NHL Acts Swiftly and Hands McSorley the Longest Hockey Suspension in History as Baseball Prepares to Take Action Against Strawberry That Could Cost Him the Season

I can’t tell you what it’s like to be Darryl Strawberry.

To be a New York Yankee . . . to run around the basepaths at Yankee Stadium after hitting another home run . . . to wear rings from three World Series championships . . .

To have an addiction so gripping that I would risk everything, livelihood and life, for one more cocaine high.

It must be a living hell. In “Sam Stone,” a song about a Vietnam veteran hooked on morphine, John Prine sings about “climbing walls while sitting in a chair.” Maybe that’s what it’s like.

Strawberry should have been climbing mountains. He looked as if he was capable of everything when he came out of Crenshaw High in 1980. In 1983, his first season in the major leagues, he hit 26 home runs and drove in 74 runs in 122 games and was the National League rookie of the year.

” . . . In his prime and properly motivated, Darryl Strawberry was the best hitter I saw in the ‘80s,” Dwight Gooden, who had his own battles with alcohol and drug abuse, wrote in his autobiography last year.

“Some days, you could just tell Straw was ready to play; his eyes were clear, he looked happy, and obviously wasn’t hung over. He’d say to me, ‘Watch me, Doc, I’m gonna hit one out today.’ And he would. It was that easy for him. . . .

“Until 1990, I’d say Darryl was better than Ken Griffey or Barry Bonds--at least he had the potential to be.”

Now Strawberry’s baseball career is finished. Or at least it’s expected to be after major league baseball rules on his most recent positive test for cocaine. He’s going down for the third time, which probably will result in a season-long suspension. Considering that he will turn 38 next month, the next time you see him on a baseball field could be in an old-timer’s game--if he gets the help that will enable him to grow old.

“Sweet songs,” Prine sings, “never last too long on broken radios.”

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After Strawberry was ordered to leave spring training in Tampa, Fla., on Wednesday by major league baseball, I was impressed that the Yankees could respond so compassionately to the man who invariably lets them down.

“I’m going to stand by him,” team owner George Steinbrenner, a better person than he gets credit for, said. “I’m going to try to see that he rights his life. If it’s in baseball, fine. If’s it’s outside baseball, fine. It isn’t like George has given him enough chances, so I’m now going to dump him. Dump him . . . I don’t think so.”

Teammate David Cone said: “I’m sure there are some people who might say enough is enough. The people who are close to Darryl know he’s a good person and know that the addiction must be awfully powerful for him to have another relapse.”

It seems as if the Yankees genuinely care for the man they call “Straw Dog.” Last season, after beating Texas in the first round of the playoffs, they celebrated with nonalcoholic champagne out of respect for his sobriety.

As they all know, as we all should know by now in this more enlightened era, even a power hitter can be powerless.

I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest that Commissioner Bud Selig should absolve him. Selig should levy the strictest penalty allowed by the collective bargaining agreement between the owners and players.

For one thing, it is not in the best interests of baseball to have drug addicts on the field. For another, there is no evidence that playing baseball does Strawberry any good in confronting his addiction. For all we know, it has the opposite effect. But I do recognize that he has an illness and wish him well in his recovery.

That, however, was not my initial reaction.

My initial reaction was that enough is enough.

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That was not my response merely to Strawberry’s positive drug test but to a number of incidents involving athletes lately that have turned the sports pages into a minefield.

Rae Carruth and Ray Lewis are accused of murder. Steve Muhammad is investigated in the death of his wife and cleared after an autopsy determines that his beating of her isn’t what killed her. Rod Smith is arrested for allegedly beating, choking and dragging his common-law wife. Tamarick Vanover pleads guilty to assisting in the sale of a stolen vehicle. Ricky Williams goes to jail for six hours because he refuses to sign a traffic ticket that obligates him only to appear in court.

Then there is Joel Przybilla, whose coach at the University of Minnesota suspends him for missing practices and classes. Deciding that he shouldn’t be burdened with such requirements in return for a college education, Przybilla quits on his teammates and declares that he will enter the NBA draft.

A long time ago, there was a cliche that sports builds character. Then it was amended to say that sports exposes character. Frankly, it often doesn’t do a very good job of either.

In Wednesday’s column, I recommended that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman suspend Marty McSorley for life for his brutal attack on Donald Brashear during a game Monday night in Vancouver.

The commissioner acted more soberly Wednesday, suspending McSorley for at least the remainder of the season with the stipulation that they meet before determining whether the sanctions should be extended. In effect, that probably is a lifetime suspension because McSorley, 36, is expected to retire.

Perhaps I overreacted. Perhaps not. I’ve given up on believing there is much we can do as a society to control the actions of athletes outside the lines. But we should still do everything within our power to make sure that we don’t lose control of what goes on inside them, from pantomiming a throat slashing to assault and battery.

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Randy Harvey can be reached at his e-mail address: randy.harvey@latimes.com.

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Strawberry’s Suspensions

* Feb. 6, 1995--Major league baseball suspends Strawberry for 60 days after he tests positive for cocaine. The Giants, citing a clause in his contract, terminate the deal and release him.

* June 18, 1999--Bud Selig announces that Strawberry can return to baseball after a 120-day suspension ends on Aug. 11. Selig later reduces suspension by one week. (Strawberry was charged with possession of cocaine on April 14, 1999 and, 10 days later, put on administrative leave by major league baseball, pending a review of his arrest.)