DARRYL STRAWBERRY; BASEBALL ALL-STAR IS IN SEEMINGLY PERPETUAL CYCLE

Darryl Strawberry began his baseball career triumphantly. He ended it
beset by demons: alcohol, cocaine, cancer. In his 20s, a millionaire
all-star; at 39, a penniless loser. The latest chapter was his
disappearance from a court-ordered drug rehab center in Florida. He went
on a four-day crack cocaine binge before he turned himself in to friends.
It's the fourth time he's broken probation. A judge will decide next month
whether or not to simply send him to prison for up to five years. At the
time of this latest episode, Strawberry was being profiled by a documentary
crew, which provided many of the pictures you're about to see. He spoke to
one of their cameramen just after he was picked up.

Mr. DARRYL STRAWBERRY: I've been working so hard and, you know, everything
has been going extremely well, and all of a sudden, you know, I just kind
of lost it.

(Vintage footage of Strawberry playing baseball)

SAFER: (Voiceover) That body that once had so much power and grace seemed
hollow and broken, defeated.

Mr. STRAWBERRY: I'm just, you know, very sorry that I--but right now I'm
just very sick, you know, mentally and physically and--and just, you know,
at a real bad place, going through a real difficult time.

(Footage of St. Joseph's Hospital; Strawberry with group of people; Strawberry)

SAFER: (Voiceover) His friends took him straight to St. Joseph's Hospital
in Tampa, where he was placed on suicide watch. No echo of cheering
crowds, only the arm of a friend for support. Washed up, addicted to drugs
and alcohol, and eaten alive by cancer. Just six weeks earlier he was full
of hope for at least some kind of life.

Mr. STRAWBERRY: And I feel--I feel damn good about me today, you know. I
don't really have a--a major worry.

(Footage of Strawberry with group of people)

SAFER: (Voiceover) He was interviewed in a Tampa hotel on a lunchtime pass
from his drug rehab center.

Mr. STRAWBERRY: I've been through it all: alcohol, drugs, cancer, women.
You know, I've--I've seen it all, I've done it all.

(Footage of Strawberry)

SAFER: (Voiceover) He planned to go home this spring.

Mr. STRAWBERRY: I have a wife and I have five children and, you know, I--I
look forward to, you know, being a dad and--and being a husband and--and
being something to them instead of being, quote, unquote, "something" to,
you know, the world of baseball.

(Vintage footage of Strawberry playing baseball)

SAFER: (Voiceover) The world of baseball went bonkers over Darryl
Strawberry back in 1980.

Mr. STRAWBERRY: (From vintage footage) There's only one number one, and
that's me, Darryl Strawberry.

(Vintage footage of draft board with close-up of Strawberry's name;
Strawberry playing baseball; 1986 World Series)

SAFER: (Voiceover) The number-one draft pick at age 18, a natural talent,
the next Ted Williams, they said. By age 21, a major-leaguer, rookie of
the year, then an all-star. Then he helped the Mets to their amazing World
Series victory in 1986. And during all that time, drinking heavily off the
field. The reason, he claimed: an abusive, alcoholic father.

Mr. STRAWBERRY: I just never really actually got a--point of dealing
with--dealing with the effects of--of childhood abuse, of how it affected
me in so many ways. And I think, you know, drinking became a part where I
just escaped from it and stuffed my feelings down. And I--you know, I've
done that for years where I stuffed my feelings down inside and never
really expressed how I really feel.

(Vintage footage of Strawberry playing baseball; fan holding sign: Darryl
Is Great!)

SAFER: (Voiceover) Still in his 20s, rich beyond imagination, and doing
what everyone else seemed to be doing.

Mr. STRAWBERRY: It became a--a real part of what sports was all about, you
know. Baseball players, you know, you--you play hard and you drink hard;
that was--you know, that was my theory.

(Vintage footage of Strawberry with team)

SAFER: (Voiceover) According to Strawberry, it was a team theory.

Mr. STRAWBERRY: They were pretty much screwed up just like me. You know,
if you look around, the majority--you know, a majority of the team was, you
know, pretty much, you know, a party team.

(Excerpt from baseball game; vintage footage from baseball game; booing
fans; Strawberry on field; Strawberry starting fight; newspaper with
headline: Straw Seized In Wife Assault, Threatened her with pistol, cops say)

SAFER: (Voiceover) By the late '80s, his performance on the field had
become erratic. The New York fans, perhaps the toughest in baseball,
turned their old greeting into a derisive chant. He got into a fight with
one of his teammates. And worse, he assaulted his first wife.

