Add Darryl Strawberry to the “stick to sports” crowd.
That was the message the former Mets slugger – although he’d apparently rather you remember him as a Yankee – delivered to the current generation of jocks.
Strawberry, in a Tuesday appearance on Fox Business, was asked about the protest movement started by the former 49ers quarterback.
“What would you tell these athletes today that are playing politics with their job, and their job is sports,” former Donald Trump surrogate Erin Elmore asked Strawberry on the “Mornings with Maria” show.
“I would tell them, really leave the politics alone as far as your job,” Strawberry said. “You go out and do your job and play sports because you only really have (a) one-time window open to play sports and have an impact and sports is going to pass away, but what legacy will you leave in life? And that’s the most important thing.”
The former NL Rookie of the Year had plenty to say Tuesday as he also slammed the team he started with during an interview with WABC Radio.
“The players on the ’86 championship team, we don’t deal with the Mets. It’s not (owner) Fred Wilpon, it’s the new thing,” Strawberry said, hinting at bad blood with the Sandy Alderson-led front office in Flushing. “I’d never go back, I’d rather stay with the Yankees than ever go back to the Mets.”
Darryl Strawberry
(Al Bello/Getty Images)
Strawberry, who was an All-Star in his final seven seasons with the Mets, called late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner a “father.”
“He would go get players that nobody else would touch,” Strawberry said of the second chance he got in the Bronx. “He just loved us.”
The sweet-swinging outfielder – who capped his career with five seasons in pinstripes – said he would not have protested the national anthem as a player.
“I wouldn’t do it and I’m not against guys that are doing it, but we have a problem in America, and we need to come together as people, not color but as people.”
But apparently it’s not a problem athletes should deal with.
