Fat Joe and Jadakiss are joined by four-time World Series champion and baseball icon Darryl Strawberry to discuss his new book, ‘Another Life,’ and his powerful transformation from a superstar battling addiction to a mentor helping inmates in maximum-security prisons. The New York legend breaks down his transition from South Central L.A.'s Crenshaw High to the bright lights of NYC and shares unforgettable behind-the-scenes stories about the swagger-filled 1986 Mets championship team with Doc Gooden and Keith Hernandez, contrasting it with the quiet, exemplary leadership of Derek Jeter during his time on the Yankees. Also, the trio dives into raw conversations about surviving childhood abuse, Strawberry's refusal to judge players from baseball's steroid era, and Fat Joe opens up about a recent surgery that completely changed his perspective on the terrifying grip of fentanyl and addiction.
Behind The Bars is presented by Sprite. Check out the full Sprite Living Tracklist and break down the stories behind your favorite bars at livingtracklist.genius.com. This is the Sprite Living Tracklist. Obey Your Thirst.
Joe and Jada is now STREAMING ON NETFLIX
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I learned a lot about life, being in a city
like this, to be able to endure and be able
to go back and lift somebody else up. Because that's
what New Yorkers do when you're here. When you have struggles,
you have issues, they don't give up on you.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, yeah, what up, y'all? This is Fat Joe, BX's own.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Know what it is, your boy Jada. You know what
it is, the Joe and Jada show. Every show legendary,
every show iconic. You never know who's going to touch
the blue couch. You can bet your bottom dollar it's
somebody that won't touch your couch.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
When you think of today's guest, you think of somebody
with one of the coldest swings baseball ever saw.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Big home runs. Bright lights. Shea Stadium.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
One of the most legendary eras in New York sports.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
History.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
But this man's story goes way past the highlights. He's
lived through the fame, the championships, the temptations, the losses,
the battles, and found a whole new purpose on the
other side. He's a Mets legend, four-time World Series champion.
(01:48):
And now he's showing people that no matter how far
life takes you down, it's never too late to start over.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Give it up for the one and only Darryl Strawberry. Woo!
Thanks for coming.
Speaker 5 (02:11):
I've been hanging out with him for about an hour,
but now he got the, I don't know, all of
a sudden after that intro, he got the Dow Strawberry
face right now. That shit just came out of nowhere.
I was hanging out with him for an hour. All
of a sudden, I looked up just now and said,
holy shit, fucking Dow Strawberry.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Who was you talking to an hour ago?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Bro! I don't know.
Speaker 5 (02:33):
I was talking to him for a whole hour. We
talked about a whole bunch of shit, but all of
a sudden, I don't know. You must know how to
throw the Dow Strawberry face on, right?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Well, no. He only had it all his life.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, exactly. But I'm sitting here with New York legends, man.
I'm a New York guy. Of course, I'm from South
Central L.A.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
So I know what it's like. I know what the
streets are like. I grew up in that.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
So that was the most important part of my life
growing up and coming here.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
And playing in New York.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
That's what made me a great baseball player was the fans,
the people, the atmosphere, not being afraid of the challenges
that you have to face because you grew up on
Crenshaw High. You know, a lot of guys say they're
from Crenshaw High. I won number eight at Christian High.
I won number 25 playing basketball at Christian High.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Listen, Ice-T was here. Ice-T, another one.
Speaker 5 (03:28):
We call him the king of gangster rap in the
way he was describing hip-hop, right?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Because I just noticed something. He's... He was.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
Describing like, you know, he'd be over there when the
New York rappers go over there. He'd try to dress
like the New York rappers and then figured out, let
me dress like an LA guy. But you personally grew
up in Crenshaw. then came to New York where they
invented hip-hop. So how was that like traveling from the
(04:00):
West Coast, you know, Eazy-E, Jerry Curls, all that, to
New York City?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Like, you got to see the best of both worlds. Well,
it was pretty easy.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Because of growing up there and being a part of
all that. Being right in the middle of that, you
make a decision, which... are you going to take? You know,
I was on the west side and there was an
east side. So you had to be extremely careful about
which sides you go on and what color you were
wearing because, you know, the blood's in the crib. So
it was a part of just knowing how to react
(04:35):
and knowing how to not back down and be tough.
I think that was the most important thing for me
coming into New York. And once I found out about
the New York atmosphere and the people, I realized that
I was going to fit in just perfect with them
because playing baseball and knowing the fact that The expectations
are high and you come in here with a lot
(04:56):
of demands on you to perform, the media, the fans,
and stuff like that. Can you as a player handle
the adversity? And what I mean by that, can you
handle the boos? Can you handle the cheers? See, a
lot of guys just like the cheers, but I love
the boos because the boos always got me off. They
always made me feel like, well, okay, you're going to
boo me. Now I'm going to hit two off the
scoreboard and you're going to want me to come out
(05:17):
for a curtain call. I'm going down in the tunnel
to smoke a cigarette because I got this different type
of mentality where I come from. And hip hop was
always special from the West Coast, East Coast. It was
always special at the time that I was coming.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Up in the 80s.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
It was very powerful with the guys that were just
talking about the Curtis Blows and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
I remember from the beginning. This one is for the OGs.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Let's keep it 1800.
Speaker 5 (05:50):
You know what I just thought about? That's pre-steroid era, huh?
So anybody who got busy at that time got busy, right?
And how did you feel about when people that you
thought were the greatest and this guy's a monster. He's
hitting them all out the park to only find out
(06:11):
they were taking steroids.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
At the time.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
What was that like to you? What was your initial response?
I didn't have any response. We're all baseball players. You
still got to perform. Regardless of what anybody want to say.
You know, Barry Bonds is the greatest player to ever play.
They're a player that I saw walk on the field
that could do everything just natural. Good at all. A-Rod
was the same way. Everybody want to jump on them
(06:36):
and say, well, they did this and that. Well, it
was a payday for them. Everybody was getting paid. So
they saw other players doing it. So, Why not? You know,
why not jump in? Hey, had it been my time,
I probably would have done the same thing. It was
just a part of the culture, the time where I
was at in the game in the 80s and saw
these younger guys coming up and recognizing that they were
(06:58):
going to be great.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
They were very talented.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
You cannot deny players talent and what they achieve. They
have to go out there and do it. Baseball is
so much more difficult than football and basketball. Baseball is
a one-on-one individual where you got to go up there
and the guy's dropping 95.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Can you put the head out and turn it around?
And a lot of guys can.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
And those guys could do that at their young age
and they did it at their old age. So I
wouldn't sit around and criticize them for what others were
already doing and they made a way for another way.
That's what sports is all about. Every generation is different.
The times I was playing, there were amphetamines in the game.
(07:49):
I took amphetamines every night to light up so I
can go out there and get Get busy. It was
just a part of what it was. So I would
never criticize any other athletes and say, well, they did this.
That's wrong for any athletes to point at others. You
still got to work hard and you still have to
believe in yourself.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
Basically, for everybody out there, if you use this stuff
We're not encouraging somebody to use it, but you still
got to be able to know how to connect with
the ball.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
It's not going to make you hit or catch or
do none of that. People don't know. You know, there's
some people who's like, I want to pay taxes. I
want to be in the jury. I want to be
like jury duty.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
And some people really don't know shit.
Speaker 5 (08:33):
So you got to like spoon feed it to them
and be like, listen, you take the stuff. We don't
recommend it, but it doesn't automatically make you a superstar.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
You have to perform. When you was young, was baseball
always number one?
Speaker 1 (08:49):
And basketball was just... Pretty much. Pretty much baseball was.
You know, I played at Crenshaw, and a lot of
basketball players come out of Crenshaw that were really good.
Marcus Johnson, big John Williams with the LSU, a couple
other guys. But I was more connected in baseball.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Myself, Eric Davis, Chris Brown, we were trying to follow.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Eddie Murray and Ozzie Smith because they had came from
the same place. We played, we all played up with
the same coach in the summer league out in Compton.
Earl Brown, he coached all of us. He used to
tell us in joke and say, well, you guys is
not going to be like Eddie and Ozzie. No, we said,
me and Eric used to say, we're going to be better,
you know. But that's the, that's, the competition that you
(09:32):
have coming out of California. And baseball was always driven
because when I saw Cincinnati Reds and I saw Pete
Rose play, he wasn't the most talented player on that team,
but he outplayed everybody. And he hustled, uniform was dirty.
I said, now that's what a baseball player look like.
And then when I saw the Colbert, Dave Parker, 6'5,
(09:53):
I saw him throw, I saw him hit, and I
saw him run. I said, okay, now I'm 6'5. That's
why I want to be like the Colbert. So that
what really attracted me to baseball, and that's when I
really got real focused in on the game of baseball
and started to understand what it was going to take
to get to the next level.
Speaker 5 (10:15):
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Speaker 3 (10:18):
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songs ever made. The beat, the video, it just lets
you know you had to come with your A-game. The
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making around the time Shook Ones Part 2 came out.
It really shook the whole city. It probably shook the
(10:38):
whole world.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
The video was so necessary. It was so New York.
It was so gritty and grimy. And to see these
young warriors, man, arguably one of the greatest songs, the
greatest beats of all time. The story behind how he
made the beat was crazy. Definitely an incredible part of
(11:00):
hip hop.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
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down the stories behind your favorite bars. The link is
in our show notes. This is the Sprite Living track list.
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Speaker 2 (11:17):
At what age.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
the white guys start sitting in the bleachers. Because that's
a heavy indication in the hood. When you play sports
and the white guys... Stephon Marbury told me he was
10 years old and white men used to come sit
out there in the winter while he was dribbling in
the snow.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
And he knew, oh, I'm.
