Darryl Strawberry fired from 'Celebrity Apprentice' after asking to quit

Retired MLB baseball player Darryl Strawberry became the third celebrity eliminated from The Celebrity Apprentice's third season during Sunday's night's two-hour broadcast.


The Apprentice star Donald Trump fired Strawberry from the competition after he told Trump he wanted to quit the show.

Strawberry and the rest of his "Rocksolid" men's team teammates were in danger of going fired because they lost the competition's third task, which required the teams to design a four-page advertorial for an identity-theft and online security service, to "Tenacity," the women's team.

"When I look and see these guys here have done a super job, all of them.  I think highly of every last one of them and if you have to let anyone go, [it] can be me," Strawberry told Trump when "Rocksolid" met with him in the boardroom following the announcement of their loss.

"You don't really mean that, you're just trying to be a nice guy.  You're so full of crap Darryl.  You're saying it because you want to be cool and you want to be a nice guy, because honestly you don't deserve it, you didn't do anything wrong, " Trump asked.  "Darryl, do you want to be fired?"


"Yes," Strawberry said.

"You really do?" Trump asked.

"Well because I think of these guys, and sitting back and watching their effort," Strawberry said.

"Are you tired?  You want to go home?" Trump asked.

"Yes," Strawberry replied as the rest of his surprised teammates looked on and the winning women also expressed shock as they watched the exchange from contestants' The Apprentice suite.


"You do, I can see it," Trump noted.  "And I can see [losing project manager Michael Johnson] doesn't want to go home.  Michael wants to stay.  I'm really surprised Darryl."

"Well yeah, I'm definitely tired, no question about it.  But if you make me stay that's a different story, but I wouldn't want to go home," Strawberry replied.

"You know over nine seasons I've had two people that quit," said Trump as he once again hypocritically gave two-time reality show quitter Vincent "Big Pussy" Pastore a pass for his decision to "resign" from The Celebrity Apprentice's first season and instead bashed only former The Apprentice contestants Verna Felton and Michelle Sorro.

"And those people have never forgotten it and they've really regretted it," Trump boasted.  "They've apologized and I said, 'You're a quitter.'  And they never have lived it down.  I mean they call me and they write me.  It doesn't matter, you know, they quit."

"I wouldn't quit.  I wouldn't quit Donald, that I wouldn't do," Strawberry said.


"But you're asking to be fired and you wouldn't be the one fired on this task.  Unless you want to be fired because you have to go home, maybe you miss your wife, maybe you miss the kids, I don't know!" Trump said.

"Donald, I am a team player," Strawberry insisted.

"Yeah, but you have something more on your mind than being a team guy, Darryl," Trump replied.

"No, I mean I really don't, I really don't," Strawberry said.

However Strawberry continued to insist he was being "sincere" about his request to be fired even as teammates Brett Michaels, Bill Goldberg and Johnson all urged him to reconsider his decision. 


In addition, Johnson -- who as the team's project manager, was likely to be fired if Strawberry wasn't -- tried to convince Trump that he should still fire somebody even if Strawberry opted to quit.

"You got to be fired because you did something [wrong]... Come on, you can't just get out because you [want to]," Johnson told Trump.

"Well I don't know," Trump replied.

"Alright, well let him quit but still fire somebody.  If he wants to quit [that's fine] but somebody has to be fired," the Olympic gold-medal sprinter said.

"You shouldn't be saying that because you're a very obvious candidate," Trump noted.


"Hey, I'll take it if I'm fired but I don't want to stay here because he quit!" Johnson said.

"I'm not quitting!" Strawberry interrupted.

"Then stay!" Goldberg shouted.

"I'd rather take the hit than Michael take the hit.  I'll put it like that," Strawberry said.

"Are you taking the hit Darryl because you're loyal to your team or are you taking it because you want to get the hell out of here?" Trump asked.

"I'm taking it because I'm loyal to me team and I don't think Michael should take the hit.  I think Michael did an incredible job for this group," Strawberry said.


"Hey, you don't have to sell me on Michael.  But Michael was your project manager and you lost.  And then all of the sudden you come out with this thing that you want to be fired," Trump said.

"I have a feeling it's because you want to go home.  And that's okay, I've had that before -- you know, people have to go home.  But I have a feeling that's the real reason.  Is it?  A little bit right?" he asked.

"A little bit, yeah," Strawberry replied.

"Darryl, you're fired!" Trump said.

Afterward, Johnson continued to express his frustration about how things had unfolded.

"Michael, I don't think he really took a bullet for you, but I respect Darryl," Trump said. 


"I'm not happy, I'd rather [be fired]!" Johnson said.

"No, I know you're not happy... you don't have to explain," Trump replied.

"I just wouldn't feel comfortable being here if Darryl just leaves," Johnson said.

"Well Michael, you shouldn't talk him out of the decision," interjected Donald Trump Jr., who had served as one of The Donald's advisors during the task. 

"There's been plenty of Olympic runners who have won because the guy that was beating them tripped at the finish line.  You may have won some races that way too.  That doesn't make the person who won the gold any less of a winner," he continued.

"Right, but I don't want to win the race because the guy quit," Johnson shot back.


"Michael, you got lucky.  Now get out of here before I change my mind," Trump said.

Afterward, actress Holly Robinson Peete expressed her shock over what she and the rest of the women's team had just watched from The Apprentice suite.

"The most disturbing thing about Darryl leaving is the fact that he's playing for [an] autism [charity] like I am.  And I can not believe that Darryl Strawberry, who knows everybody in New York, is just going to watch away with no money for his charity," Peete said.

Strawberry continued to defend his decision to quit after he left the show's Trump Tower boardroom.

"I think people will be shocked that I quit, but I did it for a great reason.  When the question came to me as to who should he fire I said, 'Fire me,'" he said. 

"Because I was pretty exhausted myself anyways and I think my teammates [had] done a great job on the task."






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