Joe Pepitone Is Sentenced to Six Months in Jail

Former New York Yankees first baseman Joe Pepitone was sentenced Wednesday to six months in jail on drug charges.

In sentencing Pepitone, 46, Justice Alan Marrus was strongly critical of Pepitone, at one point quoting from the baseball player’s autobiography, “Joe, Ya Coulda Made Us Proud.”

“You were once a first-rate ballplayer,” the judge told Pepitone. “Now you stand before the court as a second-rate drug operator. You were once a very special person to a lot of people; you were a Bronx Bomber. Now you stand before the court as a very ordinary person, a Brooklyn criminal.

“You had a talent to enable you to live a dream. . . . It is a particularly sad day when someone who graced New York in Yankee pinstripes will now spend time in the custody of the Department of Correction wearing their pinstripes.”

Before the sentence was pronounced in state Supreme Court in Brooklyn, Pepitone said: “I want to apologize to my family and friends for putting them through such a tough time.”

His wife, Stephanie, mother, brother and three other family members attended the court session.

Later in the day, John Kelly, Pepitone’s lawyer, successfully requested a stay of sentence pending an appeal of the conviction.

Pepitone was convicted Sept. 17 of possessing drug paraphernalia and having a bag of 300 Quaaludes. Although he had no previous criminal convictions, he could have received a maximum of one year in jail on the charges.