Players May Be Called in Cocaine Trial

Keith Hernandez, Dave Parker and Lee Lacy are among nine current major league baseball players who may be called to testify as witnesses in a cocaine trial against a Philadelphia caterer beginning Tuesday, according to papers filed in federal court Friday.

The ballplayers’ names were contained in a proposed list of questions to prospective jurors filed by U.S. Atty. J. Alan Johnson, who will prosecute the case against Curtis Strong.

Along with Hernandez of the New York Mets, Lacy of the Baltimore Orioles and Parker of the Cincinnati Reds, the players named were Al Holland of the Angels, Dale Berra of the New York Yankees, Jeff Leonard of the San Francisco Giants, Enos Cabell of the Dodgers, Lonnie Smith of the Kansas City Royals and Rod Scurry of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

John Milner, who retired from baseball, was also listed. Milner, Parker, Berra, Holland and Lacy are former Pirates.

All 10 received grants of immunity from prosecution in return for grand jury testimony in an investigation of drug trafficking in major league baseball. Strong faces 16 counts of distributing cocaine in Pittsburgh between 1980 and 1984.