star had arrived."

Larger than most of the population at 6'6, by the end of the 1986 World Championship season Strawberry also cast a shadow over life itself. And that's just the way the media wanted him.

You see, the more they build up an image in the good times, the deeper the grave they dig in the bad. Sports media works in black and white--you win or you lose; you're quiet and hard-working or you're disruptive and lazy; you're Jordan or you're Iverson, hero or villain.

Straw started doing coke in 1983. He wasn't caught until '95. Cocaine was pretty cool in the 80's, but by the 90's its time, and Darryl's, had passed.

It was time for him to fall, and fall he did. With his failed drug test in 1995 and concurrent tax evasion charges, all the skeletons came out of the closet. Strawberry had never fooled anyone into thinking he was an angel (that spin didn't come until he joined the Yankees), but suddenly, in 1995, he was beyond salvation.

The Yankees drew heavy fire for signing him in 1995 and again in 1996.

At the time, I thought he deserved another chance.

He received a 60-day suspension for his positive drug test in 1995, and he has sounded like a changed man thereafter. He backed up his words with heavy and active charity participation, a sedentary public life and a crystal clean rap sheet. He looked and acted sincere.