DARRYL STRAWBERRY | From Player to Preacher (Ep. 955)

Let's be honest, most men drift. We wake up, we scroll, we work, and then we just rinse and repeat. And we know we're softer than we should be. That's why I built the 31-day resilience reset. This is not a devotional. It is a field manual for men ready to stop drifting and start fighting back. So, for 31 days, you'll train your spirit, mind, and body with scripture, prayer, and daily challenges that forge real resilience. Go to www.undaunted.life/31. life/31day to download this resource for free. That's undaunted.life/31day. Start your reset today. This is Undaunted Life, a man's podcast. I'm your host, Kyle Thompson. Let's get into it. All right, guys. We got a very special guest on the podcast today. It is the one and only Daryl Strawberry. So, he is a former Major League Baseball superstar. He was drafted number one overall by the New York Mets in the 1980 MLB draft. Over his career, he amassed four different World Series rings, so three as a player. So, 1986 with the Mets, 1996 with the Yankees, and 1999, uh, I believe was last one or it was 98. I can't remember which one, but he was also No, 99 was last one as a player. And then, if I'm going from memory, I think in '98 the Yankees won, he got colon cancer that year. Don't worry, we talk about that in the episode. and they still awarded him a World Series ring for being a part of that team. But aime all-star, NL Rookie of the Year back in 1983. He won the Silver Slugger twice. His number 18 jersey was just retired not that long ago by the New York Mets. He's also in the New York Mets Hall of Fame. But that's not even the coolest thing about him. None of that stuff that I just listed and none of those things that would be on the back of a baseball card is the coolest thing about Daryl Strawberry because the coolest thing about him is that now he is an he's a traveling evangelist. He goes all over the country and all over the world. Several hundred dates a year, I think, is where he's at now, telling people about Jesus. So, he's written some books. He's got a new book out now that you can find in the show notes. We talk about that a little bit in the podcast. It's called Another Life: Discovering the Healing Power of Purpose: On My Long Journey from Player to Preacher. And so, this guy's just so interesting. So, we talk a lot of ball on this podcast. I got his Mount Rushmore of, you know, everyday players and also pitchers. you know, the pitchers that he was terrified to hit against, you know, if he could go back and play against any player, you know, having that bat against any pitcher ever. We get into that. We talk a lot about modern baseball, how we're heading for a strike soon, you know, just the ballooning salaries and you got to have a salary cap and a floor. How we've moved from having a feel for the game to, you know, everything being algorithms and metrics based. And so we talk about that, but then we get into his career because, you know, this is a kid, poor kid from South Central Los Angeles, brought up in in poverty and violence and all kinds of terrible things. And to just do what he did and to make himself the number one overall pick in the MLB draft and to have a long career in the major leagues from where he came, it's just incredible. And his father even told him like, "You're going to be nothing. You're you're going to be a nothing, nobody." And to just see what he was able to do during his career. But also, we talk about all the foibless. We talk about, you know, the cocaine, the the the missed drug tests and the injuries and all the different things that really derailed his career because he had a fantastic career. Could have, but it could have maybe been one of the best all-time careers we've ever seen. But he made a lot of poor choices and he's owned them. He doesn't really, you know, stray away from those or sherk the responsibility, and we talk about that in this podcast. He is very appreciative of those times, including the two times he's had cancer and the heart attack that he suffered just a few years ago. because all of those things he's like, "These were either God trying to get my attention or just reminders that I still have a role to play on this planet." And this is a guy that has dedicated the rest of his days here on this planet to serving Christ and telling people about Jesus. So, great conversation. I really loved it. Even if you're not a baseball person, you're going to get a lot of value out of it. So, without further ado, let's get into it. The one, the only Daryl Strawberry, welcome to Undaunted Life of Man's podcast. >> Well, thanks for having me, man. I really appreciate it. I love the fact it's about men, you know, more than anything. >> That's right. I mean, shout out to our 5enters, the 5% of our audience that are women. But yes, this we're here. This is the red meat for the guys here. But I feel like I had to go ahead and hit the record button cuz you and I were solving all of the worlds and all of baseball's problems off air. And we had no evidence that we were solving all of those problems. So, we had to go ahead and get this going. But, uh, I would love to get into some stuff about, uh, you Well, you know what? I'm going to take a hard left turn here from the beginning cuz I want to spend plenty of time on your story. >> But when you and I were talking off air, here we sit. We're recording this uh right before the release of the new book, which we're going to talk about. So, we are in the dog days of summer right now. The Major League Baseball trade deadline uh just, you know, wrapped up last week. And I feel like baseball fans, Darl, they're not quite prepared for what's coming because we have not had a labor stoppage or a strike in a very long time. Thank goodness for America's pastime. But I feel like the Los Angeles Dodgers who are doing everything legally, everything by the book. They're not just buying the players and making the revenues to to afford the players. They're, you know, doing a great job with the farm system. Like, they're doing what they're supposed to be doing, but I don't see any way where we're going to be having baseball in 2027. I feel like the the uh the players union and the owners are going to be too far apart. What's your read because you're obviously in uh some more integrated [clears throat] circles than I am. >> Well, I think the most important thing is the owners are going to lock the players out uh because the salary cap has >> what they're looking for and they don't have that and the salaries are like just gone through the ceiling and you just can't afford that. You just can't afford a couple teams to be able to have that and not the other teams in the league. So, um, you're going to have to make them feel more balanced. And I think, uh, right now where they're sitting, I think the owners realize that we have gone too far. We've crossed over a line that we can't pull it back in unless we, um, unless we lock them out and and come to a place where we have to try to get a salary cap. I don't know if the union is going to allow that to happen. So, there's they're going to be butdding heads um, coming into 27. Uh, enjoy the moment now. enjoy the winner of what's going to be whoever is going to win it this season and everything, but um next um year I don't think there's going to be baseball right away. >> Yeah, I think you're you're probably right. And there's been a lot of talk about a salary cap and a floor because you know the thing was back in the day like I I remember back in the day whenever the Yankees and Red Sox were spending $180 million a year and they're like, "Oh my gosh, that's insane. This is insane amount of money." the Dodgers are gonna pay a half a billion dollars in payroll this year and most of that's not going to Otani because almost his entire contract is deferred. So, it's like, all right, explain that to me. But I'm curious like from your perspective, >> you've seen a lot of these ninef figureure contracts, right? So, Otani's obviously is the biggest, but with Juan Sodto for the Mets, we've seen it with Bryce Harper and with Mike Trout and with, you know, name the player over and over and over. Almost never do you get one of those nine figure contracts where it quote unquote works out. Now, even if someone's not performing super well on the field, they don't have a super high war, they're not, you know, finishing top five in the MVP, you're still selling a bunch of jerseys, you're still selling a bunch of tickets cuz people want to see that person play. But I will say, not being a Mets fan myself go-karts. I mean, you live in St. Louis, so obviously we know that. Obviously, the Red Birds are closer in your heart than the Mets. Everybody knows that. But like, you know, I would be super disappointed watching, you know, Juan Sodto jog his way to a ball in the gap or, you know, just jog his way down to first base whenever if he had sprinted down there, he would have, you know, the team would have scored a run cuz he would have beat it out to first place. And then just thinking about, man, this person's getting paid 4050 plus million dollars per year. And obviously coming from your era, the numbers weren't that preposterous. You made a good living, but not like that. you know, what's your read of how fans should even see these guys that are making those contracts? >> Well, fans are definitely frustrated. >> Uh, but Major League Baseball's created this. They created the platform, social media. Um, every player is a brand instead of a team. Um, when you become a team, you understand team ball is about winning. It's about attitude. It's about having that grit. Um, going out there, grinding it out, fighting, um, believing in each other, and having each other back. So that's why players switch so much now because of uh if it doesn't work in one place, there's another opportunity for me to go somewhere else and and get this massive contract and once I get there, what do I do? How do I come in and fit in with the team? >> Team baseball is where chemistry is so important. A lot of people talk about a lot of people in the