Darryl Strawberry's past now will be an integral part of his future.
Myfoxorlando.com (WOFL FOX 35 Orlando) is reporting that the 51-year-old former Major League Baseball slugger and recovering drug addict is opening a rehabilitation center in St. Cloud, Fla.
According to myfoxorlando.com, The Darryl Strawberry Recovery Center will be open to the public as well as professional athletes. Strawberry and his wife Tracy are ordained ministers, according to hallofverygood.com, and have set up Strawberry Ministries to reach out to others.
The recovery center will include a program from profession athletes dealing with addiction.
"A lot of athletes, we don't know [our purpose] when we're playing. We have the uniform on and we're stars and we play for this great team, but that's just what we do. A lot of us don't really know who we are," Strawberry said.
He added that during his personal battles with addiction, he felt singled out because of his notoriety. Strawberry said that any athletes fighting personal demons would share a modest dorm room so that they could help each other with their struggles.
"They could stay together and they can learn together and work together," Strawberry said.
Strawberry battled an alcohol and drug addiction during his playing career from 1983-99 that derailed what many experts believe would've been a Hall of Fame career. Still, Strawberry was an eight-time all-star and member of four world championship teams - with the New York Mets in 1986 and the New York Yankees in 1996, 1998 and 1999.
He hopes anyone who enters his facility, athlete or not, will learn from his public battle with addiction.
But another part of the facility will be an outpatient clinic for HPN Neurologic, a company that provides treatment for people with traumatic brain injury.
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