Strawberry Lawyer Blames Medication

T A M P A, Fla., Sept. 12 -- Darryl Strawberry, the suspended New YorkYankees outfielder who has battled cancer and drug abuse, wasjailed Monday after hitting a street sign and then running into avehicle stopped at a red light.

Strawberry, who had cancer surgery last month, “blacked out”at the wheel from prescription medication while driving to aprobation officer supervising him since a cocaine conviction inApril 1999, said the outfielder’s lawyer, Joseph Ficarrotta.

Slugger ‘Passed Out’

“He took some kind of medication and that apparently causedsome reaction and made him pass out,” said Ficarrotta. “Where inthe sequence he blacked out I don’t know.”

Strawberry, 38, was taken into custody at gunpoint by anoff-duty officer who saw the collisions and was held in theHillsborough County Jail without bail, pending a court hearingTuesday.

“He seemed very tired and very drained,” Ficarrotta said aftervisiting Strawberry. “He’s recuperating from some very severecancer surgery. He seemed very weak and very tired.” The eight-time All-Star faces two misdemeanor charges, drivingwhile impaired and leaving the scene of an accident with damage,plus two counts of probation violation, which normally would notlet him go free on bond.

Yanks GM ‘Saddened’

“When I heard it this morning, I was saddened by it,” Yankeesgeneral manager Brian Cashman said before Monday night’s gameagainst Boston.

Ficarrotta planned to ask Hillsborough Circuit Judge FlorenceFoster, the judge who placed Strawberry on probation, to considerreleasing him Tuesday to his home or to set bond. Strawberry is notrequired to attend the hearing.

Strawberry told officers he had taken the sleeping medicationAmbien, said Hillsborough County sheriff’s spokesman Rod Reder.Ficarrotta said Strawberry also has prescriptions for the narcoticpainkillers Percocet and Vicodin.