media today talk about, well, that's not important. just as if if you're gonna win. That's why the Dodgers have had great success because they do have a great team chem chemistry. They have a good manager. He understands that. He he's old school. He played in the time back where they had uh that type of of clubhouse. So, you have to have that. You can't have a separation in your clubhouse and expect your player to win because one player want to be this way or you're bringing politics in. You're a baseball player. You don't bring all that into the clubhouse. You bring the attitude of going out there and wanting to beat the brakes off of the other team. And every team should feel like that. If you think if you don't feel that way, you're in the wrong business. And and B, like I said, baseball is at a different level. They've changed a lot of things. You know, a a clock uh uh you can't run over the catcher, you can't break up a double play. And uh those are fundamental things of players, the way they play the game back in the days. And when you look at the guys that I grew up watching like Pete Rose, Dave Parker, Mike Smith, um Johnny Bench, you know, the Reds, Big Red Machine, the Dodgers in those days, those guys played hard and they didn't like each other and everybody's too friendly now, I think. Uh and that's not, you know, a a knock against them. That's just the way it is. Everybody's buddy buddy and you forget you can't be buddy buddy if you're trying to win a championship. And has Fighter Dodgers have been so successful? Um have they had some breaks? Yeah, you have to have some breaks to be able to win. We had breaks to be able to get to the championship circle. But when I played on those Yankees teams, we just kind of like dominated people and that's the kind of attitude you have to have coming to the ballpark. The salaries are what they are. I'm not complaining about what players make. I can care less about the money. Uh, but I'm quite sure the fans have their opinions because they are the ones that's coming to the ballpark and they paying a lot of money to see you play and they want to see you play hard and they want to see you do great things. Well, and Darl, I agree with all that. And let's even talk about that transition from because, you know, every era uh thinks that their era was the best and so the new guys just don't know anything. I mean, the guys back in Babe Roost day were probably saying that about the dudes that were playing in the 40s and 50s that you know, these guys just don't understand. But I will say this, so it it's metrics over uh feel for the game, right? So you you look at the metrics all the advanced metrics that we have now and it's like okay we got to bring this player up in this situation because the metrics say you know after this algorithm and mathematical equation was done this is the best guy to go in but a manager like a Dave Roberts or a Tony Larusa back in the day or you know you know pick one of those people you go by feel and as I'm saying that and you're talking about the Dodgers what was it Rojos uh the defensive specialist for the Dodgers right who's you know who can play you know most middle infield positions but tremendous defender. He's he's a negative at the plate. He hit the big home run in game seven of the World Series in Toronto last year to give the Dodgers a chance to pull off, you know, the back-to-back championships, right? And why did Dave Roberts put him in the game? Cuz he had a feel that there's going to be a defensive situation and this guy could save a run. And not only did he have the home run, he had a tremendous defensive play at second base uh to cut the runner down at home plate if I remember correctly in game seven. And so I feel like we've lost the feel for the game. And like baseball is my favorite game. It's the game that I've watched the most. I love watching in person because I love seeing how, you know, the fielders are shifting because that's going to give me an indication of where the pitcher is probably going to try to put the ball either, you know, uh, you know, throw it on the back foot, slider to a lefthander. I may be up and into a righthander to jam him. You can almost tell by how the the infield's moving around. And so I think for that, you know, I have a six-year-old and a four-year-old, Daryl, that I'm trying to bring up with the love of baseball as well. I I don't know how much I can convince them to love an algorithm like, "Hey, this guy's in the game right now, and hey, we can't let the pitcher go through the lineup for the third time in a row because the metrics say it's not good." It's like, where are we where's the feel for the game gone? >> Well, I think it's gone away because of the analytics. um they have put all that in and people are more computer instead of the feel for the game. Like you said, baseball is a fundamental game and we learned that playing from Little League and you take that into all the way to your career and you continue to stay that way. But now when you have the iPads and everybody's over there going from at bat to bat to look at the iPad, man, I'm standing out I'm sitting on the bench and I'm looking at the guy that got me out. I know how he got me out. So I can remember that the computer is inside of me. I don't need a computer to make me figure that out and look at that. I need to remember what pitch he threw me in what situation. And that's the kind of way we played the game. It was different. But this is who they are now. This is an understanding that everybody has to live with. You cannot change that. that has come into the game and they've created this, you know, this way and this style of play um for players to believe that that's more important. You know, the backspin, man, hit the baseball hard. It's going to travel. That's the way I used to sit up and think about it. I when I came to the plate, I wasn't thinking about is my swing up or is my my swing is going to be level. I'm going to make good contact. I'm going to get two good pitches. One of them I may miss, but I better not miss that next one. That's right. and and that's the thought process that uh players back in our days had and I can't knock them for what has been created. Uh this is the system that has been put in. Um how many players that you see are old school? I mean there's a lot of players on the Dodgers that are old school players and they play the game the way they know how to play. >> Yeah. Buy Freddy Freeman. >> Freddy Freeman. Those guys those guys are old school baseball players. Otani he's old school baseball player. He's playing the game the way he knows how to play it. I don't think they I don't think they care all much about the computer or numbers and stuff like that. They go out there and get it done. That's why they are having so much success. Uh because they understand that this game does not change inside of you who you are from the kid that you grew up playing. Okay? They might have all these other things and you might look at all these other things far as computers and numbers. And Juan Sto, he's a different player. I mean, I've saw him. He does not look at all that stuff. He's not concerned with that. He's he's a guy from the old school way and just play, you know, got a feel for the game and and knows how to hit, knows the strike zone and he's going to play it this way. So, but most of the a lot a lot of the younger guys are being taught that way and developed that way. So, I think um if they want to get to the place of having great success consistently, they're going to have to get back to who I am as a player. Not trying to be like anybody else. not trying to be a home run hitter if you're not a home run hitter, being a line drive hitter, you know, just like uh the series, you the series that we're in with Toronto, he puts a guy in and he has a feel, coach has a feel for his player to be in that situation because see, he fell back on that play. If that guy was on third, if he would have talk been taken a walking lead, he would have scored easily. But he did not and that's how he got thrown out there at the play. That game that series could have been over. But you know, when you get the breaks and then you take advantage of the breaks and then you come up in another situation and out of all people, who's the guy to hit the home run seat? That's the way baseball is played. >> Well, when you look at uh I remember so as a Cardinals fan, you know, you have Jordan Walker. He's this this great kid coming up and I believe it was last year they brought him up and gosh, he struggled in the first couple of months. And I remember hearing a lot of chatter that they had really tried to adjust his swing because physically gifted, you know, huge, tall, big, strong guy, natural pop, natural power. When he hits the ball, it just slaps different, right? You know, you know, they're talking about like, man, when he when he makes contact, it just sounds different. Like when P's made contact, it sounded different. And they started jacking with a swing, Daryl. And then the kid lost confidence cuz it wasn't really working out. He goes down to the minor leagues and we're, you know, Cardinals fans and people all over was like, "Ah, well, this kid's just going to be a bust." And then guess what? They left the kid alone and he was an all-star this year. I remember watching MLB Network and Pete Rose when he was still alive, he's in studio and he's with A-Rod and Frank Thomas and all that and they were talking about slumping and what Pete Rose said was so genius and simple. I you probably remember it, but he was basically like, "Look, my swing is what got me to the major leagues." And so why would I change my swing if I'm slumping? So what he would do is he would change where he would stand in the box. And so if he was getting eaten alive by the the curve ball or the change up or something like that, he would move up in the box to try to, you know, get to the ball a little bit better to get his hands through the ball a little bit a little bit faster and a little bit easier. And so I I think that that's all really important. And you