Former Mets star Darryl Strawberry describes life after heart attack

For former Mets star Darryl Strawberry, the heart attack was life-changing.

Strawberry experienced the health crisis on March 11 and underwent a stent procedure at SSM Health St. Joseph Hospital in Missouri, which reportedly saved his life.

“Having a heart attack is different,” says Strawberry SNY said on Monday at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, where the Mets play a three-game series against the Cardinals this week.

“It’s a different feeling inside. You feel tired. You feel weak. You take a lot of medication. You don’t think you’ll be okay again. It was a scary time. There is no doubt about that.”

Strawberry, 62, lives in nearby O’Fallon, Missouri.

“Without my wife (Tracy), I don’t know where I would be because she really helped me through this process,” Strawberry said. “It was really hard and very challenging, but I tell you what, I got to see a lot of baseball. I have SNY at home, so now I have a chance to see a lot of Mets games.”

Drafted first overall by the Mets in 1980, the lefty Strawberry spent his first eight MLB seasons with the team, making seven All-Star appearances and winning a World Series in 1986. His 252 home runs with the Mets remain a franchise record.

Strawberry left the Mets before the 1991 season for a five-year, $22 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers and also played for the San Francisco Giants and Yankees during his 17-season MLB career.

He won championships with the Yankees in 1996 and 1999, but did not participate in the team’s 1998 World Series after he was diagnosed with colon cancer.

Strawberry made a surprise appearance at Citi Field on April 14, just over a month after his heart attack, when longtime Mets teammate Dwight Gooden’s No. 16 was retired.

Shortly after Strawberry’s heart attack, Gooden called the former outfielder his “dearest brother.”

“Get well soon, buddy, because we have a lot to celebrate this year!” Gooden, also a member of the 1986 World Series-winning Mets, wrote on social media by the time.

Strawberry hit 335 home runs, recorded 1,000 RBI and stole 221 bases during an MLB career in which he battled drug problems that resulted in three suspensions. As a 21-year-old, he was named Rookie of the Year in 1983 and finished in the top six of the National League MVP voting three times with the Mets, including a runner-up finish in 1988.

The Mets will retire Strawberry’s No. 18 from the game in a ceremony on June 1.

“I look forward to this day,” Strawberry SNY said. “I’m looking forward to being able to really say thank you to the fans, to be able to say to the fans that I’m sorry I’m gone, just a lot of things, and thank a lot of people. “That’s the day just not about me.”