Speaker 5 (11:37):
Out of here. Coney Island ain't going to be the
last stop for me. When did you know? Because I'm
sure you've seen other kids hit home runs. When did
you know, yo, I'm an elite? Like, I might be
going to college for this. I might be, you know,
going to the major leagues. It was late because, you know,
I didn't start playing until I was 14. I didn't
(11:58):
go through the T-ball and the Little League because, you know,
I grew up in a home.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
you started playing at 14. Yes.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
So I grew up in a home with a dysfunction father,
you know, that was an alcoholic.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
So it was always crazy.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
So it wasn't no sports, you know, it wasn't no
him being there, taking us to be on teams and
stuff like that. So it wasn't until he was out
of the house, you know, after the last episode we had,
you know, when I was about 14, he came home
drunk again, put on a shotgun and say, he was
going to kill the whole family.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Me and my brothers went into action.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
So we came this close to killing, um, thankful for
my mom getting us out of the house and making
us go down the street. And when we came back
the next day, it wasn't there. So right after that,
I went in to start playing baseball. There were coaches
that started to come around. Now, see, what people don't understand,
coaches are going to have the greatest impact on a
(12:51):
person's life or athlete's life because he's going to guide
him to his destiny.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Most coaches will do that.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
And after I was 14, that's how I started getting
into baseball. And I kind of like started watching baseball,
the Dodgers and the Reds on television game of the week.
And I rolled up on the door in my room.
I'm going to the pros. And my sister said, you
going to the pros? I was like, yeah. She's like,
you crazy. I said, yeah, I'm that crazy to believe it. And,
(13:21):
you know, from watching it and getting there to playing,
and once I hit the field, I always told myself
I'm the best player on the field. I don't care
who's on the field. It doesn't matter who's on the field.
If you're looking at somebody else, you're not looking at yourself.
And I was always looking at myself and my ability
to play the game and learn the game. And that's
(13:42):
how I got to the place where I got to.
A couple of times, you know, I came close to quitting.
Once I got into pro ball, I had to go
through the minor league system, going down in places like Lynchburg, Virginia.
And they started calling me boy and you're not that
good because I was the first pick in the draft
(14:02):
and I was 19. And my manager, Gene Dusan, was like,
don't look up there because I had that Louisville slugger.
He thought I might have ran up there and started
eliminating folks. So he was like, they're just crazy, you know,
and they were saying all kinds of things. So I
had to experience that. And I wondered if I made
a big mistake by doing that. And I used to
(14:24):
tell my mother, I want to quit. She said, you're
not quitting. My mother never let me quit. And that
was a good thing about having a good mother that
no matter what.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
She said, you got into it, you're going to finish it.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
And she wasn't all hyped up about my baseball career
success and everything. But she said, you got into this
and you need to finish what you started. And so
that's what was really my driving point more than anything
is having a street sense, because I grew up on
the streets, and knowing how to navigate around situations. And
(15:02):
if you don't know how to do that, you'll find
yourself giving up. And that's what I wanted to be
able to give something different to my kids and stay
strong in those areas and realize that don't give up
because I want to teach my kids that adversity is
a part of the challenges of life. And when you
have to go through those and you get through those
(15:23):
by not giving up, you can achieve anything. And I
think that's what made me excel at the highest level
because I knew I could achieve.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
That's awesome. Why did you feel like now was the
right time to write this book? Well, because it's not
about me. It's about people. I lived the life.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
I've been at the pinnacle, top, and I saw so
many people in prison more than anything because I experienced
that myself for addiction. I went to Florida State Prison
and ended up with a T17169. And I did 11
months on an 18-month sentence. And I saw so many
(16:02):
of us. And it really spoke to me.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
And when I.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
came to the point of having a transformation in my life,
I realized that I needed to go back in there
to encourage them. I can't change their circumstances, their situation,
but I wanted to go in there and let them
know that they're loved. And that their life matters no
matter what they've been through. Because a lot of times
we don't know where folks come from. We don't know
what happened to them to get them there. And I
(16:31):
think they just end up with a number caught up
in the system and.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
People throw them away.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
And I just didn't want to do that. I wanted
to go back. And I think that's what this book
is about. It's about different people. I go into and
talk to the kids about the hard drugs of overcoming
those opiates and heroin, losing their life. And I go
to the maximum security prisons where I love the brothers.
You know, I love going in there, walking the yards
(16:57):
with them.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
And just being, just being, being. You know, me personally,
I always sold drugs, right? And I always looked at
drug users as being weak people. It's just the way
I've been triggered.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
My whole life, right?
Speaker 5 (17:15):
And recently, I was having a surgery. And the man,
they got to put me to sleep. He says, now
this is going to take the anxiety off. It was
the best shit I ever felt. I was mad that
he gave it to me. Because I was like, Oh
(17:39):
my God, what the fuck is this? To make a
long story short, right? When I woke up, I asked him,
what the fuck was that? Well, he told me. I
didn't even ask him. I was upset because he was like, fentanyl.
I said, yo, I didn't ask you.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Right?
Speaker 5 (17:58):
I didn't even want to know what that felt like.
And I'm going to be honest with you. I never
used drugs, never smoked cigarettes, never smoked weed, never this.
I thought about that shit for like two weeks straight.
Like I was just like, yo. And I finally realized
when you telling your kids and you telling your loved ones, yo, stop. Like, yo,
(18:26):
you fucking up your life. Regular people who never got high,
they really have no clue of what they up against.
Because unfortunately, you got to feel like the best shit ever.
And you up and you trying to convince somebody not
to do the best shit ever.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
I'm already too old to feel like this.
Speaker 5 (18:50):
This shit happened two, three weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
He gave me this shit. I said, oh my God,
this shit.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
And then I finally realized what I've been trying to
convince my brother about. Yo, get off this shit. Yo,
you got to come and suffer with us. You got
to feel emotions like us. You know, you can't just
get the good stuff. I never realized what we was
up against, telling people don't use drugs.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
It's a hard situation.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
It's a very hard situation and it is the best ever.
It's an escape from the pain of what happened to you,
the wounds that are inside of you. That's all it
does for that period of time. And that's why most
people get to that place like that because they need
to escape from the reality of what they've been through,
(19:44):
the trauma, the abuse, the rejection. It allows you to
not feel that. at that particular time, like you said,
you went to the doctor, you got that.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yeah. And I know all that. And you do feel
like that.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
I've been through many surgeries and, and they're getting ready
to put me under and they give me something and
I'd be like, Oh, can I take this home with me?
Cause it's going to help me sleep.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
And yeah. And that's the reality of it.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
That's the reality of people that usually get connected deep
in drugs. Like I did. It wasn't because of my stardom.
It was because I was broken. You know, I was
trying to suppress what my father had beaten inside of me.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
You know, when my father, he was strong.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
And when he used to beat you for any little
thing that you did wrong, he'd make you take your
shirt off, lay you across the bed, and he'd beat
you with an extension cord off the vacuum cleaner. So
he comes from Mississippi, and I didn't know his father
was an alcoholic. And he was the only child. And
he saw his father do that to his mother. So
(21:01):
it's like a repeated behavior. And I used to go
to my room at night after meetings and stuff, and
I used to sit there and cry. And I used
to say to myself, I am never, ever going to
put my hand on my kids. because it will leave
those scars on them forever. And I never did put
my hands on my kids.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Same thing.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
And when they got into trouble like I would do
at my age, I would make them.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Stand in the corner.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Because I didn't want them to be affected like that
because people don't realize people are truly affected from real
rejection and abuse when they're young. And it turns them
It could turn you into a monster and it could
kill you. Or you can take it and go through
(21:50):
it and you can come out on the other side
and now you can go and give it back to
help somebody else. And that's what another life is about.
Another life for me, it's not about Daryl Strawberry. I'm great.
It's like, yeah, I was successful. I love New York.
I learned a lot playing in New York. I learned
(22:11):
a lot about life. being in a city like this,
to be able to endure and be able to go
back and lift somebody else up. Because that's what New
Yorkers do when you're here. When you have struggles, you
have issues, they don't give up on you. They lift
you up. And that's what I enjoy the most about
(22:32):
the fact of being able to write a book at
this time and go back and say, here, take this, people.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Use this.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
I'm showing you the blueprint. I've already done it for you.
You don't have to end up like I did. You
don't have to end up in the jumpsuit and the handcuffs.
I tell my daughter this all the time. I said,
my daughter getting into business and all that. Every now
and then I can't help but just jump in. And
then she's like, yo, dad, I got my own team.
(23:01):
We doing our thing. And I'd be like, look, you
don't have to go through what.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
I went through. I did that. It didn't work. I'm
just letting you know. I'm not trying to shut down
whatever you're doing, but I think the biggest thing people
can learn is you can learn from other people's mistakes
by watching it.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
You don't have to try it yourself. You don't have
to do it yourself.
Speaker 5 (23:27):
If you know your friend that was intelligent, that was
your man, that this and this and that, fucked up
to drugs and he can't get off that shit, what
makes you think you're stronger than him to be doing it?
So you got to learn from other people's mistakes. I
think that's very valuable. I think we owe people. We
owe our community books like this.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Yeah, a lot.
Speaker 5 (23:52):
And so, like, giving them back the knowledge and saying, listen, man.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
I went through some shit. JoeAndJayTheShow.com.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
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Speaker 2 (24:06):
Go get it.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
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Speaker 2 (24:08):
On a big, bomb, JoeAndJayTheShow.com. You can get these. A
little cold for a t-shirt with a hoodie.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
It's my favorite right there. I need an extra large. JoeAndJayTheShow.com.
Go there and get it. And it's even harder, right?