Mr. STRAWBERRY: I think I got arrested one time because I was drinking and
partying, and I came home and got into an argument and I--and I pulled out
a pistol and put it in her face, and I got arrested for that.

(Vintage footage of Strawberry on baseball field; footage of Reggie Jackson)

SAFER: (Voiceover) Strawberry says he still didn't realize how serious his
problems were with drink and drugs, and Major League Baseball either didn't
know or didn't want to know, according to Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson.

Mr. REGGIE JACKSON: I think he had some problems with the Mets there when
he was involved in drugs and some other things, and no one could really
figure out, or no one really wanted to admit what the--the off-field
problems were.

SAFER: Darryl Strawberry has been in and out of treatment for alcohol and
cocaine addiction at least four times. His rap sheet includes assaulting
both his wives, failure to pay child support and tax evasion. He's been
suspended from baseball three times for drug use, and twice baseball took
him back, because with all his problems...

(Vintage footage of Strawberry playing baseball)

SAFER: (Voiceover) ...there was still something left in that swing.

Mr. STRAWBERRY: (Voiceover) Drinking and drugging, that was the big--the
big deep hole.

Women, you know, not one, not two, but you know, women, women, women, you
know, and I couldn't--I just couldn't get myself away from it, you know, I
was so addicted to it. You know, I was addicted to the women. I was
addicted to, you know, the drinking. I was addicted to the drugs.

(Footage of Strawberry at baseball game; empty locker with Strawberry's
name and number; Tommy Lasorda arguing with person)

SAFER: (Voiceover) In April '94, now with the LA Dodgers, he got high on
cocaine and never showed up at the ballpark. By the end of May, manager
Tommy Lasorda released him from the Dodgers.

Mr. TOMMY LASORDA: He's got a lot of fame, he's got a family, and yet he
put something inside of him knowingly that this thing could ruin his
career, ruin his entire life, and yet they have the weakness to put it in
their body. This is something that I cannot understand.

(Footage of Darryl and Charisse Strawberry)

SAFER: (Voiceover) His current wife, Charisse Strawberry, couldn't
understand it, either.

Mrs. CHARISSE STRAWBERRY: Man, I just was, like, why--why can't he stop?
Why can't he quit? Why--why does he make the promises? Why does he do
that? Why--why can't--you know, it was probably the most painful thing.

Mr. JACKSON: Do I think people have misconceptions of Darryl? No, because
he is what he is. He's a--chemically dependent, an abuser of drugs, has
screwed up his life, screwed up his family. He's a good guy. He's a gentle
guy. He's a sweet guy. He's a giving guy. He's got a big heart. He's got
lots of friends. But he screwed up.

(Vintage footage of baseball game; Strawberry at baseball game; Strawberry
in vehicle at parade)

SAFER: (Voiceover) His last chance was with the Yankees in the mid-90s, and
he went on to help the team win three World Series. Some believed he'd
beaten alcohol and cocaine. He again became a favorite of the New York
fans. But doctors told him he now had an enemy even tougher than the
addictions: colon cancer.

Mr. STRAWBERRY: (From vintage footage) This is--it's a very difficult time.

I got cancer now, and--and I'm saying, 'OK, God, it's your call. It's your
call; it's not my call.' And I struggled. You know, I had a real struggle.
And when I struggled and lost hope, you know, the addiction part of my
disease kicked right back in and I went back to the same place.

(Footage of Strawberry getting into police cruiser; photo of Strawberry
being fingerprinted)

SAFER: (Voiceover) He spiraled downward: drug violations, soliciting a
prostitute, breaking probation three times. During this time he was on
chemotherapy. A kidney had to be removed.

Mr. STRAWBERRY: (From trial) My--my life has been totally downhill. I
basically wanted to die.

(Footage of Strawberry at trial; drug treatment center)

SAFER: (Voiceover) In November, a Florida judge sent him to jail for
violating the probation he'd received on his most recent drug convictions.
That was followed by house arrest at a drug treatment center.

Mr. STRAWBERRY: I knew I had consequences that were sitting right in my
face if I picked up and used again, you know, through the law, and I didn't
care. That's how sick I had gotten. I just didn't care.

Mrs. STRAWBERRY: The relapses got worse, you know; the cir--circumstances
got worse; the public scrutiny got worse. It was out--you know, it was out
there. It--it became more difficult to live with the disease of alcoholism
and addiction with Darryl.

Mr. STRAWBERRY: I take responsibility for every single thing that's
happened in my life. You know, it was all my decisions. I made the
choice, I made the decision, and I was--I'm the one that has to live with it.

SAFER: And he had been off drugs for five months when, two weeks ago, he
walked away from his drug treatment center and went on that cocaine
binge. To the police, he was just another junkie who violated probation.
They didn't even bother to look for him. But two drug counselors from his
baseball days were determined to find him.

