Rated Rookie cards.
Strawberry also has a rookie card in the 1984 Fleer Baseball set. This 660-card set is different in the way that it numbers its cards. The players are in alphabetical order with each team. The teams are in the set according to best won-loss record. Of the 1984 sets, Fleer is generally considered to have had the best photography among the three.
One other Strawberry rookie card that is often overlooked may be the most valuable.
Strawberry also has a rookie card in the 1984 O-Pee-Chee baseball set.
The O-Pee-Chee Baseball product is sometimes referred to as a Canadian parallel version of Topps Baseball. That is true to an extent, but it is also an understatement.
O-Pee-Chee Baseball is a 396-card set compared to the Topps 792-card set. The fronts are different with the O-Pee-Chee logo instead of the Topps logo, and often there is bi-lingual text or position designations on the fronts. The photos usually the same.
The backs are different in three main ways. First, the O-Pee-Chee card stock is much brighter than the Topps card backs, which seem dark and muddy compared to O-Pee-Chee.
The color of ink on the card backs is also different. The Topps backs use blue ink highlighted with red. The O-Chee-Chee backs have more of a dull navy color ink highlighted by red. Last and most importantly, the text on all of the O-Pee-Chee card backs is bilingual.
Another factor in the difference between the two are the cutting quality, O-Pee-Chee used a rotary disc printing system. The sheets were hand fed and cut by rotating blades into strips. The edges on O-Pee-Chee cards are not as sharp as Topps cards, and there are more centering issues. As such, high-grade 1984 OPC Strawberry cards are in high demand and can be pricey.
At the recent Sport Card Expo in Montreal, there were a number of O-Pee-Chee PSA-graded Strawberry O-Pee-Chee rookies on the show floor, and a number of 1984 complete sets.
The most expensive Darryl Strawberry card purchased on eBay this year was a 1984 O-Pee-Chee PSA 10 that sold on May 12 for $1,036. There were two 1984 Topps Tiffany Strawberry PSA 10 RCs that sold for $1,005 and $935.65 on eBay.
Although he played for a rival of the Montreal Expos in his career, Strawberry’s home run at Olympic Stadium on Opening Day in 1988 is still talked about. Strawberry blasted a Randy St. Clair pitch off the cement rim of the roof of the stadium. The home run is estimated at 525 feet, but many argue that is a pre-Statcast underestimate.
For those looking for the super rare, there was also an O-Pee-Chee sticker book released in 1984. The O-Pee-Chee and Topps stickers from the 1980s are gaining in popularity because of the scarcity, and because the growing popularity of graded stickers in other sports.
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