Darryl Strawberry calls MLB instant replay ‘a big waste’ and picks classic game to rewatch

Darryl Strawberry spoke to FanSided about instant replay in baseball, the best Mets game to watch while social distancing and the importance of taking your health seriously.

Four-time World Series champion Darryl Strawberry describes himself as an “old school” baseball guy and thinks that instant replay is one advance in the game which should be eliminated to bring more excitement and speed to MLB games.

“Get rid of instant replay. It’s a waste of time,” Strawberry said when asked by FanSided’s Mark Carman about what rule he would change. “You make the call and you live with it– get rid of that. Keep the game flowing instead of stopping in the middle of it. I think that’s just a big waste.”

Strawberry was speaking as part of a campaign for Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Himself a cancer survivor, Strawberry is working with letsgetchecked.com and encouraging people totake charge of their health.

“At least you’ll know where you’re at. I think we’ve gotten away from wanting to know where we’re at with things because of busyness and fear and we need to get past that,” Strawberry said. “So many people find themself not knowing that they have this problem and it could be there, you could be healthy. I was healthy, playing Major League Baseball in ’98 and there I was with a tumor inside of me, and running around the bases. …

“I’m just here to try to encourage people and make them aware. This campaign is really a campaign that can help you and maybe save your life.”

Strawberry spoke candidly about the challenges of his own battles with cancer as well as his mother who died from breast cancer.

“I think the hardest part was overcoming the trauma that your body goes through,” he said. “Taking chemo for six months, that process was very difficult. There were a few times I just wanted to give up on that and my doctor kept pushing me and saying ‘No you’ve got to take it.’ … It was really hard going through that process taking chemo because I remember my mom, she didn’t want to take radiation no more when she went had terminal breast cancer.”

With the MLB season on hold and many fans staying inside to social distance, Carman asked Strawberry which classic game fans should go back to watch from the archives. His pick: the 1986 Mets clinching the NL East pennant with a win at home over the Chicago Cubs.

“I think that was a remarkable time for us, a remarkable night for us to remember,” Strawberry said. “Yeah, of course we went on to win the World Series that year, but I think about us that year and we had such a big lead in the division and we went to Philly and St. Louis and we lost and got swept there. We came home and Doc Gooden was pitching that night against the Cubs and the ballpark was just on fire.

“Remembering when we clinched and just remembering all the fans running on the field. I remember seeing that before in Major League Baseball from watching television, watching games, and saying ‘One day I want to be a part of that,’ and there it was. … I was just happy for them because it had been so long and they deserved it more than anything.”

Strawberry called that Mets team “the most remarkable team I ever played on.”

See the full interview – including Strawberry discussing playing for both MLB teams in New York and what else he does these days – above.