Because you telling me you did 11 months. I was
going to ask you, and I think about the soul
(24:37):
of town, right? Whenever a celebrity or somebody goes to
jail or whatever, I think about that first time you
walk in there and they're like, holy shit, it's Dow Street, baby.
And then you got to lay on that bunk for
the first time and be like, holy shit, what the
fuck am I doing here?
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Did you have that type of moment?
Speaker 1 (25:01):
I had the moment where when I went into the
prison system and the warden told me, you don't belong here.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
And he said, do your time and get going and
get moving forward.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Because you're talking about a place where it's real. There's
no joke. And I don't care who you are. You're
going to be challenged at some point, sometime. That's just
the way it is. And when I got there, I
wasn't in fear. I was in the fact that, okay,
(25:38):
I need to get this over with. Because I can't
keep having this over my head. I'm not a criminal.
I got a substance abuse problem. So, okay, it's going
to be 11 months. I could do this probably standing
on the top of my head. Just the way it is.
I used to think because of where I'm from, right?
I already been tough from the street. So I wasn't like,
(25:59):
oh man, I'm afraid. You know, it's like, okay, here
we are. How are you going to deal with it?
And I went in the system and I dealt with it.
And I made a lot of friends, you know, because
I'm a cool guy. I'm not a guy that's looking
at it. throw the knuckles but if you want to
throw the knuckles I throw those too because that's where
I've been through that you know from the streets and
(26:19):
playing baseball so I'm a lot of them already know
that and so you got challenged a few times you
know when you're playing sports there and playing basketball and
you're dunking on fools yeah you're dunking on fools and
they're talking and they're getting mad and I was like
yeah whatever let's do it but people like always would
push you back so you wouldn't get into those places
(26:42):
where And you get put in the hole and stuff
like that. And so, I mean, the fact that it
happened is the lessons that, do you learn the lessons
in life?
Speaker 2 (26:55):
This is what happens to a lot of people that don't.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
They keep repeating the same thing over and over and
over again, looking for a different result and thinking it's
a different way to do it. But it's not when
you get caught up in the system like that. And
I used to tell a lot of brothers that. I said,
I'm not coming back here. I got a letter A
and some guys got D, C, F. I've been back
(27:19):
there six, seven times and talking about a different way
of doing things when they get out. I said, there's
no different way when you get yourself involved in the
system like this. And I was prosecuted in Tampa. I
was prosecuted by Pam Bondi. she was on prosecuting me.
She was telling the judge he needs to be locked up.
The judge was like, no, he don't. He's not a criminal.
(27:42):
He's just having a drug problem. He's like, who did
he kill? She's like, well, he's just, he's destroying Tampa.
She's like, no, he's not. He just violated probation. So
it taught me a lot about the system and people.
And I got a real great education about life. Life
(28:02):
will give you a good education, no matter if you're
successful and you go through some things. And if you're
successful and you don't go through some things, life is
going to challenge you at some point. And if you
don't have life skills, you're not going to be able
to make it through. Because that's what you have to
(28:24):
have to be able to get through this whole thing
that we call life up there.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
You win a chip with the Mets. You win three
chips with the Yankees. Which was the more fun team?
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Probably, that's easy to say, the 86 Mets. We're the
more crazy team that I've ever played with. What consists
of crazy? You're doing whatever you want, however you want.
But at the fact Some motherfucker was getting high, going
to the game high. No, we didn't get high going
to the game. People exaggerate when they say that. You
(29:03):
don't win 108 ballgames getting high. We might have been
taking amphetamines and we were crazy. We were going to
put these knuckles on you and stuff like that. We
were going to go out and drink and be wild.
You talking about after. They used to say Babe Ruth
used to get hammered every night.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Yeah, you were going to go out and drink. You
got women everywhere. You married. You know, you.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
You're going to have fun because it's like a candy store.
You go to the candy store and get what you like.
That's what it was like for us in the 80s.
And there was no hangover. about that, you know, because
it was the 80s. It was different. New York was different.
And we were like a band, like rappers. You know,
(29:50):
you go into town and you turn it out and
behind the scenes, it's a different story, you know?
Speaker 2 (29:55):
It's turning up. Ah!
Speaker 1 (29:59):
So the Mets. I'm saying that was the team, the
86 Mets. It was like really... Who was on the
86 Mets? Gary Carter. You was going up against.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Fernando Venezuela. I was taking him off the scoreboard. You
know they still got murals of him in L.A. and
all that. Fernando Venezuela. You was parking him. Taking his
shit off the hat. Going up like this. Who else
is part of the team? Hernandez. Carter. Keith Hernandez. Wally Backman. Dykstra.
(30:33):
Lenny Dykstra. Kevin Mitchell. Doc Gooden. Ron Darling. Bobby Ojeda.
Rafael Santana. Oh, my God.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Ray Knight, tough. But you go down the list of
our team, and it wasn't... He was a hell of
a first baseman. He's the most intelligent player I have
ever played with.
Speaker 5 (30:55):
And I could tell. How about that? I could read
his IQ every time he was making a play. You
knew Keith Hernandez was a smart motherfucker. He ain't look
dumb for nothing.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Nah, man.
Speaker 5 (31:08):
Just like when we skipped to the Yankees, I would
say my favorite Yankee of all time was Thurman Munson,
just as a fan, because he.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Was a wild white boy, backcatcher.
Speaker 5 (31:20):
I mean, you know, he gave me everything King Fernandez
ain't give me.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
I'm like, yo, this is a wild boy.
Speaker 5 (31:27):
He look like Jake Paul playing baseball or some shit
like that. But on the Yankees, on the winning side
of the Yankees, who'd you play with on those teams?
Speaker 1 (31:39):
I played with Tino. I played with Bernie. I played
with O'Neal. I played with Scott Broses. I played with
the one and only, the great Jeep, Derek Jeter. Probably
the best person between him and Carter are probably the
(31:59):
best people I've.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Ever met in the game of baseball. Derek Jeter.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Yeah, they don't say anything negative about nobody. Jeter never did.
Carter never did.
Speaker 5 (32:08):
He does a lot for the community. Jeter, the Turn
2 Foundation is always.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Helping the people. Folks talk about how he's not this player,
that player. The guy played the game the right way.
He went out there. When he put the uniform on,
he didn't have to voice his opinion about being the captain.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
He was the captain because of the way he played.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
And That is the way people should look at players
that stand out. You know, they stand out more of
looking at other guys and, well, this guy's better.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
But Derrick was Derrick. They never get into Derrick G.
Back to the Mets, though.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
When Davey Johnson said, we're going to win this whole,
did y'all really believe that at that moment?
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Or what did you think when he said that? We
were true gangsters. We knew we were going to win.
Because we had lost the year before to the Cardinals.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
We won 98 ballgames and went home. And in our
locker room after that series, it was just really quiet.
And we knew to ourselves that we had lost the
division twice back-to-back, 84 and 85. We lost to the Cubs,
then we lost to the Cardinals. And it hit us
(33:26):
right in there.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
We knew.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
She's the only good luck I got right now about
Philly with LeBron and all of them. Every team always
lose the first year. They never just straight go. So
it's the only thing I can keep telling myself we're
going to beat these guys. Philly does stacked up in
the basketball side. I'm like, yo, they always win one.
They always lose a year to feel that And then
(33:52):
come back, hopefully they lose this year.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
You know what I'm saying? I'm keeping it real. I'm
keeping it a buck. Well, that's a good question. Because see,
Davey Johnson was a guy that played the game. And
he had a personal understanding about players. And he knew
how to get players and put players in a position
(34:16):
to be successful.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
And he never....
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Would throw his players under the bus. What goes on
in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse. We fight and
we fight, but it's not coming out to the media.
And we're not going to let the outlets know anything
about inner stuff. You know, and we had inner stuff
because we had a lot of personalities. And, you know,
(34:42):
a lot of times they wanted to, a lot of times,
you know, guys wanted to push my button. But I
was the wrong guy that you didn't want to push
my buttons because I was different. I didn't play around
when you pushed my button. But when I get on
this field and we all get on this field together.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
We're going to wax people.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
It was no worrying about that. It was no pressure
when he told us that spring training, we're going to
win it all. He didn't just say we're going to
win it all. He said we're going to dominate. And
we got off to a two and three star, something
like that. And we had to welcome home dinner and
keep told everybody relax. It's just the season had just started.
(35:21):
And once we went into St. Louis and we swept
the Cardinals and Whitey Herzog, our manager for the Cardinals,
made a comment. He says, nobody's going to beat them.
And we just took off and ran away with that division.
Speaker 5 (35:33):
So somebody could actually say something that you hear and
it could affect you.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Mentally like, look, this.
Speaker 5 (35:42):
Certification, they know we coming to win.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Let's do it.
Speaker 5 (35:47):
So something like that could actually motivate you to go
all the way.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Oh, no doubt about it.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
But we had this swag about us because when we
were coming into your town, we coming to tear it up. Yeah,
we're coming to tear it up on the field, off
the field, just all around. You know, it was just,
that's just the way it was for us.
Speaker 5 (36:10):
Tap your hoes, your clubs, and we're going to hit
the home run the next day.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
See you next week.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
It was just the kind of way it was for
us and the personality of the team that we had.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
We had some bad guys.
Speaker 5 (36:26):
Doc Gooden looked like he was having the time of
his life at that time, too.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Well, Doc Gooden was very unique.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
I don't think you will ever see anyone as good
as that at a kid at 19, 20 years old. 1985,
he dominated basketball. major league hitters like I've never seen.
They talk about a lot of great pitchers, but he
was only 20. And you're talking about a guy that
(36:53):
had command of his fastball and could throw his breaking
ball at any time and have Dawson, Mike Smith, Pete Rose,
all those great Hall of Famers and freeze them and
throw gas. I mean, I think guys knew when Doc
was pitching, they were early and Batting practice, they would
(37:14):
take BP, and then all of a sudden they scratched
because their neck hurt or something like that.
