NOT THE LAST STRAW

Fla. Judge Orders Slugger To Rehab Instead Of Jail

Tampa-Florida Judge Florence Foster issued Darryl Strawberry a
walk yesterday.

She ordered the former Yankees and Mets star to head to rehab rather
than jail, opening a new chapter in his troubled and drug-addicted
life.

Using the baseball cliche of being up in the bottom of the ninth,
runners on base, two strikes on the batter, she told him: "You have
proven you are a winner on the field. Now prove you are a winner off
the field."

The Hillsborough County circuit judge ordered the former All-Star to
serve 2 years house arrest instead of sending him to Florida state
prison for busting his probation four times on 1998 charges of
soliciting a prostitute and possession of a third-of-a-gram of cocaine.

Foster, who has been widely criticized by state prosecutors and the
Hillsborough County sheriff's office for being too lenient on drug
defendants, did give Strawberry 18 months in prison, but suspended the
sentence in lieu of house arrest. During that time Strawberry must
successfully complete an intensive drug rehabilitation program at the
Phoenix House, a facility about 80 miles north of Tampa in rural
Marion County.

A courtroom packed with spectators, friends and family-including
Strawberry's wife, Charisse, and longtime pal Dwight "Doc" Gooden,
former pitcher for the Mets and Yankees-watched silently as a contrite
Strawberry addressed the judge.

"This case is not about Darryl Strawberry, the baseball star," he
said. "This is a case about me being very sick."

Defense attorney Joe Ficarrotta urged the court to have mercy on
Strawberry.

"You have put your heart into this case," he told Foster. "Mr.
Strawberry is a sick individual, but he is a person who can be
rehabilitated. A prison setting is not the right setting here. The
bottom line is that Mr. Strawberry needs help and wants to get help."

Prosecutors could not disagree more.

Saying Strawberry has had too many chances already, Assistant State
Attorney Steve Wetter asked the judge to put the 1983 National League
Rookie of the Year behind bars, where he will be assured of becoming
clean and sober.

"Phoenix House is not in his best interest," Wetter said; prison is
the place where Strawberry will get straight. "It just might save
Darryl Strawberry's life," Wetter said.

Foster said she thought long and hard about her decision and conceded
after the hearing that she may draw criticism from the law and order
community.

"Judges get criticized on every decision they make," she said outside
the courthouse.

Strawberry, 39, will undergo 14 to 16 months of intense therapy, said
Peter Kerr, vice president of public affairs of Phoenix House. He said
the success rate for program graduates is impressive. Nationally, he
said, "Seventy-five percent of the people who get through are
drug-free five years later." But the dropout rate during the first
four months of the program is high as well.

Strawberry's downward spiral into drug addiction came to light in 1994
when he checked himself into the Betty Ford Treatment Center in
California for 18 days of rehab and was summarily cut by the Los
Angeles Dodgers.

In July, 1996, George Steinbrenner took a chance and signed Strawberry
with the Yankees, marking the beginning of his comeback with the World
Series-bound team. And Strawberry was a big part of it. More than a
decade after making his debut in the Big Apple, "Straw Man" was once
again the talk of the town.

But the ballplayer's demons returned in October 1998 in the form of
prostate cancer, robbing Strawberry of the chance to play in the 1998
World Series with the Yankees.

Strawberry fought off the cancer. But his demons surfaced again. In
spring of 1999, he was arrested after propositioning a Tampa
policewoman posing as a prostitute. Strawberry had a small amount of
cocaine on him. Foster sentenced him to probation and ordered him into
rehab.

During the next two years, Strawberry would repeatedly break the
conditions of his probation. He would walk away from rehab centers. He
would go on weekend cocaine binges. Once he got into a minor wreck
while impaired, he said, on pain medication for his chemotherapy. Each
time, he appeared before Foster, and each time, despite mounting
criticism, she would give the former slugger another chance.

And that happened again yesterday in the 22-minute
hearing.