Darryl Strawberry stood on the Citi Field grass as his No. 18 was being retired and addressed the New York Mets fans he had jilted 34 years earlier.
“I mean this from the bottom of my heart, I’m so sorry for ever leaving you guys,” Strawberry told the crowd of 30,600, his voice slowing.
“I’m truly, deeply sorry that I ever left you guys. I never played baseball in front of fans greater than you guys.”
Fans of the long-suffering team, which hasn’t won the World Series since Strawberry’s 1986 Mets, responded with a loud ovation, the emotional high point of his 16-minute speech before Saturday’s game against Arizona.
Strawberry’s No. 18 was cut into the center-field grass and the home run apple was transformed into a home run strawberry.
The public address system played the Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever.”
Former teammates and family sat on folding chairs in the infield.
He wasn’t sure he would make it to this day.
The Mets announced last August they would retire Strawberry’s number this year along with Dwight Gooden’s No. 16. Strawberry had a heart attack on March 11, a day before his 62nd birthday, and wound up in SSM Health St. Joseph Hospital in Lake St. Louis, Missouri.
“When I came out of the surgery, my heart was at 32%,” he said.
Strawberry, on the road as a minister for more than half each year, credited his wife, Tracy, for taking him to the hospital and saving his life.
