Former Met Elected to Appalachian League HOF

Former New York Mets slugger Darryl Strawberry has been elected to the 2023 class of the Appalachian League Hall of Fame, per the league’s web site.

Strawberry broke in with the New York Mets, which had an Appalachian League affiliate at the time.

After being selected No. 1 overall in the 1980 MLB Draft, the Mets sent him to Kingsport for his first taste of professional baseball.

He played 44 games with Kingsport that year, Strawberry batted .268 with five home runs and 20 RBIs.

Through the Appalachian League, Strawberry talked about his time in Kingsport.

“When you think about baseball, you have to start somewhere, and I think a lot of memories that you have about where you played like Kingsport — that was the beginning of do you know or don’t you know what you’re going to be,” Strawberry said. “My manager, Chuck Hiller, said just come here and play baseball, and this is just the beginning where you start to learn how to be a professional athlete.”

Strawberry worked his way through the Mets’ organization and was the 1983 National League Rookie of the Year. He was part of the team’s 1986 World Series championship team and went on to win two more titles with the New York Yankees in 1996 and 1998. He was an eight-time All-Star and won two Silver Slugger awards.

In 16 MLB seasons he hit 335 home runs, drove in 1,000 runs and stole 221 bases.

The Appalachian League was founded in 1911 and was a long-time part of the MLB minor-league baseball system, primarily as a rookie league affiliate. When MLB reorganized its minor-league system, the Appalachian League was left out. But, it resurrected itself as a collegiate summer baseball league for freshmen and sophomores.