Darryl Strawberry Had a Sports Bar?

The hottest new sports bar that you never knew existed has closed its doors.

That's right, Darryl Strawberry's joint Strawberry's Sports Grill, which opened in August 2010, called it quits this past weekend.

"It came out of nowhere,” Darryl’s older brother Michael told The Queens Courier. “I am very sad. Rest assured it had nothing to do with my brother and me."

According to a baseball pun heavy story, employees at the should-be popular Queens eatery suspected the restaurant was having issues when management "stopped placing orders for food and paychecks were being bounced."

Now, I've never worked in the food industry, but I'd have to think that that's never a good sign.

"They gave us checks on Friday but said we couldn’t cash them until Tuesday because they said there was no money,” the employee said. “People may not be getting paid. They owe some people $600 to $800."

For the record, this isn't the first time the three-time World Series champ showed his lack of business acumen.  Strawberry famously became the third contestant let go from "Celebrity Apprentice" back in Season Three after asking Donald Trump to be fired.

You see, what I'm doing there is building a case that the eight-time All-Star might not have the best business sense.

Oh...nevermind.

Mets to Induct Doc and Straw

Twenty years ago (yes, TWENTY!), I would have told you that both Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry were well on their way to becoming Hall of Famers.

It's true!

Going into the 1990 season, "Doc" was sitting at 100-39 with a 2.64 ERA. His strikeout totals and 1985 Cy Young Award were reminding New York fans of former Met Tom Seaver and washing helping wash the taste of Pete Falcone and Doug Sisk from their collective mouths.

Patroling rightfield was "Straw" and his canon of an arm. At the plate, he was averaging just more than 30 home runs over the first seven years of his career and had appeared in six straight All-Star Games.

The guys were good. But then, well...then the 90s hit.

Thankfully, the Mets are remembering their past and with their first team Hall of Fame induction since 2002...are honoring Gooden and Strawberry (along with 1986 World Series winnnig manager Davey Johnson and team architect Frank Cashen) by making them the first inductees in the team's NEW Hall of Fame at Citi Field.

I could go on and on...or just point you in the direction of two great stories on the subject.

The first is by friend of The Hall Dan Levy over at The Sporting Blog and the second is from New Jersey Online. All in all..both stellar reads.

Like I said, I would add more, but I need to go find my old Starting Lineup figures so I can construct my own Hall of Fame here at the office.