NEW YORK — The former No. 1 overall pick arrived with the Yankees in 1995 after a cocaine-related suspension. Darryl Strawberry rebuilt enough of his career to join a championship run.
But the final stage of his major league career showed how thin the line between revival and collapse could become. He watched addiction and legal trouble repeatedly pulling him away from baseball.
The Yankees became one of Strawberry’s last baseball lifelines. San Francisco released him after he tested positive for cocaine in early 1995 and MLB suspended him for 60 days. New York signed him that June. He returned again in 1996 after a stint with the independent St. Paul Saints and helped the Yankees win their first World Series since 1978. Two years later, he hit 24 home runs in 101 games before colon cancer ended his season.
The comeback never became a clean line. In April 1999, while trying to return from cancer treatment, Strawberry was arrested in Tampa on cocaine possession and solicitation charges. He pleaded no contest and received another MLB suspension. Yet he returned late that season, hit two postseason home runs and finished the year celebrating another Yankees championship.
A January 2000 cocaine test finally ended the baseball comeback. Then-commissioner Bud Selig suspended Strawberry for the entire season, effectively closing his 17-year MLB career. More drug-related trouble and jail time followed. Strawberry eventually entered long-term recovery, became an ordained minister and built much of his post-baseball work around addiction and restoration. His latest memoir, “Another Life,” was released Aug. 11. That long arc from public collapse to recovery is now shaping how he sees a new drug controversy involving another high-profile athlete nearly three decades after the Yankees first gave him another chance.
Strawberry turns Kyrgios case into personal admission
Strawberry publicly came to the defense of Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios after he tested positive for cocaine and was provisionally suspended under tennis anti-doping rules.
The former Yankees slugger tied the case directly to what he endured when his own substance abuse became public.
Strawberry told TMZ Sports that athletes can be judged before outsiders understand what is happening away from competition.
“I think it’s truly unfair when people punish people, especially athletes, that have substance abuse problems,” Strawberry told TMZ Sports. “I had it for a very long time and I received the same kind of treatment from the public. A lot of times we don’t understand what a person is going through emotionally, mentally, inside.”
The admission stood out because Strawberry did not distance himself from the history that repeatedly interrupted his Yankees career. He used it to argue that Kyrgios needs support as well as accountability.
“Substance abuse is just something to escape from. You can be great as an athlete and have all the talent you want, but at the same time, when you’re broken on the inside, you need to be healed on the inside. And that’s all it is really for him,” Strawberry said.
Kyrgios suspension remains unresolved
The International Tennis Integrity Agency said Kyrgios provided a sample June 22 during an ATP 250 event in Mallorca, Spain. A WADA-accredited laboratory confirmed benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, in the sample July 17.
The provisional suspension took effect Aug. 4. The ITIA announced the case Aug. 19. As of Aug. 23, no final sanction had been announced.
Kyrgios acknowledged the positive test publicly.
“I made a huge mistake and I take full responsibility for it,” Kyrgios wrote on Instagram.
Cocaine is banned in competition under tennis anti-doping rules. Reduced sanctions can apply if use is established as out of competition and unrelated to sports performance. Kyrgios had not appealed the provisional suspension when the ITIA announced it.
Strawberry said Kyrgios needs people around him while the case plays out.
“He just needs time. He just needs people to love him through the process. And that’s what it was for me, having people love me through the process and help me through the process. We all need help. You know, we all fall short,” Strawberry said.
Yankees comeback still produced uncommon numbers
MLB’s official season totals shows Strawberry hit 41 home runs with 114 RBIs in 231 regular-season games for the Yankees from 1995 through 1999.
He also hit five postseason home runs in 20 playoff games for the Yankees. Three came during the 1996 AL Championship Series against Baltimore. Two more came in the 1999 postseason after he returned from suspension.
The Yankees won World Series titles in 1996, 1998 and 1999 during his time in pinstripes. Strawberry missed the 1998 postseason after his cancer diagnosis but received a championship ring as part of that club.
MLB records credit Strawberry with 335 career home runs, 1,000 RBIs, 221 stolen bases and eight All-Star selections.
Strawberry’s old Yankees wounds shape his response
Strawberry’s comments arrive less than a year after President Donald Trump granted him a full pardon in November 2025 for past tax evasion and drug-related offenses. He has spent years speaking publicly about addiction and recovery.
That makes his response more than one retired athlete weighing in on another sport’s controversy. Strawberry is revisiting the part of his Yankees story that once threatened to erase his on-field success.
He is not disputing Kyrgios’ positive test. His argument is that punishment should not eliminate the possibility of recovery.
Strawberry suffered a heart attack in March 2024.
Kyrgios’ case remains open. His provisional suspension is still in place, and the ITIA had not announced a final sanction as of Aug. 23.
Strawberry’s position is already clear. The former Yankees star who lived through baseball’s public punishment cycle believes Kyrgios should have people helping him through whatever comes next.
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