know, it's because these guys learned the game at a young age. And then we we'll use this as a transition into your life because obviously you played ball growing up. you know, uh, you your family was in poverty, but you're you're growing up in in South Central Los Angeles. And I remember Alex Rodriguez saying this recently. He's like, "If I was a kid today, I would not have made it to the major leagues cuz my mom would have not would not have been able to afford travel ball cuz now everything is travel ball. You have parents paying thousands of thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars for their 9-year-old to play year round baseball. You know, they live in Oklahoma like me, but oh, we got to go to Texas for this tournament. Oh, we got to go to Florida for this tournament. And so I'm just curious uh for you, you know, you grew up at a time and you ended up being the number one overall draft pick playing in South Central Los Angeles, but like now it's almost like with youth baseball in the state that it is. How many more Daryl Strawberries are we going to see in the future? >> Well, that's what I was trying to explain to the Mets organization um and about the younger players. You have to let them play. You have to let them be themsself. U don't try to create something and be something else. Like you were talking about the kid from St. Louis Walker. Uh he he struggle. Everybody struggles when they come up. I struggled when I came up. It's all part of it. And you have coaches there to help you get through that process. Not a computer, but you have coaches there that walk you through that process and saying, "Here, this is what you got to do." They never tried to change me. Jim Fry never tried to change me. He just said, "Kid, if you ever want to be great, you be at this ballpark early every day. I was supposed to be there at 1:00. I didn't show up till 3:00." Okay? So, that was on me. So, from that day forward, I showed up every day early to the ballpark. And then you just work. You just constantly have to put the work in to get to where you need to be. Cuz they said I wouldn't be able to hit like I would the a high leg kick. You wouldn't be able to uh get around on the fast. You were wrong. Um it's natural. It's natural when you become yourself and you stay that way. And I think when you start shifting kids and trying to do too much with them, you overanalyze things and you overthink things for them and you just don't let their natural ability come out of them. So I was able to do that coming from where I came from. When you come from South Central LA and you have a determination like myself and Eric Davis, Chris Brown, all of us had this determination to play ball because Azie and Eddie came out of the same place where we came from and all the different players, Chile Davis and when you think about Hubie Brooks, you think about all these guys that you saw at the major league level and we come from the same place to playing out in Compton with the same coach and he used to drive us and saying, "Well, you guys are not going to be good like them." And we was like, "Oh yeah, we're going to be better, you know, and we're going to play at the highest [clears throat] level." And that's just a push. I mean, like, of course, I wouldn't be able to uh play AA ball today, you know, with, like you said, the parents paying this money, paying like, you know, coaches to training kids. Just allow your kid to be simple. Baseball is a simple game. Stop changing everything else. Stop putting so much inside of them to think. You don't have to think, you have to play. And I think that's where the game gets out of control where they make these kids think at a young age and sometime you get them at the young age and they play so much. Travel ball, travel ball, travel ball, all of a sudden when they hit that next level, they're burnt out. They're dead. They're done because we've run them all across the country playing here and you're the best. And when they don't feel like they're the best, then they're looking at somebody else. And one thing, one thing I tell kids, stop looking at somebody else. >> Don't pay attention to what this kid is. Pay attention to who you are. You have your own gift inside of you. You have your own ability to play the game. It takes a real baseball player to be able to run out on the baseball field and play the game, first of all, because most people are afraid of getting hit by the baseball. So, that's half of the battle. If you're not afraid to get hit, it's going to hurt. I tell kids, it's going to hurt. But one thing about it is after you learn that it hurts, you're going to like it and you're going to get it get back in there and you're going to be tough. And when you get to those higher levels of start playing, you're going to really have to have tough skin. You know, you can't let people get to you. You can't let the noise get to you. You can't let opinions tell you, well, you should be this. No, I want to be who I want to be. And that's what I was coming out of South Central. I was determined coming out of Prince Shaw High that I was going to be just great. I just wanted to make myself great because my father said I wouldn't be anything. So I if I if I [clears throat] >> listened to that for the rest of my life, I probably would have never been able to excel at the major league level. So I pushed myself and I think kids need to push themselves personally that they want to achieve at the highest level of playing baseball. >> Hey guys, real quick, you may have noticed a lot of companies out there that are advertising and marketing that they're American companies, but guess what guys? All of their manufacturing and all of their jobs are overseas, right? These companies are manufacturing overseas in order to increase their profit margins, but they're allowing globalism to put America and Americans behind. And I've been wanting to partner with an American company with really all across the board American companies that prioritize American workers, their families, and keep their word. And guys, I have been working with this company for so long. We're going on, I think, four or five years now. That's why I want to remind you that we are partnered with Origin. Origin is an apparel company based in Maine. And what do they make? 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Try Origin out today by going to originusa.com. That's originusa.com. Use the promo code undaunted to get 10% off your order. Again, that's originusa.com. Promo code undaunted to get 10% off your order. Well, I think you're right. And Darl, I I'm sure you probably agree with this. At some point, you're just undeniable. I was talking to David Pollock about his son and you know, because you don't really get to play year round football, right? But his son's probably going to go play uh collegiate football at the next level or maybe he's already signed to do that. But it's like his son was like, I don't know, 6'3, 250 lbs. Like you can't teach that really. You can't teach 6'3. You can't sit a kid in a room and tell them be 6' 3. Like it's not really like a thing. But I mean you're you're right. We we put so much pressure on these kids to perform. And I've seen the dads, man. Like and it's wrestling. It's baseball. It's basketball. It's everything to where it's like, do you know how hard I work to pay for your private coaching and to pay for these tournaments and look at how you played? And it's like, man, I remember John Smoltz talking about, hey, don't specialize your kid too early, right? Play all the sports. Look at Joe Mau. He was all state in football, basketball, and baseball. And he signed to go play quarterback in college, and the Twins are like, "Nah, you're actually going to come play for us." And drafted him number one overall. It's like, develop as an athlete. Develop as a well-rounded athlete because if you only know how to play baseball and you don't know how to like shoot a double egg and take someone to the ground, well, all right. It's probably going to be a better idea that you're a well-rounded athlete. But for you, Darl, I'm curious because what a lot of people don't even know, even here uh in Oklahoma, is that you actually signed a letter of intent to go play at Oklahoma State uh collegiate ball and the Mets were like, "Ah, no, no thanks." But even even at like at what point did you realize that your talent was undeniable cuz you're right, you talk about this a lot in your latest book. Again, guys, it's in the show notes. You can check it out about what your dad said to you and he tried to diminish you and you know Satan was using the words of your father to try to get you to believe the lie that you were destined for for nothing essentially right and not just from a baseball [clears throat] perspective but just as a man perspective but was there a time when you're like no I'm not just determined because there's plenty of determined people that suck at sports but like at what point where you're like no I think I've got something here >> well I think the most important thing is you don't need affirmation from everybody else you just need it from yourself you need you just need to believe in yourself more than anything. When you run out there, you need to know who you are every day. Am I going to suck sometime? Yeah. But guess what? I'm going to get back up. >> I'm going to get back in the fight. I'm not going to drop my head. I'm not going to talk down to myself. I've already experienced that. Um like you said before, dads need to relax, man. Just chill out. I My kids played sports, went to college, and I didn't get involved in none of it. I let the coaches coach them. You know, DJ went to Maryland, played basketball. Jordan went to Mercer. My girls played volleyball. I never got into it with the coaches about who they are. Adversity is a part of playing sports. And if they don't experience that and go through that type of challenge, they're never going to know how good they can be. And I'm glad failure is a part of succeeding. And I think a lot of times people don't believe that. And we need to understand that