STRAWBERRY IN CUSTODY AFTER SURRENDERING

TAMPA, Fla., April 2 -- Darryl Strawberry, the former Yankees and Mets
slugger who had been missing since late last week, turned himself in to the
authorities tonight and was taken into custody, a Hillsborough County
Sheriff's Office spokeswoman said.

Strawberry was spending the night at St. Joseph's Hospital, which is near
the Yankees' spring training complex and is where the Yankees send their
players for medical work. Strawberry will eventually be transferred to the
county jail, said Debbie Carter, the department's community relations
coordinator.

Carter said Strawberry, 39, turned himself in around 8 p.m. He declined to
say where he had been. He is not eligible for bail because this arrest is
for a violation of probation.

Strawberry had been missing from a drug-treatment center since last
Thursday, and over the weekend friends and family members expressed concern
for his safety.

Ray Negron, a consultant with the Cleveland Indians and a former Yankee
employee who is friends with Strawberry, and Ron Dock, the Yankees' drug
counselor, both found Strawberry yesterday. Negron declined to explain how
they found him.

"He's alive, and I know that he's glad that he's alive," said Negron, in a
phone interview last night. "I could see it in his eyes. He looked tired
and scared, but I know that he was happy to be alive."

Strawberry, who is also undergoing treatment for colon cancer, now faces a
possible return to prison. Last November, he was released from jail after
serving 21 days of a 30-day sentence for violating house arrest for a 1999
drug and prostitution-solicitation arrest. He wears an electronic monitor.

On Friday, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office issued an arrest
warrant for Strawberry, and on Sunday the local prosecutor's office told
The Associated Press that it would seek to return him to jail because he
had abused his opportunities for freedom.

When Negron was asked if Strawberry explained his disappearance, he said:
"I didn't go there. I didn't want to interrogate him.

"He wanted to die."