Speaker 5 (37:19):
How was my man Goose Gossage? Goose Gossage with the
legendary mustache. Goose was wild. Goose could get busy, huh?
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Yeah, Goose could get busy, and he'd give you that look,
and he'd intimidate you with that look he had on
his face.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Yeah, I'm a brownstone cow, boy. You know, like... You
know what I've learned?
Speaker 5 (37:46):
The things that really matter, you can't rush them.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
Facts.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
You can't rush the sauce. You can't rush the music.
You can't rush relationships. And you definitely can't rush great tequila.
Speaker 5 (37:58):
That's why 1800 Tequila stands out. The name goes all
the way back to the 1800s when the Beckman family
started making tequila. And that patience, that attention to the
craft has been passed down through more than 11 generations.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
That's legacy.
Speaker 3 (38:16):
Sometimes you just got to let something cook. Juan Beckman
Vidal aged 1,800 aneo longer than he even had to
because he knew it wasn't ready yet.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
I respect that.
Speaker 5 (38:27):
Don't put it out just because you can put it out.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
Put it out when it's right. That applies to a record.
Speaker 5 (38:32):
A conversation, a move, a making, and clearly a bottle
of tequila.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
And once you get it right, you share it with
your people. That's always been part of the story. Good tequila,
good conversation, and the people around you really appreciate both.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Passion, hard work, honesty.
Speaker 5 (38:49):
Those words are written on every bottle of 1800. And honestly,
that's the foundation for anything built to last.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
So take your time with what you're creating, and when
the moment is right, share it.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
With your people. 1800 Tequila. Good stuff takes time.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
And the best stuff's meant to be shared with your people.
I got a three-part question. What was it like getting drafted,
number one? What was New York like at that time?
And what was it like winning the National League rookie
of the year?
Speaker 1 (39:27):
I think when I got drafted in 1980, out of
high school, I know my mother drove me that morning
to school and she was a little nervous and I wasn't.
I figured I'd probably get drafted because four players got
drafted the year before in 79 after we lost the
city championship to John Elwin in Madagascar Stadium. And all
(39:49):
the scouts was asking the coach about me. And they said, he's,
he told him he's a junior. They go, he's a junior. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
He's got another year high school.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
So when I came out that my senior year, you know,
my first game, I had like 50 scouts out there looking,
coming to see him. Cause I was called a black
Ted Williams. Someone would call me, uh, Willie McCovey. I
was long linking. And, And being drafted that year, they
came and got me out of class. And they said,
you've been drafted. I said, okay. They said, you've been
(40:20):
drafted number one.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
I said, okay.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
I just wanted to get drafted. And they said, you're
going to the New York Mets. I said, okay, where
the heck is New York at?
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
And, you know, I finally got a chance to come
here and see New York.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
And I thought to myself, when I saw this place,
I goes, wow. Oh my God. What year you get
here for the first time?
Speaker 1 (40:47):
I think it was, I came up when I was
about 19, 20 years old from the minor.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
League player of the year, stuff like that with the organization.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
And they brought me to New York and I came
here and I thought.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
Yeah, what year?
Speaker 5 (41:01):
What year?
Speaker 2 (41:02):
That had to be 1984.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
One, two, I came up in 83 before I came up, um,
because I won rookie of the year, but I had
to be in 82, something like that. And, and, and
coming down the streets and I was like, Oh my God,
how am I going to figure this out?
Speaker 2 (41:18):
They got one way streets. You don't have that in California.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
You don't go one way, you know, one go this way,
one go that way, one go that way. I was like, man,
this is going to be really crazy to figure out. Um,
when I was, I was thinking about that one, it
was like 20 years old.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (41:36):
So you get to New York City when the Bronx
look like Palm City and shit like that.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
No, I mean... You ain't go.
Speaker 5 (41:45):
Pick up no chick in the South Bronx where the
shit look like she was living inside the broken building
and shit with the extension cord.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
New York was to me, it was like South Central,
the ghetto hood. So I kind of.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Similarities. Yeah, similarities.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
I kind of felt like I'd be all right here.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
And I got here.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
And I finally got here in 83, my rookie year.
And I struggled when I first came up, like every
player will.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Struggled at the big leagues. I was 21. I was supposed.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
To be at the ballpark early at 1 o'clock, hitting
Coach Jim Fry, and I didn't show up until 3 o'clock.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
And he got in my face.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
He said, kid, if you ever want to be great,
at this Major League League, I would be at this
ballpark early every day. And from that day forward, I
was at the ballpark early every day. I got to
the ball with seven o'clock game. I'm at the ballpark
at two. And he worked me through that whole process.
And he got me to understand more about, it's not
(42:50):
about the talent. It's about being here and taking it
all in and also working on the things that you're
weak at, not the things that you're strong at. See,
most athletes only work at the things that are stronger
and they don't work on the weak things. And so
you want to be able to balance yourself. And he
taught me that. And then we got Hernandez in the trade.
(43:13):
He came from St.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
Louis.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
I had no idea who he was. And people were like, oh,
it's a big deal. And Hernandez started to see me play.
And he started to.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
Think, wow. Wow.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Was this little skinny 21-year-old kid they got hitting the
ball off the scoreboard already.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
Hit this shit off the ball.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
And he was thinking to himself that I want to
get out of here because I come from the Cardinals
and I go on to win rookie of the year
that year. But he said his father told him you
need to stay and sign with the Mets because they
got some more players coming up with a farm system that's.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
Just just like strawberry and they're going to be pretty good.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
And that was big for me because to be able
to have him teach me the game and elevate me
to the next level was incredible because Players like that
are always going to have an effect on you. When
they're not jealous and they know you're talented, they're going
to teach you how to do this. And he was
(44:14):
that guy that was teaching me how to hit left-hand
pitching and showing me how to do that, showing me
how to get up in the box and get back
deep when he's throwing fastballs and get up in the
box when he's throwing off speed, catch it. Man, I
hit 20 home runs off left-handed hitters and left-hand pitchers
in 88 because of knowing how to do that.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
So.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Those are the things that have become important when you're
playing sports and you listen to guys that have the
knowledge like Hernandez have.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
I told you I seen pictures of, who was it, Harlem?
Willie Mays?
Speaker 5 (44:47):
Like Willie Mays, you know, the Yankee Stadium was in
the polo grounds first. And they got pictures of Willie
Mays just playing stickball outside with all the kids in Harlem.
He's just a beautiful sight to see. You ever did
stuff like that with the kids out there and try
(45:07):
to play baseball with them and stuff like that back
in the day?
Speaker 1 (45:11):
We grew up on like a broomstick hitting rocks. That's
how I learned to start swinging. So you had to
have hand-eye coordination because you had to be able to
see the rocks to hit them. And That's where I learned.
I think that's where I learned how to be able
to pick up the spin on the baseball. Because when
(45:32):
you hit rocks, you got to pay attention. You got
to focus. You cannot take your eye off of it
because you're.
Speaker 2 (45:38):
Going to miss it.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
And when I started to learn about baseball, I started
to learn how to see the spin coming out of
the pitch of hand and everything.
Speaker 3 (45:46):
And.
Speaker 2 (45:47):
Those are the things that kids get away from.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
Well, it's different now because they have all these different platforms,
AAU Travel Ball.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
There wasn't no AAU Travel Ball for us. We didn't
have no money for no AAU Travel Ball. We couldn't
afford that.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
We had to play with rocks out there until you
got to a place where you got on a team.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
And now this is what baseball is.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
And I was fortunate, like I said before, to grow
up with Eric Davis and Chris Brown and play with
those guys. Because they were multi-talented athletes, too, out of L.A.
and played basketball. Eric went to Fremont. Chris went to
Crenshaw with me. And to be able to watch them
play just kind of motivated me even more. Like, hey,
(46:32):
you know, we can come out of here, too, and
be successful. When you see other guys from the hood
play and you play summer ball together, you know what
he can play.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
That's great.
Speaker 5 (46:43):
It reminds me of my little man there.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
He's from Brazil.
Speaker 5 (46:48):
When that FIFA was going on, they were saying the
story that the Brazilian players got good because they'd be
in these little favelas and they start playing soccer in
these little favelas and they get so nice on their
feet that when they get into like a real field,
(47:09):
they're able to move because sometimes the limited things in life,
things that can limit you in life can actually make
you greater.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
You know, that's an important thing.
Speaker 5 (47:21):
You put me in such a humble position because these
years you're.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
Talking about 81, 80.
Speaker 5 (47:26):
Man, I was still eating free lunch.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
Come on. I was eating free cheese, man.
Speaker 5 (47:33):
And so the fact that, you know, you bringing them years,
I got to look at that story and be like, damn, man,
did we ever think we'll ever meet?
Speaker 2 (47:43):
The hell Strawberry... The man, the myth, the legend.
Speaker 5 (47:48):
It's a big deal for us to meet you, bro,
and have you on our show.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
It's an honor, brother, man. Well, same here, man.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Because I go back in those days, you know, when
you had to get lunch bags at school and stuff
like that. A lot of people didn't grow up like
we did. And what you were just talking about. And
it's real humbling. And it makes you tough. Makes you
not forget.
Speaker 5 (48:11):
Never. You know, I jumped on the car of Dave Winfield.
I was in the All-Star Weekend in Houston and a
man pulled up to a party and I jumped on
his car because the only way I could go to
Yankee Stadium was with the Winfield Foundation. And the man
used to give us free tickets to my projects to
(48:31):
go to the Yankee game. So when I saw him,
I just couldn't believe it because for us, living five
minutes away from the.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
Stadium, it was still... We never seen green grass. We
never seen lights. We never heard.
