The White House confirmed on Friday that President Trump pardoned former professional baseball player Darryl Strawberry, who was convicted of tax evasion in the 1990s.
“President Trump has approved a pardon for Darryl Strawberry, three-time World Series champion and eight-time MLB All-Star,” a White House official told The Hill. “Mr. Strawberry served time and paid back taxes after pleading guilty to one count of tax evasion. 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.”
Strawberry first announced the pardon in an Instagram post earlier on Friday.
“Thank you, President @realdonaldtrump for my full pardon and for finalizing this part of my life, allowing me to be truly free and clean from all of my past,” he wrote in a post that included a picture of him and Trump.
Strawberry said he received the call yesterday afternoon and that the president “spoke warmly about my baseball days in NYC” and called him “the greatest player of the ‘80s” before he told him he was pardoning him.
“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!” the former baseball player wrote.
Strawberry was among the most talented power hitters of his generation, winning three World Series championships and eight All-Star Game nominations during his career. He spent 13 of his 17 MLB seasons in Trump’s hometown of New York — eight with the New York Mets and five with the New York Yankees — with stints with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants in between.
In 1995, he pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion after he did not report a large portion of his income on federal tax returns.
Strawberry struggled with addition throughout his career and in the years after his retirement before seeking treatment. He has since written several books about his recovery and was honored by the Mets in 2024 with the retirement of his jersey number.
Strawberry is the latest public figure to receive a pardon from Trump. Earlier on Friday, the White House confirmed the president issued a pardon for former Tennessee state House Speaker Glen Casada (R) and his former chief of staff Cade Cothren, who had both been previously convicted of corruption charges.
—Sylvan Lane contributed.
Go To Source | Author: Julia Manchester
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