Conviction in Baseball Drug Trial : Former Caterer Found Guilty of Selling Cocaine to Players

A Philadelphia chef and “baseball junkie” was convicted Friday on 11 of 14 charges that he sold cocaine to major league players in a case that the judge said demonstrated that some of the nation’s sports heroes “have feet of clay.”

Curtis Strong, 39, briefly the caterer in the Philadelphia Phillies’ clubhouse, showed no emotion as the verdict was read following nine hours of deliberations over two days by a nine-woman, three-man jury. He faces a maximum term of 15 years in prison and a $25,000 fine on each count.

Meanwhile, Strong’s attorney, Adam Renfroe Jr., was sentenced to a 30-day jail term for contempt of court by U.S. District Judge Gustave Diamond. Renfroe said he would appeal both Strong’s conviction and his own.

The judge admonished Renfroe for constantly ignoring his instructions concerning the type of arguments permitted during the defense counsel’s fiery, 75-minute closing argument on Thursday.

Renfroe, against the judge’s instructions, argued that the jury should set Strong free to show that it didn’t condone the government’s granting of immunity from prosecution to the seven current and former major league players who testified against Strong.

Strong, called “a traveling salesman of cocaine” by U.S. Atty. J. Alan Johnson, was convicted of selling cocaine on 11 dates between 1980 and 1983 to Dodger infielder Enos Cabell, Cincinnati outfielder Dave Parker, former Pittsburgh outfielder John Milner and Kansas City outfielder Lonnie Smith. Cabell, Parker and Smith played for different teams at the times of the drug transactions.

Strong was found innocent of charges that he sold to San Francisco outfielder Jeff Leonard on Aug. 18, 1982; to Parker, then with Pittsburgh, on Sept. 10, 1982, and to Cabell, then with Houston, on May 14, 1984.

Diamond, publicly commenting on the case for the first time, said that there are “millions of baseball fans in this country, and a tremendous amount of publicity has been developed by this case. We have brought to the attention of the young people of this country what cocaine can do, that their idols may have feet of clay.

“They now know the evils and the dangers of fooling around with drugs. This case has done what no advertising campaign ever could have done.”

Strong’s conviction, on all but three counts, concluded a 14-day trial in which some of baseball’s biggest names were forced to reveal explicit details of years of cocaine use and abuse. Some of the players who testified, including Keith Hernandez of the New York Mets, previously had denied using the narcotic.

Not only did Hernandez estimate that as many as 40% of major league baseball’s approximate 600 players were using cocaine in 1980, but also some of the game’s most well-known names--including Willie Mays and Willie Stargell--found themselves mentioned in connection with drugs.

Mays was accused by former Pirate and Met outfielder Milner of keeping a high-powered liquid amphetamine called “red juice” in his locker, while Stargell was alleged to be a distributor of “greenies” in the Pirates’ clubhouse.

Strong, a former insurance agent, was indicted along with six other Pennsylvania men on May 31 following a federal grand jury investigation into cocaine trafficking involving major league players.

Strong constantly was identified in testimony as a baseball fan--”a groupie,” according to Renfroe--who followed teams from town to town.

The jury found Strong guilty of 11 counts involving sales of cocaine to Cabell and Milner on June 13, 1980; to Cabell on Sept. 1, 1980, and June 5, 1981; to Milner on Sept. 30, 1981; to Parker on June 5, Dec. 23 and Dec. 29 1981, and to Smith, then with St. Louis, on Aug. 13, 1982, Sept. 29, 1982, and April 12, 1983.

The proceedings saw fiery oratory and lengthy cross-examination of the player-witnesses by Renfroe, whose constant attempts to divert attention away from his client and onto baseball wound up in his own sentencing.

Smith was the first player to testify and said he decided to seek help for his cocaine problem in June, 1983, after spending a night snorting drugs provided for him in Philadelphia by Strong.

Also testifying were Hernandez, Parker, Cabell, Leonard, Dale Berra of the New York Yankees and Milner, who now is retired from baseball. Berra also once played with the Pirates.