Speaker 5 (48:46):
And now, you know, the announcement and all that stuff,
it was a big deal for us to get inside
the stadium. And so shout out to Dave Winfield for
doing that for me, man.
Speaker 2 (48:59):
The name of the book? Another Life, baby. This ain't that.
That ain't this. It's crack and kiss, goddammit. Make some
noise for Darryl Scott! Darryl Scott! God, bury me in
this lake.
I learned a lot about life, being in a city
like this, to be able to endure and be able
to go back and lift somebody else up. Because that's
what New Yorkers do when you're here. When you have struggles,
you have issues, they don't give up on you.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, yeah, what up, y'all? This is Fat Joe, BX's own.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Know what it is, your boy Jada. You know what
it is, the Joe and Jada show. Every show legendary,
every show iconic. You never know who's going to touch
the blue couch. You can bet your bottom dollar it's
somebody that won't touch your couch.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
When you think of today's guest, you think of somebody
with one of the coldest swings baseball ever saw.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Big home runs. Bright lights. Shea Stadium.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
One of the most legendary eras in New York sports.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
History.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
But this man's story goes way past the highlights. He's
lived through the fame, the championships, the temptations, the losses,
the battles, and found a whole new purpose on the
other side. He's a Mets legend, four-time World Series champion.
(01:48):
And now he's showing people that no matter how far
life takes you down, it's never too late to start over.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Give it up for the one and only Darryl Strawberry. Woo!
Thanks for coming.
Speaker 5 (02:11):
I've been hanging out with him for about an hour,
but now he got the, I don't know, all of
a sudden after that intro, he got the Dow Strawberry
face right now. That shit just came out of nowhere.
I was hanging out with him for an hour. All
of a sudden, I looked up just now and said,
holy shit, fucking Dow Strawberry.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Who was you talking to an hour ago?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Bro! I don't know.
Speaker 5 (02:33):
I was talking to him for a whole hour. We
talked about a whole bunch of shit, but all of
a sudden, I don't know. You must know how to
throw the Dow Strawberry face on, right?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Well, no. He only had it all his life.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, exactly. But I'm sitting here with New York legends, man.
I'm a New York guy. Of course, I'm from South
Central L.A.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
So I know what it's like. I know what the
streets are like. I grew up in that.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
So that was the most important part of my life
growing up and coming here.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
And playing in New York.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
That's what made me a great baseball player was the fans,
the people, the atmosphere, not being afraid of the challenges
that you have to face because you grew up on
Crenshaw High. You know, a lot of guys say they're
from Crenshaw High. I won number eight at Christian High.
I won number 25 playing basketball at Christian High.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Listen, Ice-T was here. Ice-T, another one.
Speaker 5 (03:28):
We call him the king of gangster rap in the
way he was describing hip-hop, right?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Because I just noticed something. He's... He was.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
Describing like, you know, he'd be over there when the
New York rappers go over there. He'd try to dress
like the New York rappers and then figured out, let
me dress like an LA guy. But you personally grew
up in Crenshaw. then came to New York where they
invented hip-hop. So how was that like traveling from the
(04:00):
West Coast, you know, Eazy-E, Jerry Curls, all that, to
New York City?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Like, you got to see the best of both worlds. Well,
it was pretty easy.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Because of growing up there and being a part of
all that. Being right in the middle of that, you
make a decision, which... are you going to take? You know,
I was on the west side and there was an
east side. So you had to be extremely careful about
which sides you go on and what color you were
wearing because, you know, the blood's in the crib. So
it was a part of just knowing how to react
(04:35):
and knowing how to not back down and be tough.
I think that was the most important thing for me
coming into New York. And once I found out about
the New York atmosphere and the people, I realized that
I was going to fit in just perfect with them
because playing baseball and knowing the fact that The expectations
are high and you come in here with a lot
(04:56):
of demands on you to perform, the media, the fans,
and stuff like that. Can you as a player handle
the adversity? And what I mean by that, can you
handle the boos? Can you handle the cheers? See, a
lot of guys just like the cheers, but I love
the boos because the boos always got me off. They
always made me feel like, well, okay, you're going to
boo me. Now I'm going to hit two off the
scoreboard and you're going to want me to come out
(05:17):
for a curtain call. I'm going down in the tunnel
to smoke a cigarette because I got this different type
of mentality where I come from. And hip hop was
always special from the West Coast, East Coast. It was
always special at the time that I was coming.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Up in the 80s.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
It was very powerful with the guys that were just
talking about the Curtis Blows and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
I remember from the beginning. This one is for the OGs.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Let's keep it 1800.
Speaker 5 (05:50):
You know what I just thought about? That's pre-steroid era, huh?
So anybody who got busy at that time got busy, right?
And how did you feel about when people that you
thought were the greatest and this guy's a monster. He's
hitting them all out the park to only find out
(06:11):
they were taking steroids.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
At the time.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
What was that like to you? What was your initial response?
I didn't have any response. We're all baseball players. You
still got to perform. Regardless of what anybody want to say.
You know, Barry Bonds is the greatest player to ever play.
They're a player that I saw walk on the field
that could do everything just natural. Good at all. A-Rod
was the same way. Everybody want to jump on them
(06:36):
and say, well, they did this and that. Well, it
was a payday for them. Everybody was getting paid. So
they saw other players doing it. So, Why not? You know,
why not jump in? Hey, had it been my time,
I probably would have done the same thing. It was
just a part of the culture, the time where I
was at in the game in the 80s and saw
these younger guys coming up and recognizing that they were
(06:58):
going to be great.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
They were very talented.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
You cannot deny players talent and what they achieve. They
have to go out there and do it. Baseball is
so much more difficult than football and basketball. Baseball is
a one-on-one individual where you got to go up there
and the guy's dropping 95.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Can you put the head out and turn it around?
And a lot of guys can.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
And those guys could do that at their young age
and they did it at their old age. So I
wouldn't sit around and criticize them for what others were
already doing and they made a way for another way.
That's what sports is all about. Every generation is different.
The times I was playing, there were amphetamines in the game.
(07:49):
I took amphetamines every night to light up so I
can go out there and get Get busy. It was
just a part of what it was. So I would
never criticize any other athletes and say, well, they did this.
That's wrong for any athletes to point at others. You
still got to work hard and you still have to
believe in yourself.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
Basically, for everybody out there, if you use this stuff
We're not encouraging somebody to use it, but you still
got to be able to know how to connect with
the ball.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
It's not going to make you hit or catch or
do none of that. People don't know. You know, there's
some people who's like, I want to pay taxes. I
want to be in the jury. I want to be
like jury duty.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
And some people really don't know shit.
Speaker 5 (08:33):
So you got to like spoon feed it to them
and be like, listen, you take the stuff. We don't
recommend it, but it doesn't automatically make you a superstar.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
You have to perform. When you was young, was baseball
always number one?
Speaker 1 (08:49):
And basketball was just... Pretty much. Pretty much baseball was.
You know, I played at Crenshaw, and a lot of
basketball players come out of Crenshaw that were really good.
Marcus Johnson, big John Williams with the LSU, a couple
other guys. But I was more connected in baseball.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Myself, Eric Davis, Chris Brown, we were trying to follow.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Eddie Murray and Ozzie Smith because they had came from
the same place. We played, we all played up with
the same coach in the summer league out in Compton.
Earl Brown, he coached all of us. He used to
tell us in joke and say, well, you guys is
not going to be like Eddie and Ozzie. No, we said,
me and Eric used to say, we're going to be better,
you know. But that's the, that's, the competition that you
(09:32):
have coming out of California. And baseball was always driven
because when I saw Cincinnati Reds and I saw Pete
Rose play, he wasn't the most talented player on that team,
but he outplayed everybody. And he hustled, uniform was dirty.
I said, now that's what a baseball player look like.
And then when I saw the Colbert, Dave Parker, 6'5,
(09:53):
I saw him throw, I saw him hit, and I
saw him run. I said, okay, now I'm 6'5. That's
why I want to be like the Colbert. So that
what really attracted me to baseball, and that's when I
really got real focused in on the game of baseball
and started to understand what it was going to take
to get to the next level.
Speaker 5 (10:15):
Behind the Balls presented by Sprite.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Shook Ones Part 2, arguably one of the greatest rap
songs ever made. The beat, the video, it just lets
you know you had to come with your A-game. The
type of music and the cloth of music they was
making around the time Shook Ones Part 2 came out.
It really shook the whole city. It probably shook the
(10:38):
whole world.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
The video was so necessary. It was so New York.
It was so gritty and grimy. And to see these
young warriors, man, arguably one of the greatest songs, the
greatest beats of all time. The story behind how he
made the beat was crazy. Definitely an incredible part of
(11:00):
hip hop.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Check out the full Sprite Living track list and break
down the stories behind your favorite bars. The link is
in our show notes. This is the Sprite Living track list.
Obey your thirst.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
At what age.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
the white guys start sitting in the bleachers. Because that's
a heavy indication in the hood. When you play sports
and the white guys... Stephon Marbury told me he was
10 years old and white men used to come sit
out there in the winter while he was dribbling in
the snow.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
And he knew, oh, I'm.
