DARRYL Strawberry is standing in the living room of his two-bedroom apartment at Ohm, a new rental building in far west Chelsea.
"You want to see one of my favorite things?" he asks.
The baseball legend hasn't been in this $5,295-per-month apartment long - just a nfl jersey
few months. He and his wife, Tracy still have a five-bedroom house in St. Louis. And while their new 1,050-square-foot rental, with white walls and floor-to-ceiling windows that look out onto large expanses of the West Side Highway, the Hudson River and New Jersey, is neat and well maintained, it doesn't quite feel lived in. (Strawberry even keeps a packed suitcase next to the bed, in case he needs to travel at a moment's notice.) Strawberry, 48, leaves the living room and disappears into the bedroom.
He returns a moment later with a bag of golf clubs.
"This is my favorite thing," Strawberry says. "My paradise." Yes, one of the greatest sluggers to ever don a New York Mets uniform has traded his baseball bat for a 9-iron and a putter.
(And to make matters more confusing - at least sports-wise - the 6-foot-5inch Strawberry is wearing a Kobe Bryant jersey when we drop by.) "I wish I had picked it up earlier," he says of golf. "I've been playing a lot for a while - before I went into the restaurant business. But I'm too busy now." He adds: "In a great way." The "restaurant business" is the new Strawberry's Sports Grill in Douglaston, Queens. And it's likely the reason Strawberry has little baseball memorabilia from his days as a Met or a Yankee: Much of it has gone to the restaurant.
(But he does keep a few old No. 18 Mets jerseys in the apartment.) What Strawberry's rental doesn't lack are spectacular vistas - from more than 20 floors up.
"It's a great view of New Jersey," Strawberry says, gesturing towards the wall of glass in the living room.
Strawberry, who retired from baseball in 1999, says that he doesn't really like soaking up the New York City scene, so it's no surprise that he and his wife have made their apartment comfy and casual.
The living room has two soft, enormous Ashley Furniture couches facing one of three Samsung flatscreen TVs (Strawberry got the TVs gratis when he made a personal appearance at an electronics store.)
Opening onto the living room is the stainless-steel kitchen, which features white Chicago Bears jersey
polished counters and one of Strawberry's most prized possessions, a black Hamilton Beach coffeemaker.
Off of the living room/ kitchen are two separate, simply decorated bedrooms. One is where he and his wife sleep. Next to their bed is another of Strawberry's most cherished items, a brown leather "On Wings of Eagles" book of scripture. (Tracy is a nondenominational minister.).
The other bedroom is a guestroom for friends or one of Darryl and Tracy's combined eight children, should they be in town.
But one gets the sense that Strawberry's heart isn't quite in Manhattan - it was the opening of his restaurant that lured him back to NYC.
"This is the first time I've ever lived in the city," he says. "I can't believe I say I live in the city . . . but I figured, 'Well, if I opened a restaurant, I need to be here.' "
Despite the association almost every baseball fan of a certain age has with Strawberry and New York, he grew up in Los Angeles. When he was on the Mets, he lived on Long Island, in Roslyn. When he was on the Yankees, he lived in Fort Lee, NJ.
With his rowdy ballplayer days long behind him, Strawberry likes having simple nights in his apartment.
I'm not a go-out-to-eat person," he says.
When my wife's home, we go to the grocery store. We're not like most New Yorkers - we're Midwestern people." Strawberry says he vetoed the idea of opening his restaurant in Manhattan and opted for Queens, where his fan base remains fanatical.
("Trust me," he told his business partners when they were discussing location.
"This is Queens. This is my territory - people there don't forget.") But if Strawberry does want a taste of Manhattan nightlife, he won't have to venture past his building.
Even though it's on 11th Avenue and a good hike from the subway, Ohm has a reputation as a lively place to reside. All summer long, young singles mixed at cookouts and parties there, including one thrown by Friends of the High Line. (The nearby elevated park is being extended.) But Strawberry hasn't really taken advantage of New Orleans Saints jersey
his new building's many amenities.
Ohm residents eager to see him at one of the building's Knitting Factorycurated rock concerts in the lobby atrium shouldn't hold their breath. And when asked if he uses the building's game room or gym, Strawberry laughs.
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