as parents, you know, your kids are going to have some failure. Get back up. Get back and try it again. drop your cleats on and if you're playing baseball, football, whatever it is, and get back out there and just keep your mindset focused on the game. I think we get too much involved in everything else and talk about everything else instead of the game. The game of any sport that you're going to play is never going to change. It's always going to be the same. Football's going to be the same. Basketball going to run up, dunk, run down the court. baseball. You either gonna be a line drive hitter or you gonna be a guy like a Lenny Dr. Wally Backman to set the table for the guys in the middle of the order. Know who you are. And I think a lot of times kids don't know who they are. They're idolizing everybody else and trying to uh mimic somebody else stand and don't do that. Just do what you do. Look in the mirror and look at yourself and do the things that are natural to you. Because if you do that, you're going to be able to excel at a higher level than you can ever imagine because you are doing it from a naturally standpoint. You're not doing it from like looking at someone else and trying to create yourself to be like that because you wasn't created to be like that. And I think that's what this is sports has lost, you know, is I want to be the next this, I want to be the next that. You know, they were saying I was the black Ted Williams. I'm like, I'm not Ted Williams. I'm Daryl Strawberry. I got to be me. I can't. Ted Williams already proved himself at the major league level. Uh, being successful and being a great player and a Hall of Fame player. You can't you can't put that on a kid. A kid's got to be able to run out there and feel comfortable in his own skin and knowing that he can be successful at being who he is and not somebody else. >> When I remember like being a little kid, uh, you know, Griffy, that was when he was in his prime when I was a kid, like coming up. And I I wasn't left-handed, but you better believe I was working on my like little left-handed shuffle thing. But name the number of guys that had Ken Griffy Jr. stance and swing in baseball. Oh, there's only one of them, Ken Griffy Jr. And so imagine if you had tried to build everything around. Look at Mariana Rivera. Do you know how many people he showed his cutter grip to >> and then they they use that exact same grip and then they throw the ball and it doesn't cut like his cutter? Why not? Well, because Mariana Rivera's fingers are the length they are for whatever reason, the the the, you know, tension in the tendons and the muscles on the tips of his fingers and whatever else, they were given to Mariano Rivera as a gift from God. You didn't get that gift. And for a lot of us, I forget who said it first, but we're so worried about someone else's race, like how good they're doing in business, how good their family looks on Instagram, how good they're doing in the gym, or whatever the thing is. It's like, man, can you just worry about running your race? Uh because you're not going to be resilient if you're constantly focused on everybody else. You have to run your race. Now, >> well, what happens? What happens is you overexaggerate when you're looking at somebody else about who they are and what they are and what they have and what they social media look like. And when I was growing up, I watched Pete Rose and I wasn't the same player as Pete Rose. But what I loved about Pete Rose, he became my favorite player, is because he was Charlie Hustle. I mean, he played the game the right way. And that taught me about baseball. This is how you play the game. You play it hard. And if your uniform's not dirty, his uniform was always dirty. So, that was a lesson right there. I want to be like that. I want to make sure that my uniform dirty cuz if your uniform is not dirty, that means you're not doing your job out there on the field. So, I felt like that I needed to develop that that kind of grit inside of me as a as a player where I would hustle, get my uniform dirty, play hard, go in, try to make break up double plays, you know, just like he ran the guy over in an all-star game and and injured his career, but he played hard. He played physical. He didn't he didn't let down just because it was an all-star game. And, you know, those are those are the kind of things that are missing, you know, with with players today. They don't see that in themsel. And that's what I saw in myself. The ability to play hard all the way around to be a champion and have fun at it. You You got to have fun at it, too, at the same time. >> Yeah. And that's the other thing, too. I mean, fun. I mean, I was one of those kids that I only had fun if I was winning, right? So, it was one of those deals, but at the same time, when you look back, you should be able to be loose enough to have fun because nobody put pressure on me. I put all the pressure on myself. But again, if you're not loose, you're not going to perform well. I mean, again, how many guys can just grip the bat as hard as they can, swing as hard as they can, and hit the ball where they want, when you talk to guys that have hit a lot of home runs like like you have and certainly other people, when they really get into one, they don't feel anything in the hands, man. Like, they hit the sweet spot of the bat. It's not the jam. It's not a jam shot. It's not off the end of the bat. It's so sweet that you It's just a fluid motion through the baseball. And so, that was one of the things about about you and your career, even in the early days. I mean, your first season, you come out, you win the rookie of the year in ' 83. You know, you make your first All-Star game uh in your second season and right and then you ran off seven or eight All-Star games straight after that. And so, you had a lot of success from just being smooth uh with the game, letting the game come to you a little bit, but also hustling and doing the things that are up to you. But I am curious because I mean, you know, there's been documentaries made about your career and all this, but I want to get to 1986. Obviously, we got the World Series. This is your first World Series that you get. You know, no spoiler alert here. That happened 40 years ago, but y'all win the World Series, but I want to go back to game six. You're playing the Boston Red Sox and Bill Buckner lets that dribbler to first base go through his legs. We've seen the clip as a baseball fan. You've seen the clip a thousand times and especially before they won the World Series in 2004. We don't have to talk about who they beat, but you're thinking, "Oh my gosh, this is going to be the definitive thing in Boston Red Sox history. It's going to be the fact that they traded the babe and the fact that [clears throat] Bill Buckner let that ball go through his legs cuz obviously Mets came back, won game six, and y'all ended up winning game seven." But I want to know what it was like from y'all's perspective. Like, you're in the dugout, you're watching this play happen, and you see the ball go through the wickets. It's a World Series. It doesn't get any bigger. This is an elimination game for you guys. Like, what was your read of that situation? Well, I think that's pretty sad how people felt [clears throat] about Billy Bogner because he was a great player. That's right. >> And of course, he wanted to be on the field probably for that last out and he deserved that. Um, I don't think it was his fault. I think, you know, you had the opportunity and chances to get guys out. It was the determination of the guys coming up to the plate, Gary Carter, Kevin Mitchell, Ray Knight, uh, getting those guys out. Um, you were one out away. So, all of a sudden, you want to blame it on one play. Billy Bugner was just trying to make the play and trying to look up and realizing that Muki Wilson was running and that he was getting down that line and he saw the fact that Stanley wasn't covering so he was going to try to have to beat Muki to the back. If you really look at that play and you see that play, okay, but our thoughts was, man, we blew this, man. We've had a great season. We dominated like we started uh from day one from spring training in ' 86 when Davey had the team meeting and the first meeting was we're going to win it all. We're going to dominate and we went through that process and yeah the playoffs wasn't easy. We had to get through the Astros. We never was going to beat Mike Scott but we had to beat Nolan and Nefert. Two great pitchers there in that series. And those are the things that you look at and say wow we got to this place and now we're in a series now we just blew this season. And but I what I love about the 86 match is we never felt like we was out of a game. >> When you go back and look at that season of our club, you can see how many games we came back and won. We always felt like we can come back and win a game. And if you don't feel like you can come back and win a game after the sixth, seventh inning, then you're not a really a good team. And we always had that type of uh energy inside of us believing that, okay, you might have a couple runs on us, but we got some bangers over here. We got some boys over here that know how to play and we got some boys over here that's not afraid and not afraid to come back and win. And that's what the situation turned out for us. And but as I was seeing that game unfold, I was out of game six cuz I was double switched and I'm in a manager's office with Keith and we're sitting there and we're watching it and we're standing there and we're not moving and we're seeing, okay, there's a hit by Carter. Okay, there's a hit by Mer. Okay, Ray Knight comes up, hit, hit, hit. And all of a sudden, you know, we see a shift and we say, "Well, let's not move. Let's stay right here where we at." And we watch this game unfold right in front of us. And we go on to win game six. One of the most incredible games for a team to be able to come back and win. But most people don't realize that we were down in game seven, too. And we had to come back against Hurst, who was a pretty good pitcher