Speaker 5 (11:37):
Out of here. Coney Island ain't going to be the
last stop for me. When did you know? Because I'm
sure you've seen other kids hit home runs. When did
you know, yo, I'm an elite? Like, I might be
going to college for this. I might be, you know,
going to the major leagues. It was late because, you know,
I didn't start playing until I was 14. I didn't
(11:58):
go through the T-ball and the Little League because, you know,
I grew up in a home.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
you started playing at 14. Yes.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
So I grew up in a home with a dysfunction father,
you know, that was an alcoholic.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
So it was always crazy.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
So it wasn't no sports, you know, it wasn't no
him being there, taking us to be on teams and
stuff like that. So it wasn't until he was out
of the house, you know, after the last episode we had,
you know, when I was about 14, he came home
drunk again, put on a shotgun and say, he was
going to kill the whole family.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Me and my brothers went into action.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
So we came this close to killing, um, thankful for
my mom getting us out of the house and making
us go down the street. And when we came back
the next day, it wasn't there. So right after that,
I went in to start playing baseball. There were coaches
that started to come around. Now, see, what people don't understand,
coaches are going to have the greatest impact on a
(12:51):
person's life or athlete's life because he's going to guide
him to his destiny.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Most coaches will do that.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
And after I was 14, that's how I started getting
into baseball. And I kind of like started watching baseball,
the Dodgers and the Reds on television game of the week.
And I rolled up on the door in my room.
I'm going to the pros. And my sister said, you
going to the pros? I was like, yeah. She's like,
you crazy. I said, yeah, I'm that crazy to believe it. And,
(13:21):
you know, from watching it and getting there to playing,
and once I hit the field, I always told myself
I'm the best player on the field. I don't care
who's on the field. It doesn't matter who's on the field.
If you're looking at somebody else, you're not looking at yourself.
And I was always looking at myself and my ability
to play the game and learn the game. And that's
(13:42):
how I got to the place where I got to.
A couple of times, you know, I came close to quitting.
Once I got into pro ball, I had to go
through the minor league system, going down in places like Lynchburg, Virginia.
And they started calling me boy and you're not that
good because I was the first pick in the draft
(14:02):
and I was 19. And my manager, Gene Dusan, was like,
don't look up there because I had that Louisville slugger.
He thought I might have ran up there and started
eliminating folks. So he was like, they're just crazy, you know,
and they were saying all kinds of things. So I
had to experience that. And I wondered if I made
a big mistake by doing that. And I used to
(14:24):
tell my mother, I want to quit. She said, you're
not quitting. My mother never let me quit. And that
was a good thing about having a good mother that
no matter what.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
She said, you got into it, you're going to finish it.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
And she wasn't all hyped up about my baseball career
success and everything. But she said, you got into this
and you need to finish what you started. And so
that's what was really my driving point more than anything
is having a street sense, because I grew up on
the streets, and knowing how to navigate around situations. And
(15:02):
if you don't know how to do that, you'll find
yourself giving up. And that's what I wanted to be
able to give something different to my kids and stay
strong in those areas and realize that don't give up
because I want to teach my kids that adversity is
a part of the challenges of life. And when you
have to go through those and you get through those
(15:23):
by not giving up, you can achieve anything. And I
think that's what made me excel at the highest level
because I knew I could achieve.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
That's awesome. Why did you feel like now was the
right time to write this book? Well, because it's not
about me. It's about people. I lived the life.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
I've been at the pinnacle, top, and I saw so
many people in prison more than anything because I experienced
that myself for addiction. I went to Florida State Prison
and ended up with a T17169. And I did 11
months on an 18-month sentence. And I saw so many
(16:02):
of us. And it really spoke to me.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
And when I.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
came to the point of having a transformation in my life,
I realized that I needed to go back in there
to encourage them. I can't change their circumstances, their situation,
but I wanted to go in there and let them
know that they're loved. And that their life matters no
matter what they've been through. Because a lot of times
we don't know where folks come from. We don't know
what happened to them to get them there. And I
(16:31):
think they just end up with a number caught up
in the system and.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
People throw them away.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
And I just didn't want to do that. I wanted
to go back. And I think that's what this book
is about. It's about different people. I go into and
talk to the kids about the hard drugs of overcoming
those opiates and heroin, losing their life. And I go
to the maximum security prisons where I love the brothers.
You know, I love going in there, walking the yards
(16:57):
with them.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
And just being, just being, being. You know, me personally,
I always sold drugs, right? And I always looked at
drug users as being weak people. It's just the way
I've been triggered.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
My whole life, right?
Speaker 5 (17:15):
And recently, I was having a surgery. And the man,
they got to put me to sleep. He says, now
this is going to take the anxiety off. It was
the best shit I ever felt. I was mad that
he gave it to me. Because I was like, Oh
(17:39):
my God, what the fuck is this? To make a
long story short, right? When I woke up, I asked him,
what the fuck was that? Well, he told me. I
didn't even ask him. I was upset because he was like, fentanyl.
I said, yo, I didn't ask you.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Right?
Speaker 5 (17:58):
I didn't even want to know what that felt like.
And I'm going to be honest with you. I never
used drugs, never smoked cigarettes, never smoked weed, never this.
I thought about that shit for like two weeks straight.
Like I was just like, yo. And I finally realized
when you telling your kids and you telling your loved ones, yo, stop. Like, yo,
(18:26):
you fucking up your life. Regular people who never got high,
they really have no clue of what they up against.
Because unfortunately, you got to feel like the best shit ever.
And you up and you trying to convince somebody not
to do the best shit ever.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
I'm already too old to feel like this.
Speaker 5 (18:50):
This shit happened two, three weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
He gave me this shit. I said, oh my God,
this shit.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
And then I finally realized what I've been trying to
convince my brother about. Yo, get off this shit. Yo,
you got to come and suffer with us. You got
to feel emotions like us. You know, you can't just
get the good stuff. I never realized what we was
up against, telling people don't use drugs.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
It's a hard situation.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
It's a very hard situation and it is the best ever.
It's an escape from the pain of what happened to you,
the wounds that are inside of you. That's all it
does for that period of time. And that's why most
people get to that place like that because they need
to escape from the reality of what they've been through,
(19:44):
the trauma, the abuse, the rejection. It allows you to
not feel that. at that particular time, like you said,
you went to the doctor, you got that.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yeah. And I know all that. And you do feel
like that.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
I've been through many surgeries and, and they're getting ready
to put me under and they give me something and
I'd be like, Oh, can I take this home with me?
Cause it's going to help me sleep.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
And yeah. And that's the reality of it.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
That's the reality of people that usually get connected deep
in drugs. Like I did. It wasn't because of my stardom.
It was because I was broken. You know, I was
trying to suppress what my father had beaten inside of me.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
You know, when my father, he was strong.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
And when he used to beat you for any little
thing that you did wrong, he'd make you take your
shirt off, lay you across the bed, and he'd beat
you with an extension cord off the vacuum cleaner. So
he comes from Mississippi, and I didn't know his father
was an alcoholic. And he was the only child. And
he saw his father do that to his mother. So
(21:01):
it's like a repeated behavior. And I used to go
to my room at night after meetings and stuff, and
I used to sit there and cry. And I used
to say to myself, I am never, ever going to
put my hand on my kids. because it will leave
those scars on them forever. And I never did put
my hands on my kids.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Same thing.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
And when they got into trouble like I would do
at my age, I would make them.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Stand in the corner.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Because I didn't want them to be affected like that
because people don't realize people are truly affected from real
rejection and abuse when they're young. And it turns them
It could turn you into a monster and it could
kill you. Or you can take it and go through
(21:50):
it and you can come out on the other side
and now you can go and give it back to
help somebody else. And that's what another life is about.
Another life for me, it's not about Daryl Strawberry. I'm great.
It's like, yeah, I was successful. I love New York.
I learned a lot playing in New York. I learned
(22:11):
a lot about life. being in a city like this,
to be able to endure and be able to go
back and lift somebody else up. Because that's what New
Yorkers do when you're here. When you have struggles, you
have issues, they don't give up on you. They lift
you up. And that's what I enjoy the most about
(22:32):
the fact of being able to write a book at
this time and go back and say, here, take this, people.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Use this.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
I'm showing you the blueprint. I've already done it for you.
You don't have to end up like I did. You
don't have to end up in the jumpsuit and the handcuffs.
I tell my daughter this all the time. I said,
my daughter getting into business and all that. Every now
and then I can't help but just jump in. And
then she's like, yo, dad, I got my own team.
(23:01):
We doing our thing. And I'd be like, look, you
don't have to go through what.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
I went through. I did that. It didn't work. I'm
just letting you know. I'm not trying to shut down
whatever you're doing, but I think the biggest thing people
can learn is you can learn from other people's mistakes
by watching it.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
You don't have to try it yourself. You don't have
to do it yourself.
Speaker 5 (23:27):
If you know your friend that was intelligent, that was
your man, that this and this and that, fucked up
to drugs and he can't get off that shit, what
makes you think you're stronger than him to be doing it?
So you got to learn from other people's mistakes. I
think that's very valuable. I think we owe people. We
owe our community books like this.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Yeah, a lot.
Speaker 5 (23:52):
And so, like, giving them back the knowledge and saying, listen, man.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
I went through some shit. JoeAndJayTheShow.com.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
We got new merch fresh off the presses.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Go get it.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Bang.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
On a big, bomb, JoeAndJayTheShow.com. You can get these. A
little cold for a t-shirt with a hoodie.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
It's my favorite right there. I need an extra large. JoeAndJayTheShow.com.
Go there and get it. And it's even harder, right?
Because you telling me you did 11 months. I was
going to ask you, and I think about the soul
(24:37):
of town, right? Whenever a celebrity or somebody goes to
jail or whatever, I think about that first time you
walk in there and they're like, holy shit, it's Dow Street, baby.
And then you got to lay on that bunk for
the first time and be like, holy shit, what the
fuck am I doing here?
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Did you have that type of moment?
