Darryl Strawberry - Continuing Legal Problems

Despite his ongoing legal and drug-abuse problems, the Yankees signed Strawberry for the 2000 season at $750,000. Testing positive for cocaine use in January 2000, however, Strawberry was suspended from baseball again, this time for a year. Entering a clinic for drug treatment in March 2000, Strawberry left the program before completing the program. When a medical checkup revealed the presence of more cancer in his lymph nodes, Strawberry had surgery to remove a stomach tumor in August 2000. The following month he was involved in a car accident and was later found to be driving under the influence of pain killers. Arrested in October 2000 for violating his parole requirements, another drug test showed that Strawberry was again using cocaine; in a subsequent trial he was ordered to a thirty-day jail term. Strawberry also was put under house arrest, which required him to live in a drug treatment center after his release from jail. In March 2001, after leaving the center without authorization, Strawberry was arrested again. Facing the possibility of another jail term, Strawberry was instead sentenced in May 2001 to a residential drug treatment center in Ocala, Florida.