and lefty. That was tough on us. But we battled and battled and we stayed close enough uh to get back into that game. And once we got back into that game, we knew from there, okay, we're in the driver's seat. Ray hit that big home run. I end up hitting the home run. And we knew right there that this is bittersweet because of what our team was really about. It was about a team concept. It wasn't about just one particular player doing it. It was everybody together knowing that they had a part to do. And we did that all year. So that's really truly what made us successful for that season. And that's why we end up celebrating the 40th year anniversary. >> Well, and part of the thing with baseball, I mean, if you've watched baseball for any length of time, it feels like it's very rare that the best team wins the World Series. Uh because I look at what would have been the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals. They were 83 and 81 going into the playoffs and they won the World Series in five games against Detroit. The 2011 St. Louis Cardinals. They had to win like all their games for the last month of the season and the Braves had to really crap the bed for them to even get into the playoffs. They're down to their last strike twice in game six of the World Series to win that game, win game seven. And so it's kind of it's almost a treat because I I I love greatness. Like I will watch a [clears throat] great bowler. I will watch a great archer. Like I just love watching greatness. So, when you see a team like the Dodgers that have been the best team all year and then you see them get it done when the lights are the brightest, there there's something to that. And speaking of the Dodgers, I was interested reading your new book because, you know, a lot of guys have regrets in their career as it pertains specifically to their career, not any of the extracurriculars, which we'll get into. But in your in your book, you said that when you signed a free agent contract to leave the Mets to go back to your hometown of Los Angeles uh to play for the Dodgers in 1990, you said it was the biggest mistake of your career. I mean, so explain that for people in the audience because at the time it was a big free agent contract. It's an enormous franchise. You're going back home, but you said it was your biggest regret. Why? Well, because the fact is I never got an offer from the match in the free agent year [clears throat] and I would think they they would have been the first one to give me an offer and say we want to keep you here and that was not the case. Had nothing to do with the Dodgers and the Dodgers organization LA people fans. I'm born and raised there. So I always had a dream if that was the case I would go back there and play. And the opportunity came for itself. But I was so used to playing in New York. I was so used to the noise of the people in New York, the media always around you. Um, when you come in our clubhouse, you have 40, 50 guys in the media and they used to love to stir up stuff. And I used to love that kind of energy because it would always make me a better player. I wasn't one of those guys that was afraid of that, afraid to speak what I was thinking at the time and and have them say what they wanted to say. And then I would go out there and I says, "Okay, well, the fans are booing here right tonight. I'll I'll just show you I'll show you guys. I go out out there and I hit two off the scoreboard and say, "How you like me now?" And then I go down in the tunnel and smoke me a cigarette because I was crazy. I mean, I'm South Central and I'm different, different personality. I'm not one of these guys that had this like fear inside of me of being booed or or not having success. I knew baseball was great and I knew it was part of like I said before, the failure part is what makes you better. And that's in life too. The failure part of who you can make you better if you do not give up, if you do not quit. And and and that's what I was looking at. I wasn't taking anything personally out about the Dodgers in LA. I think a lot of people twisted that and took that in the wrong way. >> Well, I think uh as well when you look at different situations, I mean, we we've seen this just in baseball. I mean, the again, Griffy comes to mind. You know, he goes from Seattle, signs with Cincinnati, and then just, you know, bad luck after bad luck. For that guy to hit 600 home runs when he basically disappeared seemingly for four or five seasons with injuries just, you know, speaks to his greatness. But it's just kind of one of those things that you don't really understand unless you're the one seeing through that other person's perspective. And I will say for you, Darl, it's kind of funny because, you know, I try to be a student of the game of baseball and a historian of the game of baseball, but the year that y'all won the World Series was the year I was born. Okay? So, I was like 2 months old whenever you guys, you know, raised up the trophy uh for in 1986. And so, whenever I was really paying attention to baseball, the only time I heard your name, Daryl, was in a negative light. It was like, all right, we, you know, it was another uh drug test failed. It was like, okay, this thing came up and that thing came up. And in the year 2000, I'm in ninth grade, tested positive for cocaine. Again, you were suspended from for a year. It rough, you know, it basically ended your career. If you go two years before that, more bad news, colon cancer diagnosis. All right. So, so you miss the World Series that year, even though your New York Yankees you were playing with actually did end up winning that World Series. And so some people look at your career and they talk about in kind of these complicated terms to where it's like on the field the natural gifting and the performance on the field was undeniable, right? But then the off-field struggles kind of tinged what you were able to accomplish on the field. So I just want you to even talk about your own legacy because you're very open about it, right? You don't try to hide anything or say, "Oh, well, you know, I had a rough upbringing so it's okay that I did this that or the other thing." You're very open and honest about it. But just talk a little bit about your legacy and how you're viewed. >> Well, thanks for asking that question because I love it because it was my journey was supposed to go the way that it went. Uh cuz there's three parts of it. There's a childhood, there's a middle part, and there's a part of how you finish. And I think a lot of times people don't want to go through that process because we all go through that process in our life. And it's just a matter of how do you uh overcome all the things, the adversities and the challenges of life. And and you can either sit there and say poor me or I wish it didn't happen to me. I'm glad it happened to me because it brought me to become a better man more than anything. Not just a baseball player. A baseball player is only going to last for so long. Playing sports and having a uniform on, it's only going to last for so long. But what kind of man will you come out to be after all that you experienced? Every athlete is going to go through something. If they don't go through something, then they telling you a lie. If they never had had the test of going through the challenges of different kind of things, adversities of of situations in life and marriage and whatever it may be, then they're not being truthful about it. cuz nothing's like a smooth selling when you're playing sports because you're in the spotlight and there's always attention focused around you. And I'm grateful for all the attention that was focused around me because the platform was beautiful. The platform of of having the talent and being able to excel and I excelled at the highest level that I could. I achieved what I was supposed to achieve. I'm not supposed to be in the Hall of Fame. I'm supposed to be the man that I am today. And I think sometime people mistake that what as that's the most important thing. No, that's just a part of of a athletes life that will be enshrined into the Hall of Fame. You know, my numbers retired. It speaks for itself. But the life and and and the mistakes were a part of what got me to where I am at today and who I'm I am today and what I have to give back. You know, the the giving back is the most important part. The understanding, the love, and the compassion and who you are. My mother raised me right. It wasn't like she didn't raise me wrong. I didn't have a male figure in the house. So, I had to learn all these things on my own. When you're running the streets in South Central LA, you can get into all kind of things and pick up all kind of bad habits. And I did early in my life. And I carried that into my professional life. I always say that my pain of who I was from my wounds inside of me led me to my greatness. But my greatness would eventually lead me to my destructive behavior. So, it's not until one gets well on the inside. We may look great on the outside. I might might have look strong and physically on the outside cuz I can hit a baseball and I can play and I can run and I can do all these things. But if that inside is not well, it's going to play out at some point in your life. I don't care if you're a baseball player. I don't care if you're a CEO. I don't care if you're a billionaire, whatever. Your inside of you is going to come out in some kind of fashion. And can you deal with that more than anything? the brokenness or whatever it is, the the the missing part of what a man's supposed to be. And there was a lot of missing parts of what a man's supposed to be. I was, like I said before, I put on a put on the uniform that made me a baseball player. That didn't make me a man. I want people to hear that. I don't care. I don't care what kind of hat you wear. You need to understand that. That doesn't make you a man cuz you're a billionaire and you got money in the bank and you got homes and cars and all that stuff. What makes you a man when you finally come to yourself and say, "You know what? I need to correct this