Darryl Strawberry says God ‘set me free’ with Trump pardon

Eight-time Major League Baseball All-Star Darryl Strawberry says God set him “free” by enabling him to receive a presidential pardon from President Donald Trump, citing this development as an example that there are “no mistakes with God.”

Strawberry, 63, preached at the 74th anniversary service for Sheridan Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Sunday. The retired athlete, who played for the New York Mets through much of the 1980s before moving on to the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants and New York Yankees, told the crowd that “God just completely set me free when He gave me a pardon from President Donald J. Trump.” 

On Nov. 7, Trump granted clemency to Strawberry, one of the more prolific outfielders of his era, for a 1995 tax evasion charge. 

“The world is mad,” Strawberry added. Noting how other presidents had the opportunity to pardon him but “didn’t do it,” Strawberry said that “God picked His servant to do it.”

“With what happens in your life, there is no mistakes with God because I walk this Romans 8:28,” he added. 

Strawberry summarized the Bible verse, saying, “All things work together for the good.” While Strawberry did not elaborate on the pardon from Trump during his appearance at Sheridan Church, he provided additional details in a Nov. 7 Instagram post. 

“At 4:37 pm, Yesterday I was home caring for my wife as she recovered from surgery, when my phone kept ringing relentlessly,” he recalled. “Half asleep, I glanced over and saw a call from Washington DC. Curious, I answered, and to my amazement, the lady on the line said, ‘Darryl Strawberry, you have a call from the President of the United States.'”

In addition to noting how the phone call featured the president reminiscing about Strawberry’s athletic career, the athlete announced that “he told me he was granting me a full pardon from my past.” According to Strawberry, “My wife captured the moment on video, and I was overwhelmed with gratitude — thanking God for setting me free from my past, helping me become a better Man, Husband and Father.”

“This experience has deepened my faith and commitment to working for His kingdom as a true follower of Jesus Christ,” Strawberry insisted. “This has nothing to do with politics — it’s about a Man, President Trump, caring deeply for a friend. God used him as a vessel to set me free forever!”

In addition to sharing images of the two men together, Strawberry thanked Trump for “finalizing this part of my life” and “allowing me to be truly free and clean from all of my past.”

As detailed by the Office of the Pardon Attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, Strawberry was one of seven individuals who received a pardon from Trump on Nov. 7. 

Trump pardoned Strawberry for the offense of income tax evasion, which resulted in a 1995 sentence of three years’ probation, conditioned upon six months’ home confinement and 100 hours of community service. 

“Mr. Strawberry served time and paid back taxes after pleading guilty to one count of tax evasion,” a White House official told CNN earlier this month, pointing to Strawberry’s sobriety, his strong Christian faith and his involvement in launching a recovery center in Florida.

With his baseball career decades in the rearview mirror, Strawberry became an ordained minister in 2013. In a 2019 appearance at the 30th annual Southern California Harvest Sunday, Strawberry expressed gratitude for his legal troubles, which extended beyond the income tax evasion offense and included a stint in prison on drug-related charges that lasted for about a year. 

“I am glad [about] everything that happened to me because had it not, I probably would have made another $50 million playing baseball, but I would have never met Jesus,” Strawberry said at the event. “That would have kept me separated. That would have kept me in a lifestyle of thinking that I have it all together.”

After Strawberry’s release from prison in 2003, the athlete met his wife, Tracy, whom he credited with helping him establish a relationship with Jesus Christ. The Strawberrys operate Strawberry Ministries, which works to “restore lives and relationships from the root causes of addiction and other life controlling issues and patterns that lead to defeated living and dysfunctional loving.”