Strawberry Safe at Home, for 6 Months : Baseball: Judge imposes lighter sentence, disregarding plea bargain of three months in prison.

Darryl Strawberry got off easy Monday at his sentencing for federal tax evasion, drawing six months of home confinement instead of the three months in prison he had agreed to accept in a plea bargain.

Strawberry was not fined but must pay about $350,000 in back taxes, interest and penalties. He is allowed to play baseball, including traveling to road games and practices, while serving his sentence.

“I’m very pleased. It’s a blessed day for me and my family,” Strawberry said. “I’m very grateful things turned out the way they did.”

The sentence was unexpectedly light. Strawberry’s lawyers had asked that he be allowed to serve the agreed-to three-month sentence near his home in Rancho Mirage. But U.S. District Judge Barrington Parker Jr. exercised his right to disregard the plea agreement and determine the penalty on his own.

“We are disappointed that the judge did not impose the agreed-upon sentence,” U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White said. “Prison sentences are appropriate for violators of the tax laws in order to deter others from attempting not to pay their fair share of taxes.”

Parker also sentenced Strawberry to three years’ probation, 100 hours of community service and mandatory drug abuse counseling. He said probation officials in California will set the date for the start of Strawberry’s home detention. He will not be required to wear an electronic monitoring device.

Strawberry will not be eligible to play again in the major leagues until June 24. He was suspended for the first 60 days of the season on Feb. 6 after testing positive for cocaine. The San Francisco Giants then released him.

He pleaded guilty on Feb. 9 to one felony count of tax evasion for failing to report thousands of dollars of income--usually in bundles of cash--that he got at autograph signing shows in the late 1980s. Taxes on that money would have been $101,000.

Contrary to reports last week, Strawberry has not agreed to cooperate with prosecutors investigating other baseball players for under-reporting income from card shows, his attorneys said.

The former All-Star addressed the judge for about three minutes before the sentence was announced.

“I apologize for the mess I’ve caused myself, my fans, friends and family,” he said. “At some particular moments, I felt it wasn’t worth it to be here living.”

Before Strawberry spoke, Parker warned that he might use his discretion in determining the sentence. The judge also admonished Strawberry for using drugs while the case was pending, a violation of his pre-trial probation.

Strawberry said, “I’d just like to say that I take full responsibility for my actions, but I think I truly got poor advice.”

He said he used cocaine because he was agonizing over his predicament, adding, “For the first time, I felt afraid that I was actually going to jail. It was difficult to deal with.”