DAILY REPORT

Darryl Strawberry, thinner but saying he feels great, left the hospital after undergoing colon cancer surgery two weeks ago.

“It’s been a difficult time, but now that time is over,” the Yankee outfielder said at a news conference at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York.

“As you can see, I’ve lost a lot of weight,” he added. “But from my nurses to my doctors, they told me everything will come back.”

Strawberry returned to his home in suburban New Jersey, where he plans to watch Game 1 of the World Series tonight.

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In a big victory for Yankee owner George Steinbrenner and New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, voters will have no say on the fate of a new Yankee Stadium.

A referendum on whether a $1-billion stadium should be built on Manhattan’s West Side was knocked off the ballot for next month’s election.

The pro-ballot side promised an immediate appeal.

Steinbrenner, whose lease at Yankee Stadium expires in 2002, wants a new home for his team. Giuliani proposed the new stadium at a site where rail yards now stand less than a mile south of Times Square.

Giuliani wanted to keep the referendum off the ballot because it would almost certainly be defeated. Polls show the public opposes a new stadium for the Yankees outside the Bronx.

The appeals court ruled that the charter revision commission appointed by Giuliani to consider the new ballpark is legal. The vote reversed a ruling by Bronx State Supreme Court Justice Douglas McKeon.