Speaker 1 (25:01):
I had the moment where when I went into the
prison system and the warden told me, you don't belong here.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
And he said, do your time and get going and
get moving forward.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Because you're talking about a place where it's real. There's
no joke. And I don't care who you are. You're
going to be challenged at some point, sometime. That's just
the way it is. And when I got there, I
wasn't in fear. I was in the fact that, okay,
(25:38):
I need to get this over with. Because I can't
keep having this over my head. I'm not a criminal.
I got a substance abuse problem. So, okay, it's going
to be 11 months. I could do this probably standing
on the top of my head. Just the way it is.
I used to think because of where I'm from, right?
I already been tough from the street. So I wasn't like,
(25:59):
oh man, I'm afraid. You know, it's like, okay, here
we are. How are you going to deal with it?
And I went in the system and I dealt with it.
And I made a lot of friends, you know, because
I'm a cool guy. I'm not a guy that's looking
at it. throw the knuckles but if you want to
throw the knuckles I throw those too because that's where
I've been through that you know from the streets and
(26:19):
playing baseball so I'm a lot of them already know
that and so you got challenged a few times you
know when you're playing sports there and playing basketball and
you're dunking on fools yeah you're dunking on fools and
they're talking and they're getting mad and I was like
yeah whatever let's do it but people like always would
push you back so you wouldn't get into those places
(26:42):
where And you get put in the hole and stuff
like that. And so, I mean, the fact that it
happened is the lessons that, do you learn the lessons
in life?
Speaker 2 (26:55):
This is what happens to a lot of people that don't.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
They keep repeating the same thing over and over and
over again, looking for a different result and thinking it's
a different way to do it. But it's not when
you get caught up in the system like that. And
I used to tell a lot of brothers that. I said,
I'm not coming back here. I got a letter A
and some guys got D, C, F. I've been back
(27:19):
there six, seven times and talking about a different way
of doing things when they get out. I said, there's
no different way when you get yourself involved in the
system like this. And I was prosecuted in Tampa. I
was prosecuted by Pam Bondi. she was on prosecuting me.
She was telling the judge he needs to be locked up.
The judge was like, no, he don't. He's not a criminal.
(27:42):
He's just having a drug problem. He's like, who did
he kill? She's like, well, he's just, he's destroying Tampa.
She's like, no, he's not. He just violated probation. So
it taught me a lot about the system and people.
And I got a real great education about life. Life
(28:02):
will give you a good education, no matter if you're
successful and you go through some things. And if you're
successful and you don't go through some things, life is
going to challenge you at some point. And if you
don't have life skills, you're not going to be able
to make it through. Because that's what you have to
(28:24):
have to be able to get through this whole thing
that we call life up there.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
You win a chip with the Mets. You win three
chips with the Yankees. Which was the more fun team?
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Probably, that's easy to say, the 86 Mets. We're the
more crazy team that I've ever played with. What consists
of crazy? You're doing whatever you want, however you want.
But at the fact Some motherfucker was getting high, going
to the game high. No, we didn't get high going
to the game. People exaggerate when they say that. You
(29:03):
don't win 108 ballgames getting high. We might have been
taking amphetamines and we were crazy. We were going to
put these knuckles on you and stuff like that. We
were going to go out and drink and be wild.
You talking about after. They used to say Babe Ruth
used to get hammered every night.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Yeah, you were going to go out and drink. You
got women everywhere. You married. You know, you.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
You're going to have fun because it's like a candy store.
You go to the candy store and get what you like.
That's what it was like for us in the 80s.
And there was no hangover. about that, you know, because
it was the 80s. It was different. New York was different.
And we were like a band, like rappers. You know,
(29:50):
you go into town and you turn it out and
behind the scenes, it's a different story, you know?
Speaker 2 (29:55):
It's turning up. Ah!
Speaker 1 (29:59):
So the Mets. I'm saying that was the team, the
86 Mets. It was like really... Who was on the
86 Mets? Gary Carter. You was going up against.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Fernando Venezuela. I was taking him off the scoreboard. You
know they still got murals of him in L.A. and
all that. Fernando Venezuela. You was parking him. Taking his
shit off the hat. Going up like this. Who else
is part of the team? Hernandez. Carter. Keith Hernandez. Wally Backman. Dykstra.
(30:33):
Lenny Dykstra. Kevin Mitchell. Doc Gooden. Ron Darling. Bobby Ojeda.
Rafael Santana. Oh, my God.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Ray Knight, tough. But you go down the list of
our team, and it wasn't... He was a hell of
a first baseman. He's the most intelligent player I have
ever played with.
Speaker 5 (30:55):
And I could tell. How about that? I could read
his IQ every time he was making a play. You
knew Keith Hernandez was a smart motherfucker. He ain't look
dumb for nothing.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Nah, man.
Speaker 5 (31:08):
Just like when we skipped to the Yankees, I would
say my favorite Yankee of all time was Thurman Munson,
just as a fan, because he.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Was a wild white boy, backcatcher.
Speaker 5 (31:20):
I mean, you know, he gave me everything King Fernandez
ain't give me.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
I'm like, yo, this is a wild boy.
Speaker 5 (31:27):
He look like Jake Paul playing baseball or some shit
like that. But on the Yankees, on the winning side
of the Yankees, who'd you play with on those teams?
Speaker 1 (31:39):
I played with Tino. I played with Bernie. I played
with O'Neal. I played with Scott Broses. I played with
the one and only, the great Jeep, Derek Jeter. Probably
the best person between him and Carter are probably the
(31:59):
best people I've.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Ever met in the game of baseball. Derek Jeter.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Yeah, they don't say anything negative about nobody. Jeter never did.
Carter never did.
Speaker 5 (32:08):
He does a lot for the community. Jeter, the Turn
2 Foundation is always.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Helping the people. Folks talk about how he's not this player,
that player. The guy played the game the right way.
He went out there. When he put the uniform on,
he didn't have to voice his opinion about being the captain.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
He was the captain because of the way he played.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
And That is the way people should look at players
that stand out. You know, they stand out more of
looking at other guys and, well, this guy's better.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
But Derrick was Derrick. They never get into Derrick G.
Back to the Mets, though.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
When Davey Johnson said, we're going to win this whole,
did y'all really believe that at that moment?
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Or what did you think when he said that? We
were true gangsters. We knew we were going to win.
Because we had lost the year before to the Cardinals.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
We won 98 ballgames and went home. And in our
locker room after that series, it was just really quiet.
And we knew to ourselves that we had lost the
division twice back-to-back, 84 and 85. We lost to the Cubs,
then we lost to the Cardinals. And it hit us
(33:26):
right in there.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
We knew.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
She's the only good luck I got right now about
Philly with LeBron and all of them. Every team always
lose the first year. They never just straight go. So
it's the only thing I can keep telling myself we're
going to beat these guys. Philly does stacked up in
the basketball side. I'm like, yo, they always win one.
They always lose a year to feel that And then
(33:52):
come back, hopefully they lose this year.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
You know what I'm saying? I'm keeping it real. I'm
keeping it a buck. Well, that's a good question. Because see,
Davey Johnson was a guy that played the game. And
he had a personal understanding about players. And he knew
how to get players and put players in a position
(34:16):
to be successful.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
And he never....
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Would throw his players under the bus. What goes on
in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse. We fight and
we fight, but it's not coming out to the media.
And we're not going to let the outlets know anything
about inner stuff. You know, and we had inner stuff
because we had a lot of personalities. And, you know,
(34:42):
a lot of times they wanted to, a lot of times,
you know, guys wanted to push my button. But I
was the wrong guy that you didn't want to push
my buttons because I was different. I didn't play around
when you pushed my button. But when I get on
this field and we all get on this field together.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
We're going to wax people.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
It was no worrying about that. It was no pressure
when he told us that spring training, we're going to
win it all. He didn't just say we're going to
win it all. He said we're going to dominate. And
we got off to a two and three star, something
like that. And we had to welcome home dinner and
keep told everybody relax. It's just the season had just started.
(35:21):
And once we went into St. Louis and we swept
the Cardinals and Whitey Herzog, our manager for the Cardinals,
made a comment. He says, nobody's going to beat them.
And we just took off and ran away with that division.
Speaker 5 (35:33):
So somebody could actually say something that you hear and
it could affect you.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Mentally like, look, this.
Speaker 5 (35:42):
Certification, they know we coming to win.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Let's do it.
Speaker 5 (35:47):
So something like that could actually motivate you to go
all the way.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Oh, no doubt about it.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
But we had this swag about us because when we
were coming into your town, we coming to tear it up. Yeah,
we're coming to tear it up on the field, off
the field, just all around. You know, it was just,
that's just the way it was for us.
Speaker 5 (36:10):
Tap your hoes, your clubs, and we're going to hit
the home run the next day.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
See you next week.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
It was just the kind of way it was for
us and the personality of the team that we had.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
We had some bad guys.
Speaker 5 (36:26):
Doc Gooden looked like he was having the time of
his life at that time, too.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Well, Doc Gooden was very unique.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
I don't think you will ever see anyone as good
as that at a kid at 19, 20 years old. 1985,
he dominated basketball. major league hitters like I've never seen.
They talk about a lot of great pitchers, but he
was only 20. And you're talking about a guy that
(36:53):
had command of his fastball and could throw his breaking
ball at any time and have Dawson, Mike Smith, Pete Rose,
all those great Hall of Famers and freeze them and
throw gas. I mean, I think guys knew when Doc
was pitching, they were early and Batting practice, they would
(37:14):
take BP, and then all of a sudden they scratched
because their neck hurt or something like that.
Speaker 5 (37:19):
How was my man Goose Gossage? Goose Gossage with the
legendary mustache. Goose was wild. Goose could get busy, huh?
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Yeah, Goose could get busy, and he'd give you that look,
and he'd intimidate you with that look he had on
his face.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Yeah, I'm a brownstone cow, boy. You know, like... You
know what I've learned?
