Howe Suspension Ends With Reinstatement

Steve Howe’s lifetime suspension was cut short Thursday by arbitrator George Nicolau, and the free-agent pitcher was reinstated.

Howe, a left-hander, was suspended by then-commissioner Fay Vincent on June 8 after the pitcher’s seventh incident related to drugs or alcohol.

Howe, 34, was with the New York Yankees at the time of his eighth suspension, which followed a guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Missoula, Mont., to a misdemeanor charge of attempting to buy a gram of cocaine.

“It makes baseball look silly and I think there’ll be a lot of adverse reaction,” said Vincent, who resigned Sept. 7. “I don’t think there was any doubt about my having just cause. I think the arbitrator substituted his judgment for mine, and the arbitrator was wrong. . . . I think it’s a bad development for baseball. Why is eight (suspensions) different from seven?”