Darryl Strawberry received a federal pardon from President Donald Trump this week regarding the New York Mets legend‘s tax evasion and drug charges from the 1990s.
Strawberry, who finished his 17-season MLB career with 335 home runs and 1,000 RBI, was indicted and later pleaded guilty on a single felony account to tax evasion charges in 1995. The eight-time All-Star failed to report $350,000 in income he made from autograph signings and personal appearances.
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While he had accepted three months in prison as part of a plea bargain, Strawberry ended up with only six months of home confinement and was ordered to pay more than $430,000 in back taxes, interest and penalties.
In 1999, Strawberry was sentenced to 21 months of probation and suspended 140 days by MLB after pleading no contest to charges of possession of cocaine and soliciting a prostitute. He served 11 months in a Florida state prison.
“Following his career, Mr. Strawberry found faith in Christianity and has been sober for over a decade – he has become active in ministry and started a recovery center which still operates today,” according to a White House official’s statement, via CNBC.
On his Instagram page Friday, Strawberry, now 63, thanked President Trump for the pardon, which he said will allow him “to be truly free and clean from all of my past.”
“At 4:37pm, Yesterday I was home caring for my wife as she recovered from surgery, when my phone kept ringing relentlessly. 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, Donald Trump.” I put it on speakerphone with my wife nearby, and President Trump spoke warmly about my baseball days in NYC, praising me as one the greatest player of the ‘80s and celebrating the Mets. Then, he told me he was granting me a full pardon from my past. 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.
“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!”
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President Trump announced in March that he would be issuing a “complete” pardon of Pete Rose following the baseball hit king’s death six months earlier. Trump did not specify what the pardon would cover. Rose plead guilty to tax evasion charges in 1990 and served five months in prison.
As of Friday, that pardon has not been issued and remains pending, according to the Office of the Pardon Attorney.