Strawberry Lawyer Blames Medication

T A M P A, Fla., Sept. 12, 2000 -- 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.

Strawberry failed a field-sobriety test but a blood-alcohol testshowed no alcohol in his system. He volunteered a urine sample fortesting, and those results will take days.

Hit Sign, Then Car

Strawberry, driving a sport utility vehicle, was accused ofscraping a road sign warning of an upcoming curve while weavingthrough traffic north of Tampa and rear-ending another SUV at a redlight. Police said he wasn’t speeding when he struck the sign atabout 9 a.m. EDT.

When Strawberry tried to drive on after hitting the SUV, Sgt.Anthony Kolka pulled over and confronted Strawberry with his pistoldrawn. The officer said he banged on the window to get Strawberry’sattention.

“He just wanted to know: ‘What did I do? What did I do?’ likehe didn’t know what happened,” Kolka said. “He said he didn’tknow he hit the car or the sign.”

The officer, heading home in an unmarked car, said he wasunaware the driver was Strawberry until a passerby told him.

“I wasn’t thinking about who the person was. My idea was to gethim out of the car, get him secured,” Kolka said. “All I knew wasthe vehicle needed to be stopped to see what the problem was.”

Straw Held at Gunpoint

The officer said he drew his gun “for my own safety andeverybody else’s safety.” When Strawberry opened his door, theofficer said he reached inside, made sure the car was in park andpulled Strawberry out.

“He was quiet and calm,” Kolka said.

Tanya Whitaker, 32, the driver of the SUV Strawberry was accusedof hitting, said the player tried to drive around her after theimpact, and that’s when she saw the deputy first trying to stophim. She said the deputy beat on Strawberry’s window to get him tohalt.

“He had the gun to Darryl’s window. He was trying to leave,”said Whitaker, of nearby Land O’Lakes. “Once the police officerrealized who he (Strawberry) was, he said, ‘You aren’t going to runfrom this one.“‘

Damage totaled about $1,000 to Whitaker’s car and $1,800 toStrawberry’s vehicle.

Troubled Past

Strawberry was suspended for most of last season after hisarrest in Tampa in April 1999 on drug and solicitation charges.

He pleaded no contest and was sentenced in May 1999 to 18 monthsprobation. He was suspended from baseball for a year in February, amonth after he tested positive for cocaine

Strawberry, who had surgery for colon cancer in 1998 and for astomach tumor last month, has follow-up doctor’s appointmentsscheduled in Tampa and New York, where he had his latest operation.

“He’s very serious and just anxious to hopefully get out andcontinue his treatment. It’s a serious thing, and he knows that,”Ficarrotta said.