BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : AROUND THE MAJOR LEAGUES : Howe Leaves Minors to Join Yankees

Steve Howe is back in the major leagues after more than three years. He brings optimism but probably will meet skepticism.

Suspended six times for alcohol and drug abuse during a sometimes illustrious pitching career, Howe will join the beleaguered New York Yankees today.

“I’m not carrying any baggage around,” he said Thursday. “I’m a professional athlete and I conduct myself like a professional athlete. The past is the past. I don’t bring it up.”

Howe was invited to the Yankee spring training camp but, after failing to make the team, was assigned to their triple-A affiliate in Columbus, Ohio. The Yankees waived pitcher Andy Hawkins.

Howe, 33, last pitched in the majors on Oct. 4, 1987. He was 3-3 with a 4.31 earned-run average in 24 appearances with the Texas Rangers that year but was released on Jan. 18, 1988, for violating his aftercare program by using alcohol.

He has been the left-handed closer at Columbus, where, in 18 innings over 12 appearances, he was 2-1 with five saves and an earned-run average of 0.00. He gave up 11 hits and struck out 13.

Howe began his career with the Dodgers and was the National League rookie of the year in 1980. Repeated substance abuse problems led to his release by the Dodgers on July 3, 1985, and the Minnesota Twins later that season.

“I’m cleaner than 99% of the people standing on this earth today,” Howe said at Yankee training camp, where his pitches were clocked at faster than 90 m.p.h. “Drugs taking away my whole career has been hard to deal with. It probably cost me $8 million to $10 million in salary alone.”

Hawkins, 31, was 0-2 with a 9.95 ERA and will be paid the remainder of his $1.4-million salary for 1991.

A rib injury might force Oakland’s Dave Stewart to miss his next turn, ending his streak of 166 starts.

Stewart, winner of at least 20 games each of the past four seasons, left the Athletics’ 9-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday after feeling a sharp pain in his left rib area.

Stewart said he felt “just like being stabbed” when he struck out Sam Horn for the first out of the second inning. When he made his first pitch to the next batter, Dwight Evans, he walked off the mound and summoned A’s trainer Barry Weinberg.

Stewart, who has not been on the disabled list in his 10-year major league career, concedes there is reason for concern.

“People who’ve had this same injury, sometimes it takes two or three weeks to get better,” Stewart said. “Hopefully, I got out of there in time for it not to hurt me.”

Milwaukee Brewer right-hander Ron Robinson has a bone spur in his right elbow, a condition that might require a fourth operation in four years.

Robinson, acquired in a trade with Cincinnati last season, will be re-examined next week, probably by Los Angeles surgeon Frank Jobe.

Robinson is one of four Brewer pitchers on the disabled list along with Edwin Nunez, Mark Knudson and Teddy Higuera.

Mike Scott’s recuperation from tendinitis in his throwing shoulder has taken a turn for the worse and the Houston Astros said they have decided to rest him for at least another month.

The 1986 National League Cy Young Award winner underwent surgery on the shoulder in December. He will stop throwing and halt rehabilitation work to wait for his right rotator cuff to heal.

Scott, 36, has not pitched since April 13, when he gave up six hits and five runs in three innings against the San Francisco Giants. Scott, 0-2 with a 12.86 ERA in two starts, was placed on the disabled list April 14.