Speaker 5 (37:46):
The things that really matter, you can't rush them.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
Facts.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
You can't rush the sauce. You can't rush the music.
You can't rush relationships. And you definitely can't rush great tequila.
Speaker 5 (37:58):
That's why 1800 Tequila stands out. The name goes all
the way back to the 1800s when the Beckman family
started making tequila. And that patience, that attention to the
craft has been passed down through more than 11 generations.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
That's legacy.
Speaker 3 (38:16):
Sometimes you just got to let something cook. Juan Beckman
Vidal aged 1,800 aneo longer than he even had to
because he knew it wasn't ready yet.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
I respect that.
Speaker 5 (38:27):
Don't put it out just because you can put it out.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
Put it out when it's right. That applies to a record.
Speaker 5 (38:32):
A conversation, a move, a making, and clearly a bottle
of tequila.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
And once you get it right, you share it with
your people. That's always been part of the story. Good tequila,
good conversation, and the people around you really appreciate both.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Passion, hard work, honesty.
Speaker 5 (38:49):
Those words are written on every bottle of 1800. And honestly,
that's the foundation for anything built to last.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
So take your time with what you're creating, and when
the moment is right, share it.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
With your people. 1800 Tequila. Good stuff takes time.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
And the best stuff's meant to be shared with your people.
I got a three-part question. What was it like getting drafted,
number one? What was New York like at that time?
And what was it like winning the National League rookie
of the year?
Speaker 1 (39:27):
I think when I got drafted in 1980, out of
high school, I know my mother drove me that morning
to school and she was a little nervous and I wasn't.
I figured I'd probably get drafted because four players got
drafted the year before in 79 after we lost the
city championship to John Elwin in Madagascar Stadium. And all
(39:49):
the scouts was asking the coach about me. And they said, he's,
he told him he's a junior. They go, he's a junior. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
He's got another year high school.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
So when I came out that my senior year, you know,
my first game, I had like 50 scouts out there looking,
coming to see him. Cause I was called a black
Ted Williams. Someone would call me, uh, Willie McCovey. I
was long linking. And, And being drafted that year, they
came and got me out of class. And they said,
you've been drafted. I said, okay. They said, you've been
(40:20):
drafted number one.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
I said, okay.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
I just wanted to get drafted. And they said, you're
going to the New York Mets. I said, okay, where
the heck is New York at?
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
And, you know, I finally got a chance to come
here and see New York.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
And I thought to myself, when I saw this place,
I goes, wow. Oh my God. What year you get
here for the first time?
Speaker 1 (40:47):
I think it was, I came up when I was
about 19, 20 years old from the minor.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
League player of the year, stuff like that with the organization.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
And they brought me to New York and I came
here and I thought.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
Yeah, what year?
Speaker 5 (41:01):
What year?
Speaker 2 (41:02):
That had to be 1984.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
One, two, I came up in 83 before I came up, um,
because I won rookie of the year, but I had
to be in 82, something like that. And, and, and
coming down the streets and I was like, Oh my God,
how am I going to figure this out?
Speaker 2 (41:18):
They got one way streets. You don't have that in California.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
You don't go one way, you know, one go this way,
one go that way, one go that way. I was like, man,
this is going to be really crazy to figure out. Um,
when I was, I was thinking about that one, it
was like 20 years old.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (41:36):
So you get to New York City when the Bronx
look like Palm City and shit like that.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
No, I mean... You ain't go.
Speaker 5 (41:45):
Pick up no chick in the South Bronx where the
shit look like she was living inside the broken building
and shit with the extension cord.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
New York was to me, it was like South Central,
the ghetto hood. So I kind of.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Similarities. Yeah, similarities.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
I kind of felt like I'd be all right here.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
And I got here.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
And I finally got here in 83, my rookie year.
And I struggled when I first came up, like every
player will.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Struggled at the big leagues. I was 21. I was supposed.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
To be at the ballpark early at 1 o'clock, hitting
Coach Jim Fry, and I didn't show up until 3 o'clock.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
And he got in my face.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
He said, kid, if you ever want to be great,
at this Major League League, I would be at this
ballpark early every day. And from that day forward, I
was at the ballpark early every day. I got to
the ball with seven o'clock game. I'm at the ballpark
at two. And he worked me through that whole process.
And he got me to understand more about, it's not
(42:50):
about the talent. It's about being here and taking it
all in and also working on the things that you're
weak at, not the things that you're strong at. See,
most athletes only work at the things that are stronger
and they don't work on the weak things. And so
you want to be able to balance yourself. And he
taught me that. And then we got Hernandez in the trade.
(43:13):
He came from St.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
Louis.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
I had no idea who he was. And people were like, oh,
it's a big deal. And Hernandez started to see me play.
And he started to.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
Think, wow. Wow.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Was this little skinny 21-year-old kid they got hitting the
ball off the scoreboard already.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
Hit this shit off the ball.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
And he was thinking to himself that I want to
get out of here because I come from the Cardinals
and I go on to win rookie of the year
that year. But he said his father told him you
need to stay and sign with the Mets because they
got some more players coming up with a farm system that's.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
Just just like strawberry and they're going to be pretty good.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
And that was big for me because to be able
to have him teach me the game and elevate me
to the next level was incredible because Players like that
are always going to have an effect on you. When
they're not jealous and they know you're talented, they're going
to teach you how to do this. And he was
(44:14):
that guy that was teaching me how to hit left-hand
pitching and showing me how to do that, showing me
how to get up in the box and get back
deep when he's throwing fastballs and get up in the
box when he's throwing off speed, catch it. Man, I
hit 20 home runs off left-handed hitters and left-hand pitchers
in 88 because of knowing how to do that.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
So.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Those are the things that have become important when you're
playing sports and you listen to guys that have the
knowledge like Hernandez have.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
I told you I seen pictures of, who was it, Harlem?
Willie Mays?
Speaker 5 (44:47):
Like Willie Mays, you know, the Yankee Stadium was in
the polo grounds first. And they got pictures of Willie
Mays just playing stickball outside with all the kids in Harlem.
He's just a beautiful sight to see. You ever did
stuff like that with the kids out there and try
(45:07):
to play baseball with them and stuff like that back
in the day?
Speaker 1 (45:11):
We grew up on like a broomstick hitting rocks. That's
how I learned to start swinging. So you had to
have hand-eye coordination because you had to be able to
see the rocks to hit them. And That's where I learned.
I think that's where I learned how to be able
to pick up the spin on the baseball. Because when
(45:32):
you hit rocks, you got to pay attention. You got
to focus. You cannot take your eye off of it
because you're.
Speaker 2 (45:38):
Going to miss it.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
And when I started to learn about baseball, I started
to learn how to see the spin coming out of
the pitch of hand and everything.
Speaker 3 (45:46):
And.
Speaker 2 (45:47):
Those are the things that kids get away from.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
Well, it's different now because they have all these different platforms,
AAU Travel Ball.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
There wasn't no AAU Travel Ball for us. We didn't
have no money for no AAU Travel Ball. We couldn't
afford that.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
We had to play with rocks out there until you
got to a place where you got on a team.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
And now this is what baseball is.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
And I was fortunate, like I said before, to grow
up with Eric Davis and Chris Brown and play with
those guys. Because they were multi-talented athletes, too, out of L.A.
and played basketball. Eric went to Fremont. Chris went to
Crenshaw with me. And to be able to watch them
play just kind of motivated me even more. Like, hey,
(46:32):
you know, we can come out of here, too, and
be successful. When you see other guys from the hood
play and you play summer ball together, you know what
he can play.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
That's great.
Speaker 5 (46:43):
It reminds me of my little man there.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
He's from Brazil.
Speaker 5 (46:48):
When that FIFA was going on, they were saying the
story that the Brazilian players got good because they'd be
in these little favelas and they start playing soccer in
these little favelas and they get so nice on their
feet that when they get into like a real field,
(47:09):
they're able to move because sometimes the limited things in life,
things that can limit you in life can actually make
you greater.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
You know, that's an important thing.
Speaker 5 (47:21):
You put me in such a humble position because these
years you're.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
Talking about 81, 80.
Speaker 5 (47:26):
Man, I was still eating free lunch.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
Come on. I was eating free cheese, man.
Speaker 5 (47:33):
And so the fact that, you know, you bringing them years,
I got to look at that story and be like, damn, man,
did we ever think we'll ever meet?
Speaker 2 (47:43):
The hell Strawberry... The man, the myth, the legend.
Speaker 5 (47:48):
It's a big deal for us to meet you, bro,
and have you on our show.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
It's an honor, brother, man. Well, same here, man.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Because I go back in those days, you know, when
you had to get lunch bags at school and stuff
like that. A lot of people didn't grow up like
we did. And what you were just talking about. And
it's real humbling. And it makes you tough. Makes you
not forget.
Speaker 5 (48:11):
Never. You know, I jumped on the car of Dave Winfield.
I was in the All-Star Weekend in Houston and a
man pulled up to a party and I jumped on
his car because the only way I could go to
Yankee Stadium was with the Winfield Foundation. And the man
used to give us free tickets to my projects to
(48:31):
go to the Yankee game. So when I saw him,
I just couldn't believe it because for us, living five
minutes away from the.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
Stadium, it was still... We never seen green grass. We
never seen lights. We never heard.
Speaker 5 (48:46):
And now, you know, the announcement and all that stuff,
it was a big deal for us to get inside
the stadium. And so shout out to Dave Winfield for
doing that for me, man.
Speaker 2 (48:59):
The name of the book? Another Life, baby. This ain't that.
That ain't this. It's crack and kiss, goddammit. Make some
noise for Darryl Scott! Darryl Scott! God, bury me in
this lake.
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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