because I don't want my children to suffer like I did." And that's what my legacy is really truly all about because my mother taught me the right way, the legacy that she wanted me to end up with. I'm living the legacy of what she prayed over me to live and be the kind of man that she wanted me to be. >> Hey, let's go. Battle preach. And I'll just tell you this, [clears throat] uh, Darl, because obviously a lot of people paid attention to the on the- field stuff, right? The 6'6, 200 plusb sweet swing, the the speed, the the defensive plays, and Yeah. And so for a lot of ways like you had at least a small impact on a myriad of people because of your athletic exploits, but you're right. You know, father time comes for everybody, right? And so you can be LeBron James and spend a million plus dollars a year injecting crap and into your body and having all the physical therapists and all that stuff and you can play basketball for 25 years. Tom Brady played well into his 40s, all that different things. And then you always have to have that attack of conscience and that attack of identity, which is who am I? like, am I a an awardwinning, championshipwinning ball player or am I a a child of God? Am I an image bearer of God? Like, what does that even mean? And how am I going to do that? And so, Darl, you've made a huge shift from obviously your your athletic exploits and accolades and, you know, doing that as a living to now being a traveling evangelist. And so, arguably speaking, it's not even arguable. I think it's it's pretty direct. You're gonna have more of an impact on people helping them, you know, help helping the Holy Spirit do its work to to, you know, you're putting kindling around these people. And when the Holy Spirit calls them like it just goes up like a bonfire and they're accepting Christ, you know, uh Christ is imputing getting the imputed righteousness of Christ in their lives. And then they become a Christian. They become a follower of Christ. And man, that doesn't just define the next little bit of their life or the next long-term season. It it defines the rest of their eternity, Daryl. And so the impact you're having because people are willing to listen to you because of what you did on a ball field is substantial. But let's just talk about that transition cuz you talk about the impact your mom had, very, very faithful woman, constantly praying for you, you know, would just take the the disappointments and lumps because she knew God had a bigger plan for you than what you were currently doing. But talk about when that became real for you. >> That that that was pretty incredible to go through that journey of of of her being just mother and and not uh trying to force anything on you. Just actually living it the way she lived it and to leave the legacy and behind for her children to find this way. and we we knew that uh was important to her and to be able to um go on this I was like this long journey from player to preacher. So it was a long journey. It was the trials and tribulations. It was the addiction. It was the Florida State Prison with a T17169 because of addiction and um no discipline and very disciplined in playing sports but not disciplined in your life as a man. So I always tell men that you can pick your sins but you cannot pick your consequences because the reality of consequences they are going to come and I had a lot of consequences that that came along with it and there's a big price to be paid for that and I'm thankful that I paid the price for it. I had to go through cancer twice, lose my left kidney, you know, so many different things, so many different layers. It's like God always it's like a banana when you're peeling it back. It's like one piece by at a time. Mrs. Wade, God peels your life back, okay? One piece at a time. You're going to go through every journey, but I'm not going to allow you to be destroyed. I'm going to keep you because you have been prayed for and you've been covered. And I think that's what a lot of times people fail to realize. That's why it's so important for us as a man to cover your family, pray for them, pray for your children. You don't have to see the miracle. Uh the miracle happens in it in the time that it's supposed to happen. And that's what it was for me. the miracle happened at time through my long journey and then my wife Tracy who I've been married to for 19 years now she would come into my life and she would be the one that would lead me back into the church house where I would go through this long journey okay to disciplehip or sitting in church for seven years most people can't sit for seven minutes but I had to sit seven years to learn the Bible learn the word of God and and become this different man from this worldly man that I was and all these worldly things that I've experienced. Now I'm coming into this, he's shaping me and molding me into this other man, you know, where he's giving me his information, his revelation, his blueprint of how a man's supposed to be uh in every area of his life. You know, when you live out there, you when people see you, they know that you're different because you don't act the same way. And you don't go to the places and you don't hang in the places that you used to. Well, a lot of people thought I was coming back to those places when I said I was going on this journey. I've been on this journey for over 22 years. My wife's 25 years in recovery. And I've been 22 years on this journey and doing ministry and everything. And a lot of people are still waiting for me to come back. But they don't realize once you surrender your heart to Christ, it's over. It's a done deal. Now all you got to do is go through this next phase and allow him to purify you so he can liberate you and he can redeem you and and so he can restore you uh for your purpose of life as we all have this great purpose of life. We a lot of us are going to miss it because guess what? We conform to this world. We we're looking at all the all the things at our fingertips. We're no different generation than the other generations were. They we just have everything that is in front of us, you know, from computers, from money, from houses that they didn't have all that stuff, but they were people just like us. They had issues, the struggles, and God delivered them. Those that obey, those that walk in obedience and obey, obey the principles and live according to God's will. God exhaust them. He prepares the table right in front of your enemy to show you that I'm God. I created him. You didn't create him. Yeah, he was a mess, but I brought him into a message. And that's the great part of all of this. We get to we get to experience this abundant life that God talks about. What is that abundant life he's talking about? I'm going to give you joy. I'm going to give you peace. I'm going to give you love. I'm going to give you wisdom. I'm going to give you knowledge. I'm going to give you something far greater than you ever hit a baseball so far off the clock in St. Louis in 1985. That broke the clock. I had to say that cuz you're a car. >> A come on. Come on, Daryl. We were just getting to a place where we were really getting warmed up and being friends. But no, I I love what you're saying, Daryl, cuz here's the thing. You're a new creation in Christ now, right? That old you is dead, right? So, you've got video of the old you, you got memories of the old you, but that guy's dead. And Christ killed him, right? In the best way possible so that he could give the real you eternal life. And and look, I want to read actually read a quote from the new book. The new book's called Another Life: Discovering the Healing Power of Purpose on my long journey from player to preacher. On March, long journey. >> Yeah, very long journey. And you elucidate that in the book. Here's the quote. On March 11, 2024, right before my 62nd birthday, I suffered a near fatal heart attack. I know the reason I'm here today alive and able to have written this book is that God still has work for me to do. So, a lot of people are living without purpose, Darl. And a lot of people don't get the near-death experience or the cancer a couple of times or the almost overdose or they almost got in that car accident, whatever the thing is to wake them up. But for you, you had already gotten your wakeup call. You were already living for Christ. But this was just another reminder to you that, hey, God hasn't called me a home yet. He's still got a purpose for me on this planet. And it seems like you're trying to squeeze out every last available bit of energy into this world so that you can, you know, have a bigger impact for the sake of Christ. >> Well, he's trying to squeeze out every bit of it. Um, and it's not about us. Once we come to that place and understanding why he saved us, he saved us to go back and tell somebody else about the goodness of his son. And I think that's where a lot of us miss the point of Christ. We think it's really about us. My mother used to tell me it's not important to be important. Okay. So the most important thing is to know who you are in Christ to have the identity of who you are and live that. U you don't have to like say look at me. You just you you you become a living epistle for Christ. Okay? That's written not in ink but written in spirit and truth. And people will see that out of you the way you live your life. And when they see that they know that that is something different. And how do I know that? Because I saw Gary Carter. I saw Mookie Wilson. I saw those two guys living it way before my time when I was 24 years old. And I was wondering why are they like that? Why are they not heathens? Why are they not chasing women? Why? They're rich. They're famous. Gary's going to go into the Hall of Fame. Why is he so different? Well, it was because of his faith, you know, his faith and his love for the Lord. He didn't allow himself to get into worldly things. And they became a great example of what a man's supposed to look like and how a man can live his life. So, that was a blessing for me. I was 24 at the time when I saw that and we won our first championship. But I realized