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Baseball briefs

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 27, 2000

Strawberry's attorney: Treatment, not jail time

TAMPA -- Darryl Strawberry is remorseful about his latest run-in with the law, but needs to be back at a residential drug treatment center instead of jail, the suspended Yankee outfielder's attorney said Thursday.

Strawberry appeared briefly before Hillsborough Circuit Court Judge Manuel Menendez on Thursday morning via closed circuit television from the county jail, where he is being held. Strawberry did not speak.

Menendez advised Strawberry of the charges against him for violating his probation by using drugs and breaking his house arrest, and sent the case back to the drug court judge who sentenced him to two years' house arrest last month. No hearing date is set.

Defense attorney Joseph Ficarrotta said Strawberry has been under tremendous distress battling cancer and a fierce drug addiction. Strawberry recently started chemotherapy treatments for colon cancer that had spread to his stomach, Ficarrotta said.

"The easiest thing for the judge and the public to do is say: "How many chances is Darryl Strawberry going to get?' " Ficarrotta said.

" ... I am not ready to give up on Darryl Strawberry."

Strawberry was arrested Wednesday for leaving the Tampa drug treatment center he now calls home for a weekend crack and prescription drug binge.

The Florida Department of Corrections, which is supervising Strawberry's house arrest, intends to ask Circuit Court Judge Florence Foster to sentence him to 30 days in jail and ask that he wear an electronic monitoring device once he's returned to house arrest.

RYAN OUT OF HOSPITAL: Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan ended a three-day hospital stay after his chest pains were diagnosed as angina, which is treatable by medication.

ASTROS: Ken Caminiti, the former MVP who left the team to enter a substance-abuse clinic, accused the Astros of trying to force him to make a comeback while he was injured. Caminiti said he met with general manager Gerry Hunsicker and Astros officials before he left Sept. 6, and said they questioned his integrity. Hunsicker denied any move to force Caminiti back into the lineup.

BLUE JAYS: Toronto interviewed former Kansas City manager Hal McRae and Oakland bench coach Ken Macha. The Blue Jays have interviewed broadcaster Buck Martinez, former Blue Jays players Ernie Whitt and Willie Upshaw and Milwaukee bench coach Jerry Royster. Martinez, considered the leading candidate, expects to receive an update this weekend.

MARINERS: Reliever Jose Mesa must stand trial on a concealed weapon charge. The refusal by Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Patrick Curran to dismiss the charge means a trial will start Nov. 13. If convicted, Mesa, a former Cleveland Indian, could be sentenced to as much as 1 1/2 years in prison and be deported to the Dominican Republic. ... Lou Piniella and and his wife, Anita, were taken out to dinner Wednesday night by four team officials in Tampa, where Piniella lives during the off-season. Officials are hoping to get Piniella, the team's manager for the past eight seasons, to sign a new contract. Piniella reportedly is seeking $2-million a year.

PHILLIES: Larry Bowa, a shortstop on the 1980 championship Phillies team and a former coach with the club, became the ninth candidate to interview for the managerial position.

RED SOX: Former third-base coach Wendell Kim has indicated he will not take the team's offer of another spot with the organization.

YOMIURI FIRES CATCHER: The Giants, four games into Japan's professional baseball championship, fired catcher Naoki Sugiyama after he was arrested for allegedly groping and beating a woman with a tennis shoe. Sugiyama, arrested Wednesday night, is believed to have met the 28-year-old woman last week in a bar in southern Miyazaki prefecture. Sugiyama told police that he was too drunk to remember what he did and said he would apologize to the woman if her claims are true.

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Gary Shelton