Perhaps, but only to the perpetual children who populate the world of pro sports. Others were dismayed by Steinbrenner’s sanctimony and ripped the Yankees. “They are sending the worst possible message to the youth of America,” said former New York City police chief Lee Brown, now the White House drug czar. “It’s no wonder that kids may think star athletes are into drugs and that there are no real penalties.” The Yankees may also be doing a disservice to Strawberry, whose drug use has cost him jobs with both the Dodgers and the Giants in the past 13 months. “The players are always doing do-overs when the rest of us can’t,” says Dr. Allan Lans, who supervised Strawberry’s treatment as director of the Mets’ employee-assistance program. “We’re willing to squeeze the last bit out of them for our own reasons,”
As a result, Strawberry has not been off a major-league pay-roll for more than two months. He now resumes his career without hiring bottom, often a key step on the road to recovery. “When there’s more of a personal crisis going on with the individual, that seems to initiate a response to change,” says Mark Greenberg, an administrator at the Betty Ford Center, where Darryl did a rehab stint. Strawberry is hardly the first to have discovered that the sports world, with its erratic schedules, road trips and abundant hangers-on, may not be conducive to recovery. Despite a rookie year in drug rehab, Phoenix Suns forward Richard Dumas was signed to a five-year, $9 million contract in 1993. Before he played another game, he flunked a drug test, This past March the Suns welcomed Dumas back again; he was gone two months later. Football star Dexter Manley was the beneficiary of four chances in the National Football League and another in Canada before retiring in 1994. When Manley was arrested on cocaine charges earlier this year, his third arrest in four months. he was a homeless crack addict.
Clear rules: There’s no perfect solution for Strawberry. A job is a cornerstone of most successful recoveries, and, as Lans asks, “What should Strawberry do? Get an ice-cream route,” John Lucas, the former basketball star who founded a rehab center after recovering from drug problems, believes Strawberry deserves the chance, but that he requires clear and inviolable rules. “You need to be accountable,” agrees Betty Ford’s Greenberg. “If you stray from what you’re told to do in treatment, your job is finished!”
If Strawberry flops-for any reason–with the Yankees, he is almost certainly finished in baseball. Steinbrenner is baseball’s patron saint of second chances. He himself has twice been suspended from the game, first for his conviction on illegal campaign contributions and later for associations with a gambler. He hired Billy Martin, a notorious drunk, as manager five different times. And Steve Howe is pitching for the Yankees despite a major-league record of seven drug-related suspensions.
Of course, whatever Darryl does, Steinbrenner has already won the gamble. He covets headlines almost as much as victories, and the Strawberry chase has been a field day for the New York tabloids. A triumph for Strawberry will be much harder fought. On the road he will face the derisive chants of “Daarr-RYL.” Home may not be any better. He will be playing in baseball’s most public arena. one that has repeatedly earned the nickname “The Bronx Zoo.” So far Strawberry shows little evidence of grasping the real issue. “I can play,” he proclaimed on the practice field in Tampa, Fla., in what he said would be his last conversation with the media this season, “That’s the bottom line,” That may be true in baseball, but not always in life.
