Strawberry Arrested

By Stephen M. Silverman

04/17/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

Former New York Yankees and Mets slugger Darryl Strawberry, 39, who had been missing from his Tampa, Fla., drug rehab center since last Thursday, turned himself in to law authorities, who arrested him, at 8 on Monday night, said a spokeswoman for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. He did not say where he had been, and he is ineligible for bail because this new arrest is for violation of parole. The disgraced athlete spent the night at St. Joseph's Hospital (which is near the Yankees's spring training complex) and will eventually be transferred to the county jail, reports The New York Times. The paper credited a friend of Strawberry's, Ray Negron, and the Yankees' drug counselor, Ron Dock, with finding the fugitive. "He's alive, and I know that he's glad he's alive," said Negron. Last November, Strawberry, who is also battling colon cancer, was released from jail after serving 21 days of a 30-day jail sentence for violating house arrest for a 1999 drug and prostitution-solicitation bust.