Darryl Strawberry

DARRRR--RYLLLL! It was so much easier when the man was a Met. DARRRR--RYLLLL!! This is sung as a taunt, not a cheer. DARRRR-RYLLLL!!! Make that a plea. If you can hear me, Darryl, wherever you are, say it ain't so! My hope was that you had a good explanation for your disappearance--that maybe you were on your way to the game Sunday when you spotted an orphanage in flames and rescued 14 kids, only to be overcome by smoke and rushed to the emergency room.

On a run-down section of South Broadway in South-Central Los Angeles, a sparkling white Porsche convertible pulls up in front of a modest storefront. Out of the car steps Eric Davis, who will earn $3 million for each of the next three years patrolling center field for the Cincinnati Reds. Nearby, a dirty-faced homeless man pushes a shopping cart past the storefront and an adjoining Baptist church and aluminum-can reclamation yard.

The sweet-swinging savior. That's the way that Darryl Strawberry was heralded upon his return to Los Angeles in 1991. Strawberry's unique blend of speed and power was supposed to make him L.A.'s new miracle worker when he was signed as a free agent by the Dodgers. Perhaps those weight-of-the-world expectations are the reason he failed. "I could see it coming," said Earl Brown Jr., a major league scout and a former Dodger farmhand.

There is a lot of Mike Marshall in Darryl Strawberry. BILL STEIN Cambria

Why would news about Darryl Strawberry be printed in the sports section? DWIGHT CATES Ventura

Now that Michael Jordan is playing for the White Sox, how about Darryl Strawberry for the Lakers? JOHN MOREIKO Glendora

Finally, someone wants Darryl Strawberry! Obviously he evades taxes as much as he avoids work. L. CRAIG Pasadena

Wouldn't it be more descriptive to change Darryl Strawberry to Rufus Razzberry? JACK C. CLARK Santa Ana

So, Nick Van Exel is going to "rededicate" himself, again [Sept. 12]. Sounds like Nick is getting his counseling from Darryl Strawberry. R.J. DEAKINS, Temecula