Unidentified Reporter: (From news broadcast) Now Darryl Strawberry is once
again wanted by police.

(Footage of Ron Dock and Ray Negron watching news report; Tampa)

SAFER: (Voiceover) When Ron Dock and Ray Negron heard about Strawberry,
they went out searching the seamy side of Tampa.

Mr. RON DOCK: This is the hood. This is one of the drug holes that is
frequent, and I had some indication from him from one of his other relapses
that he was down this way.

Mr. RAY NEGRON: Have you seen Darryl Strawberry around here anytime in the
last couple of days?

Unidentified Man: No.

Unidentified Woman: No.

Mr. NEGRON: No?

(Footage of Tampa)

SAFER: (Voiceover) They were half convinced they'd find a corpse.

Mr. DOCK: He--he told me he just didn't want to live no more. And I know
once--once you give up that hope, you know, to--and the will to live,
there's nothing nobody can do.

(Footage of Dwight Gooden entering car)

SAFER: (Voiceover) The next day, pitcher Dwight Gooden, who'd just retired
from the Yankees, joined the search. Gooden, a recovering addict himself,
is well-aware of the heavy toll taken by drugs.

Mr. DWIGHT GOODEN: When I talk to kids, when I tell them, like in '94 when
I got suspended, a 30-minute high cost me $ 5 million...

Mr. DOCK: Thirty--isn't that something?

Mr. GOODEN: ...because I was out the whole of '95 and I was due to make $ 5
million. But by getting high, and it lasted 30 minutes, cost me $ 5 million.

Mr. DOCK: $ 5 million...

Mr. GOODEN: So basically I paid $ 5 million...

Mr. DOCK: ...for a 30-minute...

Mr. GOODEN: ...for a 30-minute high.

(Footage of people on street corner as seen from car)

SAFER: (Voiceover) Gooden's convinced Strawberry can make it.

Mr. GOODEN: I can use everything that I went through and what I'm doing now
to show him that he can make it. If I made it through all the stuff, then
he has the opportunity if he wants it, because what Darryl's going through
now, that could easily have been me.

(Footage of Negron and Dock in car; car on road; Strawberry in back seat;
Negron and Dock)

SAFER: (Voiceover) Two days later, his two friends received a phone call
from a desperate Darryl Strawberry. They raced 135 miles to Daytona Beach,
picked him up, a very sick man, and they drove him to a hospital back in
Tampa. Ray Negron and Ron Dock probably saved his life.

Mr. DOCK: We picked him up on the highway. That was the saddest sight for
me. I thought a couple of times in the car we may lose him. So we had to
pull over, get out of the car, and he cried, I cried. We embraced each
other, and I had to really hold him up to let him know it's OK.

SAFER: Was he remorseful? Was he...

Mr. NEGRON: The first thing that came out of his mouth wa--basically was,
'I messed up, I really messed up this time.' Those were his first words
out. And in essence, it was a feeling like no hope. There was no hope.

SAFER: But when you guys were looking for him, there was a real concern
that this guy was on the edge, so far out on the edge that he might kill
himself.

Mr. DOCK: The last two weeks I spoke to Darryl, he said he was tired of
living. And you know, 'I don't like going through chemo; the chemo's
killing me, Dock.' You know, 'I don't like the way my life's cha'--and so
after these two weeks, you know, I had this--that he was in trouble and
then when--yes, when he took off, I personally lost all faith. I thought
he died. I'm not going to sugar-coat it. I thought he died. I called Ray
and I started crying. I said, 'Ray, I think we lost him this time.'

SAFER: What happened in those four days?

Mr. DOCK: What happened, he went on a binge. And once you start, and the
obsession, the compulsion to use any mood-altering chemical--once that
triggers, it's hard to stop it.

SAFER: You know, people are watching this and they'll say, 'Why bother with
him? He's had chance after chance after chance. He's been forgiven and
forgiven and forgiven for this behavior. To hell with him.'

Mr. DOCK: Excuse me. If people who loved me gave up on me, I probably
wouldn't be here talking to you right now. And you know what's
fascinating? If you look around and the public looks around, there's a
Darryl Strawberry, they'd know one in each household from an uncle, sister,
brother, mother, friends. They're all around us. They're all--there's a
Darryl Strawberry all around us. So are you going to give up on your Darryl
Strawberry?

(Footage of Dock and Negron; Strawberry playing baseball)

SAFER: (Voiceover) His friends refuse to give up on him. But what about
the man himself? He once said, 'I know everything about hitting and
nothing about living.' It could be his epitaph.