Athlete and rapper. Together at last like peanuts and gum. There’s not much better than hearing athletes embarass themselves on wax. “I’m great on the field or court so how could I not also be good at the rap game.” The list of wack sports rappers is long. Kobe, AI, Neon Deion, Shaq, Chicago Bears, MC Hammer (well he was a batboy). Who was the first athlete to go solo on wax? I’m not sure but Darryl Strawberry had to be one of the first to do it.

You might have forgotten about this gem called “Chocolate Strawberry” recorded by Darryl, UTFO and Run DMC in 1987.

When I’m runnin, all the players make space
My name is Darryl, I’m a baseball player
One thing I forgot to say-a
When I’m on the field I’m on top of the world
I get screams from all the girls (Dar-ryl!)

Eat your heart out, Roger Craig. These lyrics are funky fresh!

We’ll leave you with these two works of brilliance for Friday. These first has the added bonus of Roger Craig rapping and Jerry Rice doing the K-Swiss. We give you the 49ers Rap.

This is the coup de grace. Not only does it feature Deion Sanders but it also showcases MC Hammer and the one and only Jean Claude Van Damme. There’s nothing the Belgian Bomber can’t do.

I couldn’t think of a better place for a former all-star cokehead than teaching young baseball players how to be professional ball players. Darryl Strawberry is a roving instructor for the New York Mets organization, a job given to him by Mets VP and GM Omar Minaya where Straw will visit the affiliates from the rookie leagues to Class AAA.

Last weekend, Strawberry was at the single A Savannah Sand Gnats complex giving all sorts of advice to their young hitters, something he wishes he had when he was coming up to the majors:

“We didn’t have that when I came up. You had to learn the hard way. You had to learn the hard knocks of life. It’s life. It’s a journey. It’s the same thing for these younger guys.

“I try to explain to them about the life of playing professional sports, the temptations and the people. You’ve got to be extremely careful about who you deal with.”

Certainly these kids are going to listen to this guy when he tells them how to get to the majors and what not to do to stay there. Straw had a world of talent and he could have been a hall of fame player were it not for his addictions, for him to talk to the kids in the Mets single A team is like the baseball equivalent of Scared Straight to these kids.

“Do you wake up in the morning and feel like you have to kill somebody??”

I have to think besides teaching the normal hitting, fielding, time management and psychological aspects of the game of baseball, Darryl is also telling the kids some other fine points about managing life in the big leagues such as:

- How to have a ho’ in every visiting town

- How to not get said ho’ pregnant

- How to keep said ho’ quiet about her ho’ing around with you

- How to do a proper line of blow off said ho’s ass

- How not to mix the uppers with the downers

Well you get the point…oh yea, and if you don’t remember scared straight, here’s some bonus footage for ya.