Honesty Is Best Policy : Prospect Told Baseball Scouts of Drug Problem

After he was selected in the second round of the amateur draft by the Detroit Tigers last month, Mike Darr was rewarded with a signing bonus of $225,000 and a college education fund.

Then he was given a drug test.

Although not normal treatment for a top prospect, in Darr’s case it was expected.

Tabbed as one of the top high school outfielders in the country last season by major league scouts, the Corona High graduate was considered a risk after acknowledging he had spent much of his senior year battling a drug problem.

Darr and his parents, Mike Sr. and Debbie, decided to end countless drug rumors midway through the baseball season. By letter, they notified all 28 major league teams that Darr had used marijuana and amphetamines during the fall. They also sent notes from doctors and results of subsequent drug tests that showed he had stopped.

“Certainly we knew that it was a risk to go public with this information,” Debbie said. “But there were so many rumors going around that we decided as a family that it would be better to be honest.

“Although it was hard to talk about at first, we were never ashamed. We’ve done our best as parents, and things like this happen and you deal with it.”

The news, although not a complete surprise to the scouts, had a negative affect. Darr, once regarded as a can’t-miss prospect, was considered a gamble even in the second round.

“The only thing that is going to keep Mike from becoming a major league player is Mike himself,” said Rob Wilfong, the West Coast scout for the Tigers who signed Darr. “His drug problem made him a risk, though, and I had to convince my front office that it was a monetary risk worth taking.

“I give our organization credit for not backing down, like most other teams did.”

Not being selected in the first round probably cost Darr several hundred thousand dollars in signing-bonus money, but he and his family are not complaining. They are elated to have salvaged a year that nearly crumbled several times.

After signing with the Tigers, Darr, 18, reported to their rookie league team in Bristol, Va. in mid-June. Before he had played his first game, Darr was given a drug test. The result was negative.

“None of this bothers me now,” Darr said before a recent game in Bristol. “That’s because I know the problem is over with. I’ve learned in life you have to face your problems. That’s what I’ve been trying to do.”

Things were not supposed to be difficult for Darr during his senior year. Aside from being a top prospect in baseball, he was also the starting quarterback on the football team. He had led the Panthers to the Southern Section Division V semifinals as a junior.

The strong-armed Darr had size to match. At 6 feet 3, 210 pounds, he was pegged by recruiters as a blue-chipper early on. The attention was nonstop, and Debbie said her son received an average of 10 telephone calls a night during the fall.

Although his sports career was successful, he was struggling as many teens do. With his father away at work in the evenings, Darr would sneak out with friends and take drugs.

After an evening of getting high, Darr would return home before his father. The scheme worked for a while.

Debbie said that when she and her husband began suspecting something was wrong and confronted him, he denied everything. When his allowance was cut off, Darr’s friends bought drugs for him.

“Things were really terrible around the house,” Debbie said. “Mike wouldn’t listen to anyone. My husband and I had always supported our son in everything, but we now couldn’t get through to him. The whole thing took us by surprise and we didn’t always know what to do.”

Things were falling apart on the football field as well. Darr, the team’s most valuable player, started skipping practice. Coach Stuart Horn punished his quarterback by keeping him out of games. Darr sat out four of 11 games, including a first-round playoff loss to Indio, but he still passed for 1,423 yards and seven touchdowns.

“His parents and I talked frequently and I knew there was some kind of a problem,” Horn said. “I followed my team rules by keeping him out of games for missing practice, but I realized there was something more important at stake here. Mike had a serious problem and I wanted him to turn things around and get help.”

Things got so bad midway through the football season that Darr’s parents checked him into a hospital in Corona for rehabilitation. Darr stayed for two weeks then, in retaliation, continued using drugs and staying out late.

Out of patience, Mike Sr. kicked his son out of the house. Darr moved in with a family friend, Don Johnson, an assistant football coach at Riverside Community College, and stayed for two months.

By November, Darr had lost 25 pounds and his football season was a washout. Recruiters stopped writing and calling. Darr was also considered an academic risk, because he had not taken the Scholastic Aptitude Test, required for NCAA eligibility.

“Mike and his father were close because of their love for sports, but their opinions clashed quite often,” Johnson said. “When things got bad at home, I agreed to take Mike in and do what I could. He was a mess, but slowly he began to come around. Through it all, he was still just a kid who wanted to be loved.”

Darr went to football practice as often as he could but rumors began spreading among teammates and things became difficult.

“Football season was a joke,” Darr said. “It was no fun to be out there. My problems were always brought up.”

By Christmas, Darr had returned home, admitted his problem and agreed to live by a strict set of rules. He began gaining weight and training for baseball.

Darr says he has not used drugs in months. He had a productive baseball season, batting .533 with 12 home runs and 53 runs batted in. Corona advanced to the Southern Section Division III semifinals, losing to eventual champion Westminster La Quinta, and Darr was selected Riverside County player of the year.

Detroit and the New York Yankees were the only major league teams that did not visit the Darr home last spring, yet the Tigers ended up drafting Mike.

Wilfong, who played for the Angels from 1982-86, said he watched Darr play in at least 10 games during the season and was comfortable his top prospect had put his troubles behind.

“After talking with Mike’s parents, I felt they wanted the same thing for their son that I did,” Wilfong said. “I didn’t need to see the inside of their house to determine that.”

Surprised that Darr had lasted late into the second round, Wilfong once again urged the Tigers’ front office to take a chance.

“In the back of my mind, baseball is what I always wanted to be doing anyway,” Darr said. “I’m more than happy to be here. I’m going to buy myself a new car with some of my money and work on my skills.

“I just want to concentrate on baseball and put the rest behind me.”