that when all the things that happened to me and when I was coming to this place of looking for God to give me a transformation, I knew it was real because I've seen it before. A lot of guys don't talk about it, >> but a lot of guys are straddle that fence. I got tired of straddling that fence, talking about Jesus, but not knowing Jesus. And a lot of us don't understand the symbol of the cross and the finished work at Calvary. What he has already done, he's already completed it for us. All we have to do is start walking out and believe in it and in our in our everyday life, you know, not some days, but you have to do it every day. Because if you don't tell the flesh to shut up, the flesh is going to always lead you down the dark road, the wrong the wrong path of life. And it's going to make you chase after all these other worldly things that cannot fill that empty void on the inside. All of us, everyone, the last one of us have this empty void on the inside of us. And we try to fill it with all this stuff to make me well. If I have a bigger house, if I got a better car, more people will like me. No, they won't. >> They'll just be jealous of you. That that's all it is. If you get more, they they're going to say more things about you. But when you get Christ, oh, they they're going to really say things about you. But guess what? They they persecuted Christ before they persecuted you. So, you know, and and the thing that I love more about Jesus is Jesus will never leave you or forsake you. Everybody else going to be gone. >> That's right. >> Everybody else Everybody else is going to take off. But I'm telling you right there, he g Jesus is gonna say, "I'm going I'm going to take the mess of you and I'm going to create God's great love and put you on a platform that no man can touch." Why? Because it's holy once he puts you on it. >> Hey guys, real quick, I just wanted to remind you that we have an official Undaunted Life store. You can go to shop.uned.life or check it out in the show notes. Guys, we're always going to have hats and shirts and a bunch of other awesome stuff. Go there, support us, wear the mission. Again, it's shop.un undaunted.life. Check out the link in the show notes, shop.undaunted.life. Man, I I just love that, you know, hearing you say the things like that. The those are the truths that guys need to hear because some of you guys are living in a place of abundance and plenty right now. But you're absolutely right. When the money dries up, when the booze runs out, when whatever uh thing goes wrong, those people are not going to be there. And we spend all this time focused. I heard a a pastor buddy of mine say this recently, Robbie Gall. You spend all this time focusing on, you know, impressing these people at work or doing these things for people at work, but who's going to be holding your hand in the hospital when you're dying? It's not going to be some middle manager. It's not going to be uh, you know, maybe your assistant. It's not going to be the the chairman of the board for the company you work for. It's going to be your wife. It's going to be your kids. It's going to be maybe your mom or dad. Like, those are the types of people that are going to be there in that moment. And the thing about it is Christ is going to give us the strength to sustain as long as he wants us to sustain and point us in those directions. So, I just love uh that that you've you've made this change and you continue to pass this on. You speak 200 plus times every year. You're speaking to groups at prisons, at boys clubs, at all kinds of different places. And yeah, you're going to talk ball. Yeah, if somebody wants to pull you aside and you get a little hitting tip, I'm sure you do that, too. But it's because of Christ that you are constantly, you know, talking to these people and telling them about the truth uh that they can have in Christ. And I just absolutely love that. But uh Darl, we're kind of winding to a close here. And so I want to put you in some uncomfortable positions and I want to ask you some questions about baseball that are maybe going to be hard. I'm going to have you pick some favorites. So are you okay with doing that with me? >> I'm good. I'm good. I love Robbie too, Pastor Robbie, too. >> Oh man, he he's great. I I just got to do an event with him recently and I'm going to be seeing working with him on some more stuff and right. So, and y'all are the same height, a couple of 66 dudes hanging out. [clears throat] >> He's bigger than me, but send my love to him. He's in Nashville, so he's he's awesome. >> He'll appreciate the shout out. But all right, so I want to get your Major League Baseball Mount Rushmore. Now, to give you a little bit of time to think of your your four guys that you're going to put on Mount Rushmore. I don't care what standards you use to put the people on your Mount Rushmore because some people think, "Oh, they got to be the greatest or maybe it was the best even though they didn't have the longest career and all that." Mine mine changes quite a bit. I'll say there are three that don't change and I'm always squishy about the last one. So, I think Babe Ruth has to be on there, you know, with the the things he was able to do, not only as a pitcher, but also as a hitter, the 700 plus home runs, all the things. >> I think maybe the best pure baseball player of all time might have been Willie Mays. I think that might be uh one of the things when you look at what he was able to accomplish. A legitimate five tool player, he's on my Mount Rushmore. For me, uh the most underrated player in the history of Major League Baseball, don't at me, is Stan Musual. If he had played in Boston or New York, people would be talking about him like Deaggio and talking about him like Ted Williams, but he was just a quiet guy that won three rings and, you know, some MVPs and different things like that and absolutely crushed it for the St. Louis Cardinals. Then we get to that last one. It's like there's a lot of people you could put in there. Like, you know, you got Hank Aaron, you got Tai Cobb, you got Mickey Manel. Some people could even argue for Otani doing what he's doing in Major League Baseball right now, you know, top 10 pitcher when he's healthy and top one offensive player when he's healthy. But if I got to put a fourth guy on there right now, gun to my head, I'm going to put Ken Griffy Jr. there with the injuries and all the things that he suffered. One of the most gifted and and beautiful players to watch in the history of baseball. So that's my Mount Rushmore, the babe. Stam usual, Willie Mays, and Ken Griffy Jr. So I gave you enough time to think of your list. So give me your list of the top four Mount Rushmore best baseball players ever. >> Uh Willie Mays, um Pete Rose, of course, uh the head king. Nobody's ever going to do that again. Um Hammer and Hank. Um, and my last one is the greatest player I ever seen play. Barry Bonds, seventime MVP. Nobody gives him credit for what he accomplished. Everybody hangs everything over his head about the steroids. But this guy, when I saw him come up, I never seen anybody that was a 52 player that could do everything [clears throat] so great. And it was just remarkable the kind of player he was in his career. Seven MVPs. I think people look at just one thing, but they don't look at the player. They don't look at the ability to steal bases. what he stole over 500 bases, over 700 home runs. Nobody is going to ever come close to doing that in a career like that. And so that's why I always say Barry Bonds to me is is the greatest player I ever had a chance to see play. >> Well, and there's a lesson in there too, kids paying attention out there. If you turn yourself into a mutant, you might have some people that aren't a huge fan of the stuff that you accomplish in your career. So, there is that. But when you do, that's what you hear from a lot of people. Uh especially, you know, even like you hear like a Greg Maddox, one of those kind of like master, you know, weird scientist, mad scientist pitchers. >> Oh my gosh, the chess match that they had to do. Well, here I wasn't even planning to go here. Let's talk about pitchers. So, cuz everybody on a Mount Rushmore, you put the guys that play every day, but then there's the guy that the guy that pitch every fifth day. And so if you had to do, we don't maybe have to keep it to four, but if I think about the the best pitchers that I've ever seen or ever studied, you know, it's kind of hard to go anywhere and not mention Bob Gibson. Uh I mean, they literally changed the height of the mound because he was so dominant. And I just love that he pitched angry. Like you didn't know if he was going to throw it anywhere near the strike zone or right up under your chin. Nolan Ryan kind of the same in the era. Whenever I was coming up, I never really liked Greg Maddox. I couldn't really appreciate him because I was such a big Randy Johnson fan, right? you know, the the long hair and the 100 mph fast ball and, you know, the slider that went from above your head if you're a left-hander and down into the dirt in the other side of the box. And so, those are some of the guys and obviously some of the more modern guys. I mean, Verlander and Kershaw had really, really long careers. I mean, for me, if I got to have one pitcher from eternity to win a ball game, uh, to save my life, I'm giving the ball to Bob Gibson and I'm turning my brain off because I'm going to be just fine. But for you, if you had to have like all-time baseball like best pitchers, who are some of the guys that either you saw and played against or even some of the guys that you didn't where you're just like, man, those those were the best guys ever? >> I would have to go back to the old school pitchers like you said, Bob Gibson. You know, I heard all the great things about him, how he just knock hitters down. He didn't care who he was. >> And then you go Tom Siver. He was another one that would just come up and in on you. And then I would have to go with the great Nolan Ryan. um the great he was one of the most >> uh dominated pitchers uh of his time uh being in the