Strawberry takes a swing at 'Apprentice'

One of baseball's greatest sluggers, Darryl Strawberry, spent some of his darkest days in Tampa. This is the place where his life crashed and his career ended.

After 17 years in baseball, his last stop was with the New York Yankees. He helped them win the 1998 World Series.

But colon cancer, drug abuse and fast living caught up with him. A series of embarrassing arrests here between 1999 and 2002 - for cocaine possession, soliciting for prostitution and violating probation - tarnished the image of the once cocky hitter for the New York Mets who was a hero in the 1980s.

It is an older, wiser, sober, born-again Christian Strawberry who will be back in the spotlight Sunday night on NBC as one of the contenders on Donald Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice."

He will be competing against disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, singer Cyndi Lauper, rocker Bret Michaels, Sharon Osbourne (the brains behind Ozzy Osbourne), wrestlers Bill Goldberg and Maria Kanellis, Olympic sprinter Michael Johnson, actress Holly Robinson Peete, comics Carol Leifer and Sinbad, Olympic swimmer Summer Sanders, master chef Curtis Stone and model Selita Ebanks.

Strawberry will be playing for a charity, the Darryl Strawberry Foundation, which helps autistic children.

Returning back to the boardroom along with The Donald are his children, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., as well as longtime Trump adviser George Ross.

Strawberry has been in Florida recently attending the New York Mets spring training in Port St. Lucie. He's still a legend to Mets fans. In a video interview released by NBC, Strawberry says he is excited about taking on Trump's challenges in New York City, where he is known and has a lot of connections.

The first challenge on Sunday night is a two-hour special that begins at 9 p.m. The teams are divided by gender, and the challenge is to sell the most hamburgers. Last season's winner, Joan Rivers, drops by to encourage and heckle.

MISSED AMERICA: NBC has renewed Donald Trump's "Miss Universe Pageant" through 2014. The pageant airs in May and draws decent ratings.

Meanwhile, the Miss America Pageant is looking for a new home. Last week, the TLC network quietly canceled its contract with the event that originated from Las Vegas and was watched by 4.5 million viewers in January.

Reportedly, there was a squabble over what TLC was willing to pay for a two-year renewal.

CHANNEL FLIPPING: TV Land has a new reality series, "First Love, Second Chance," at 10 tonight on which former sweethearts are reunited to see whether they can rekindle their former romance.

•The CW keeps trying to find another series that will appeal to its young female audience. The new effort, "High Society," debuts at 9:30 tonight. It's a reality show that follows the upscale party life of socialite Tinsley Mortimer.

Mortimer, 33, dubbed "The Park Avenue Princess," is the ex-wife of Standard Oil heir Topper Mortimer.

•At the other end of the social ladder is middle-class, middle-brow, middle-aged comic Jim Gaffigan. No matter how many times you see his "Behind the Pale" special (9 tonight on CMT) you have to laugh at the jokes about eating that microwavable treat Hot Pockets.

TUNE IN TONIGHT

"Modern Family," at 9 on ABC

Phil has a "first love" nightmare when he reconnects with a high school girlfriend (Judy Greer) on Facebook and she drops by the house.