“God just completely set me free” - Darryl Strawberry thanks Donald Trump for pardoning drug charges and tax evasion during Tulsa church sermon

US President Donald Trump pardoned former New York Mets legend Darryl Strawberry for his legal problems related to tax evasion on November 7. On Sunday, Strawberry expressed his gratitude, thanking Trump during his sermon at a church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Darryl Strawberry was plagued with several legal troubles during the latter half of his playing career. In 1994, he was indicted on one count of tax evasion after failing to declare earnings of $502,043, resulting in a sentence of six months of home confinement and two years of probation. After twenty-one years, he was pardoned by Trump.

“God just completely set me free when he gave me a pardon from President Donald J. Trump,” said Strawberry. “Other presidents had opportunities, but they didn’t do it.”

Aside from tax evasion-related trouble, Strawberry also saw himself facing 21 months of probation and community service in 1999 due to drug and prostitution solicitation charges. In 2002, he was sentenced to 18 months of jail for violating his probation and several non-drug rules at the treatment center he was assigned to.

After meeting his wife, Tracy, at a drug recovery convention in 2005, Strawberry's life transformed as the couple shared common beliefs with respect to Christianity. The eight-time All-Star considers himself to be an evangelical born-again Christian and was ordained as a minister, like his wife, in 2024.

Darryl Strawberry recounts his conversation with Donald Trump

Strawberry had become familiar with Trump on his reality TV show, The Celebrity Apprentice, fifteen years back. Early morning on November 6, he heard that very same voice, this time as the US President, who was willing to rid him of his wrongdoings.

"We just talked about my baseball career in the 1980s and what kind of player I was,” Strawberry told The Associated Press on Sunday. “He was just telling me how great of a player I was … and he just kind of joked around that he couldn’t hit a baseball. I said, ’Well, the way you hit a golf ball, you can hit a baseball."

“He told me, ‘You know you did some very bad things. But he said, ’Today, the way your life is and what you’re doing, your faith and helping people and being sober, I’m giving you a full pardon. You’re going to be clean. I’m wiping everything out.’”

Strawberry won the World Series with the Mets once in 1986 and the Yankees twice in 1998-1999. His No. 18 is retired by the Mets, and he was also included in the team's Hall of Fame in 2010.