Yankees Buy Out Strawberry

Darryl Strawberry’s brief career with the New York Yankees ended Thursday when the team declined to exercise a $1.8-million option for next season and chose to pay a $175,000 buyout.

Strawberry, who will be 34 next season, joined the Yankees on Aug. 4 after completing a 60-day suspension for testing positive for cocaine. He hit .276 in 32 games with three homers and 13 RBIs.

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The latest proposal from baseball owners calls for a 25% tax on payrolls above $44 million and is designed to push player salaries down to 50% of revenue, the New York Times reported today in a story from the union’s board meeting in Aventura, Fla.

Pro Basketball

The Clippers put center Stanley Roberts on the injured list because of a sprained left ankle suffered in Tuesday night’s loss at Houston. An MRI also revealed that Roberts has a small crack in a bone in his ankle, but there was so much swelling that it wasn’t possible to determine if the fracture had left a loose bone particle that would necessitate arthroscopic surgery. He will have another MRI on Monday.

Swimming

Pieter Hoogenband and David Fox swam 22.77 in the 50-meter freestyle to tie for the event title and highlight the first day of the U.S. Swimming Championships at Auburn, Ala. . . . Franziska van Almsick of Germany, ranked No. 1 in the 100-meter freestyle, was disqualified for a false start, ending the hottest duel of the world short-course swimming meet in Rio de Janeiro before it began. World-record holder Jingyi Le of China won in 53.23 seconds, which was was 0.22 seconds slower than her record.

World swimming’s governing body admitted it had erred in approving stiffer punishment for drug users than for athletes who refuse to be tested. The federation voted to double a mandatory ban for first-time steroid users from two years to four. But the suspension for swimmers who refuse to take drug tests is only two years.

Bob Foschi, the father of Jessica Foschi, the American swimmer who flunked a steroid test, lashed out at U.S. Swimming officials, saying politics and money were behind an attempt to ban her from competition.

Golf

U.S. Open champion Corey Pavin and Scotland’s Sam Torrance shot three-under-par 69s and shared the first-round lead of the Million Dollar Challenge in Sun City, South Africa. Windy conditions and thick rough caused problems for several of the 12 players vying for golf’s richest top prize--$1 million. . . . Jay Delsing and Val Skinner birdied four of the final five holes for a nine-under-par 62 and a one-stroke lead after the opening round of the JCPenney Mixed-Team Classic at Tarpon Springs, Fla.

Track and Field

Valerie Brisco Hooks, four-time Olympic gold medalist, and Florence Griffith Joyner, winner of three gold medals and a silver at the 1988 Olympic Games, were among six inducted into the Track and Field Hall of Fame. Others were gold medalist high jumper Louise Ritter, former Olympic and Auburn coach Mel Rosen, miler Marty Liquori and the late Don Lash, a star distance runner during the 1930s.

Dean Hayes of Middle Tennessee State and Bev Kearney of Texas were chosen as coaches of the U.S. teams for the 1997 world outdoor championships. Assistants include Doug Nordquist of La Habra and Tommie Smith of Santa Monica College. . . . Emma George of Australia set a world record of 13 feet 11 1/4 inches in the women’s pole vault at Melbourne.

Miscellany

Bill France Jr., president of NASCAR, which sanctions the premier Winston Cup series, announced it has signed an agreement to run a demonstration stock car race at the Suzuka Circuit, 250 miles from Tokyo, each of the next three years.

The soccer season in Jamaica has been suspended indefinitely because of violence. The Jamaica Football Referees’ Assn. said it would refuse to work for the rest of the season because of attacks on players, referees and linesmen.

The Memphis Mad Dogs of the Continental Football League folded after one season, opening the door for a move of the NFL’s Houston Oilers to Memphis for a year while waiting for a stadium to be built in Nashville.

Leon McQuay, an elusive running back best known for a fumble that cost the Toronto Argonauts the 1971 Grey Cup, has died of an apparent heart attack. He was 45.

Former UCLA and Arizona Cardinal offensive lineman Luis Sharpe was hospitalized after being shot in the arm in southeast Phoenix. Police would provide no details of the shooting.