From the archives: Darryl Strawberry arrested in Tampa hospital

This story was originally published in Newsday on April 3, 2001

Tampa-Former Yankees slugger Darryl Strawberry, missing since Thursday after he disappeared from a drug rehabilitation center, was found unharmed yesterday afternoon in Daytona. He was later arrested for violating his probation.

"He's well; he's alive," said a close friend, Ray Negron, a former Yankees employee. Negron said Strawberry appeared weak and frail but was unhurt. He said Strawberry needed hospital care.

Negron and Ron Dock, another close friend, said they received a telephone call from Strawberry yesterday morning from Daytona, about an hour's drive northeast of Orlando.

The two, who had been searching for Strawberry for several days, said they were checking out a telephone tip in Tampa yesterday morning when they heard from Strawberry.

"We found him, and we're just glad he's alive," Negron said.

The two friends drove Strawberry back to Tampa and took him to St. Joseph's Hospital to be examined. Strawberry was an emotional wreck during the ride back, Negron said, and spent most of the two-hour drive sobbing in the car. He appeared to have been roughed up, and his jewelry was missing.

Strawberry-whose wife, Charisse, was with him at St. Joseph's-was arrested and booked last night, prosecutors said. A police officer was stationed outside his room and Strawberry is expected to be transferred to a Hillsborough County jail when he is released, prosecutors said.

Strawberry's attorney, Joseph Ficarrotta, was not immediately available for comment.

Earlier yesterday, Ficarrotta said he had not heard from Strawberry. "He's got an uphill battle," he said. "Our prayers and thoughts are with him and hopefully everything will work out for the best."

Earlier yesterday, friends of Strawberry suggested that he may have been kidnapped, though there was no evidence of that.

Strawberry's disappearance from his live-in drug treatment facility was his fourth probation violation in the past 14 months, and he narrowly avoided an extended jail sentence in November. This time he probably won't be as fortunate.

"We'll be seeking prison time," said Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi.

Strawberry was warned at his last court appearance in November that he would be sent to prison if he violated probation again.

Strawberry disappeared Thursday after a drug counseling session, and a warrant was issued for his arrest the next morning.

Friends had said that Strawberry had been very depressed and was dreading his next chemotherapy appointment, which was scheduled for Friday. Strawberry has been using experimental chemotherapy drugs since he had a cancerous tumor removed from his abdomen in August.

Strawberry, 39, was jailed for smoking crack cocaine with a female friend in October. He later was sentenced to two years of house arrest.

Strawberry was wearing an electronic monitor on his ankle as a sentence for his 1999 arrest on drug and solicitation of prostitution charges. The monitor went off when he failed to return to the drug treatment facility.

His disappearance was another in a litany of troubles that have plagued the one-time baseball star and member of three World Series teams, all from New York. In 1986, with the Mets, he broke out of a Series slump to homer in Game 7. He battled cancer amid the Yankees' run of three championships in four years.

Strawberry missed all of last season for failing a drug test. After undergoing surgery for colon cancer in 1998, he made it to spring training in 1999 only to be arrested in April of that year for possession of cocaine and solicitation of a prostitute. He received 18 months' probation and was suspended from baseball for 120 days. He returned to hit .327 in 24 regular-season games for the Yankees in 1999.