STRAWBERRY STILL MISSING AND FACES PRISON TIME

Darryl Strawberry, who left a drug rehabilitation center in Tampa, Fla., on
Thursday night, was still missing last night as concern continued to mount
over when, where and how he would be found. Strawberry, the former Yankees
and Mets power hitter, had been living under house arrest at the facility
since September and is now considered a fugitive. The uncertainty of his
whereabouts hovers over the Yankees as they are scheduled to open the 2001
season today.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Department issued an arrest warrant for
the 39-year-old Strawberry on Friday, but it said there was no active
search because Strawberry was not considered a violent offender. Dwight
Gooden, who retired from the Yankees on Friday; Ron Dock, Strawberry's drug
counselor; and Ray Negron, who used to work for the Yankees, have searched
the seedier areas in Tampa for Strawberry.

As the Yankees prepare to oppose the Kansas City Royals at Yankee Stadium
today, they will do so knowing that a troubled player who helped them win
World Series championships in 1996, 1998 and 1999 has not been seen in more
than three days. Strawberry, who has been fighting his second battle with
colon cancer, was undergoing chemotherapy and had been despondent. His
disappearance has staff members at medical examiners' offices around Tampa
on alert. It also had the Yankees discussing Strawberry on a soggy day in
the Bronx.

"The longer it goes not finding him," Manager Joe Torre said, "the scarier
it gets."

Roger Clemens, who will start for the Yankees, said the players had been
eagerly waiting encouraging news.

"The last couple of days, everybody has been asking around to one another,"
Clemens said. " 'You got any update? Have you heard anything?' I think just
like maybe you all have."

If and when Strawberry is found, he could end up in prison. A spokeswoman
for the Hillsborough County state attorney's office said it would try to
have Strawberry jailed because he had abused the numerous opportunities he
had had for freedom.

"We were seeking prison time on his last violation," Pam Bondi, an
assistant state attorney, told The Associated Press. "We certainly haven't
changed our opinion."

In September, Strawberry was sentenced to two years of house arrest after
ramming his car into a stop sign and rear-ending another car while driving
under the influence of sleeping pills in Tampa.

This is not the first time Strawberry has bolted from HealthCare
Connections in Tampa. He left the center in October and admitted to smoking
crack cocaine and taking 10 antianxiety pills. Strawberry served 21 days of
a 30-day sentence for violating the terms of his house arrest and was sent
back to the treatment center. Before Strawberry was sentenced and while the
Yankees and the Mets were playing in the Subway Series, Strawberry told
Judge Florence Foster that he had hoped the drug binge would kill him.

"Life hasn't been worth living for me, that's the honest truth," Strawberry
said. "I am not afraid of death." He added: "The last couple of weeks of my
life have been downhill. I basically wanted to die."

In addition to the sentence, Foster ordered Strawberry to resume the
chemotherapy treatments he had stopped. Jonathan LaPook, Strawberry's
doctor and the man who detected his cancer, testified that his patient had
a fierce form of cancer and was down to "one good shot" left for survival.

Torre, who has survived prostate cancer, said, "It's just a very sad, sad
time right now."