majors and and then I would have to go with the you know the professor Greg Maddox you know he he he was he was crafty man he was >> four straight s young that's unbelievable >> he was smart listen he didn't even try to >> break a window you know and he could have threw the ball 95 trust me but he was so smart and he set hitters up so well. I mean, I got him a couple times, but how many times he set me up, you know, he set me up, you know, thinking, okay, he's going to throw this change up away, and then he comes with this movement back in and get me off the plate, and the ball comes back over the plate. He did that to so many left-hand hitters. I don't know how many guys that just felt like, man, why am I so stupid? He does [laughter] not try to trick you. He He You know it's coming, but you still cannot hit it. So, I I I would have to say he was one of those top pitchers that I ever got a chance to uh face. And um and and Nola Ron was the the toughest pitcher I ever faced. He was mean and he he was a big old Texas country boy. He he'd be on that mountain. He look at you like get in the box. [laughter] >> Yeah. Let's go. Oh, my favorite Greg Maddox story was uh uh this was, you know, they're playing the Astros this game. It's like eight to nothing. Braves are going to win this game. You know, Maddox is kind of going on. and there's a runner or two on base or something like that and he and he shakes off the catcher and he brings the catcher out and he says, "I want to throw this pitch." And and the catcher's like, "No, no, no. Please, please don't throw that pitch." Like Bagwell [clears throat] wants that pitch. I'm like, "This is the pitch we're throwing." So he throws the pitch. Bagwell hits it a country mile, right? In a game that the Braves had already won. And the catcher's like, "What are you doing?" But when they got back in the dugout, Greg Greg Maddox said, "We're going to play this team again down the road in a game that means something. This game don't mean anything." and he's going to be looking for that same pitch. And in the playoffs, wouldn't you know it, with runners on, Bagwell comes up, he's looking for that pitch. I think it was an inside fast ball and he threw three straight change ups, three straight swings and misses. And then he looks at the catcher like, you see, do you remember? And like to think months in advance that I'm probably going to face. Yeah. Greg Malik, he always used to think ahead, you He didn't think behind, you know, he didn't think about, okay, if I made a mistake to him, I know he can hit that pitch, but I know I'm going to face him in a a real difficult situation again, and I'm going to know what to throw him, and I'm going to get him out. And that's the way he worked. He I think a lot of times probably the catcher didn't have a clear understanding about him, but he had his way. You would you would see him when on his days off, he would be in the dugout and he would be wearing glasses like this and you thought he was a professor. >> That's right. like the least likely to be and that was probably my thing again at the time I was a little bit more like ah throw the ball fast be big and strong and you know that that's kind of the way it was. Now you mentioned Nolan Ryan Daryl it who was the the pitcher you feared the most when you were playing where when you saw your name in the lineup card and you saw them as the starting pitcher for the other team you're like oh great here we go was Was it Nolan or was it somebody else? >> It was Nolan. >> Okay. Um, it it was definitely Nolan because you you knew for yourself that you going to be in a battle and even though I got him a couple times, hit a couple bombs off of him, but he would not let you get comfortable in that box. >> Yeah. >> And he would make sure even though you might have gotten me, he let you know I'm coming right up in here just just to just to give you a warning sign. Um, and I didn't get a lot of that from a lot of other pitchers. A lot of pitchers were intimidated by the fact of who I was cuz I was so big. But he was not intimidated at all. I mean, he threw under me just like he threw under Winnie, Dave Parker, all the big guys. He He just went after them. He said cuz I think he thought in his thought process that you're going to get me, but I'm surely going to put one under your chin and let you know that I'm still the boss, >> man. And you can't even imagine like that. I mean, now you'll watch a game and a a pitcher will uh kind of get off, you know, he'll have a forcing fast ball that'll run on him a little bit. He'll miss his spot. It just comes, you know, chest high inside on a hitter and then all a sudden it's like, "What are you doing, bro? What are you doing?" It's they're so sensitive. Now, again, you got, you know, 98 99 coming up under anywhere near your chin. That's going to be terrifying. But just a very, very different different game, different feel for today. But Darl, we got to wind to a close. This is going to be my last question of the day. [snorts] So God's like, "Darl, you've been so awesome. I'm going to give you something really, really cool. I'm going to let you go back to your prime, like your absolute athletic baseball prime, and I'm going to let you have one at bat off of any pitcher in history, right? It could be someone that you know got the better of you and you wanted one more crack at him or just any pitcher from history and you get to have an at bat against one guy just to see." Now, I know what mine is. All right. I'm shocked that you and Randy Johnson never had an at bat. Now, your career started a little bit before his, but y'all had plenty of crossover in seasons, but you never faced him. I mean, you being a lefty versus him being a 611, big sweeping slider, 100 mile fast ball lefty. I would have loved to have seen that. I would have loved to have seen if you could have stayed inside the baseball, you know, whenever you didn't know if it was 90, you know, 99 100 fast ball or a slider. That would be what I would like to see if I could just, you know, do that whole cosmic video game thing. But is there one pitcher that you're like, I really really would have been, it would have been awesome to face this one guy. Well, you make a great point there because Randy Johnson was with Montreal when I first saw him >> and he he [clears throat] was all over the place and I was I said to myself, I do not want to face this guy. I do not want to play being a left-hand hitter and seeing how, you know, wild and no control whatsoever. U I think a lot of people don't realize that when he first came up and that's who he came up with and and and got the chance to see him come up and pitch. But when he got um to Seattle, he established himself as one of the most dominating pitchers in Major League Baseball. I never wanted to face him. I was just like, there's no way. I mean, looking at him and seeing him sit up on the mound like he was and the way he came across, you know, towards left-hand hitters. >> Yep. >> No way. I would that's just a guy that I just didn't want to face. I face anybody else, but he was one guy that I did not want to face. >> Now, what about a dream matchup from like the older era? Is there somebody like would you have wanted a crack at, you know, Sai Young or a crack at, you know, Sver or or uh, you know, I'm trying to think of anybody else >> I would have loved I would have loved to have a crack at like Siver or Gibson because I heard so much about them and I ended up facing Nolan and Nolan reminds me of them when I watched >> Yeah. the video of them, how they would throw under people chins. Siver would knock people down, too. Gibson would knock people down. And that means to me that they're telling you the plate belongs to me. And and as a hitter, you're thinking to yourself that the plate belongs to me. It doesn't belong to you. And but when you face guys like that, uh those guys, they kind of rule and reign over that situation when it comes to you you digging in and you getting comfortable in the box. So, those are those are guys that I always thought about. What would it be like, you know, if you had to go against some guys like that? >> Well, very good. Well, Darl, it has been a tremendous pleasure and an honor to speak to you, not only about your career, but the even better stuff that you're doing now, spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ all over the place. Again, guys, you got the new book out now. Check it out in the show notes. But that's all for me. Is there anything else you want to get off your chest? >> No, thanks for having me. I appreciate the time um you reaching out and and giving my book a shout out. And hopefully it'll encourage a lot of people, you know, that it's not over. It's not over until God says it's over. >> Amen. Thanks again, Darl. >> Thank you. God bless you. >> There you go, guys. I hope you enjoyed my time with Daryl Strawberry. But before we let you go, we are going to do a quick resilience boost at Undaunted Life. Our mission is equipping men to push back darkness with content that forges spiritual, mental, and physical resilience. So again, Amazon link to where you can buy your copy of his latest book, Another Life: Discovering the Healing Power of Purpose on my long journey from player to preacher. Make sure you go check it out. Thank you everyone for listening to this episode. Wherever you're listening to this, please subscribe, rate, and leave us a positive five-star review. If you want me to come speak live at your event or on your podcast, just shoot me an email to info@undaunted.life. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook. And check out our website for everything else, including how to donate to keep more content like this coming. www.undaunted.life. The music on this podcast is the song Conqueror by the Christian metal band Void Awaken. Be sure to stream their music on Spotify, Apple Music, and wherever else you get your music. I'm your host, Kyle Thompson. Remember, keep pushing back darkness. Keep forging spiritual, mental, and physical resilience. Keep seeking the Lion of Judah. [music] Heat. Heat.