Darryl Strawberry

D.J. Strawberry, a 6-foot-4 guard who is the son of former major-league baseball player Darryl Strawberry, has given the Maryland men's basketball program an oral commitment and is expected to sign with the Terrapins in November, a source close to the school's recruiting efforts confirmed. Strawberry, a senior at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, Calif., who averaged 11.5 points last season, chose the defending national champion Terps over Florida State and DePaul. He visited Maryland last week and is considered by the coaching staff to be a potential contributor at either guard position.

SARASOTA, Fla. - Right around the time major league teams first began taking notice of a talented young outfielder playing at Crenshaw High in South Central Los Angeles, a harsh reality check came for Trayvon Robinson. The Orioles outfielder was in the 10th grade when his mailbox started to fill with questionnaires from big league clubs, inspiring hope in a place where young men are far more likely to become gang members than major league baseball players. Then, one day, shots rang out from outside his family's housing complex.

D.J. Strawberry watched the Maryland Terrapins on television as often as possible last winter, envisioning himself on the receiving end of one of coach Gary Williams' patented sideline outbursts. "I'm ready for it. I have a thick skin," said Strawberry, of Santa Ana, Calif., who is part of a five-man freshman class joining the Terps next season. Any player making the leap from high school to college ball comes with some doubts attached, but if there is one certainty about Darryl Strawberry Jr., it's that he can handle the sharpest verbal daggers.

Tampa, Fla. -- For a fleeting moment, Darryl Strawberry was just like the rest of them - a proud parent standing to applaud his son on senior day, beaming as the Comcast Center crowd collectively rose in appreciation of D.J. Strawberry's efforts, not only during Maryland's amazing run, but also during his entire career. It really has been that simple all along, Darryl Strawberry said, a typical father-son relationship that was deemed interesting only because of who the father once was, and who the son has come to be. The two have always been intertwined, inseparable even when Darryl Strawberry was not at his eldest son's college basketball games, let alone in the same state.

Hitting* Carlos Delgado, Blue Jays: 3HRs* Mike Kelly, Devil Rays: 2 HRs.9- * Darryl Strawberry, Yankees: grand slam.Pitching* Mike Mussina, Orioles: 9 innings, 0 runs, 2 hits, perfect for 7 2/3 innings.4 * Steve Avery, Red Sox: 6 innings, 1 run, 2 hits

LOS ANGELES -- With left-handed-hitting first baseman Henry Rodriguez out with a broken leg, the Montreal Expos are expressing interest in free agent Darryl Strawberry."

Tampa, Fla. -- For a fleeting moment, Darryl Strawberry was just like the rest of them - a proud parent standing to applaud his son on senior day, beaming as the Comcast Center crowd collectively rose in appreciation of D.J. Strawberry's efforts, not only during Maryland's amazing run, but also during his entire career. It really has been that simple all along, Darryl Strawberry said, a typical father-son relationship that was deemed interesting only because of who the father once was, and who the son has come to be. The two have always been intertwined, inseparable even when Darryl Strawberry was not at his eldest son's college basketball games, let alone in the same state.

LOS ANGELES -- I wish he would give all the money back. The entire $8 million. Every penny.I know it's a pipe dream. I know this is the '90s, and professional athletes are as likely to pass up a check as they are to pick up one in a restaurant.But I wish Darryl Strawberry would do the decent thing for once and hand back all of the money he's taking out of the pockets of the Dodger faithful for this season and next.Remember, Dodgers fans, you're paying for this. When you buy tickets, hot dogs and pennants, when you pay for parking, when you fork over your hard-earned cash so that you and your family can go to the park and take in a game, all that money flows to one central fund.

Don't worry, be happyLos Angeles Dodgers pitcher Bob Ojeda, a former New York Met, told The Hartford Courant that there is a huge difference between fans in New York and fans on the West Coast."

WOULD you step on a train if you thought Darryl Strawberry might be the conductor? Mr. Strawberry, the New York Yankees baseball player, recently failed yet another cocaine test. His is an absurd cycle of relapse, sorrow and reinstatement to the job. Of course, Mr. Strawberry plays baseball, and there's only so much damage one can do at the plate or in the field. Were he operating a train -- say, a light rail vehicle -- while on cocaine, the results could be disastrous. Baltimore's light rail riders have no real assurances that people like Darryl Strawberry aren't operating transit vehicles, some of which can carry hundreds of passengers.

Brendan Haywood and Etan Thomas, journeyman post players for the Washington Wizards, don't particularly like each other. In fact, some would argue that dislike has been elevated to the level of seething, unabashed hatred. After The Washington Post reported last week that the duo came to blows in practice for the third time in the past two years, it's obvious that Thomas and Haywood are on the road to becoming the sports equivalent of Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston. Two lost souls, inexplicably linked, creating headlines because of their penchant for fisticuffs, not their talent.

D.J. Strawberry watched the Maryland Terrapins on television as often as possible last winter, envisioning himself on the receiving end of one of coach Gary Williams' patented sideline outbursts. "I'm ready for it. I have a thick skin," said Strawberry, of Santa Ana, Calif., who is part of a five-man freshman class joining the Terps next season. Any player making the leap from high school to college ball comes with some doubts attached, but if there is one certainty about Darryl Strawberry Jr., it's that he can handle the sharpest verbal daggers.

D.J. Strawberry, a 6-foot-4 guard who is the son of former major-league baseball player Darryl Strawberry, has given the Maryland men's basketball program an oral commitment and is expected to sign with the Terrapins in November, a source close to the school's recruiting efforts confirmed. Strawberry, a senior at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, Calif., who averaged 11.5 points last season, chose the defending national champion Terps over Florida State and DePaul. He visited Maryland last week and is considered by the coaching staff to be a potential contributor at either guard position.

ATLANTA - Seven injured starters missed the All-Star Game. Andres Galarraga missed all of last season. His presence last night was just slightly more important than anyone's absence. Galarraga received three standing ovations from the home crowd at Turner Field - during introductions, before his first at-bat and after he departed for a pinch-runner following a fourth-inning single. He has power to all fields. He has even more power as a cancer survivor. "There are probably no words to explain how happy, how excited I am feeling," Galarraga said.

DID YOU SEE that list of big-league baseball drug suspensions in the paper the other day? Instead of pregame meetings to discuss opposing hitters and pitchers, maybe baseball teams should conduct mandatory meetings of Narcotics Anonymous. It's not just baseball, of course. Football has its Lawrence Taylors and Leon Letts. And basketball's Dallas Mavericks gave the world Roy Tarpley. But baseball lays claim to a breathtaking Hall of Shame when it comes to substance abusers. Take Darryl Strawberry -- please.

WOULD you step on a train if you thought Darryl Strawberry might be the conductor? Mr. Strawberry, the New York Yankees baseball player, recently failed yet another cocaine test. His is an absurd cycle of relapse, sorrow and reinstatement to the job. Of course, Mr. Strawberry plays baseball, and there's only so much damage one can do at the plate or in the field. Were he operating a train -- say, a light rail vehicle -- while on cocaine, the results could be disastrous. Baltimore's light rail riders have no real assurances that people like Darryl Strawberry aren't operating transit vehicles, some of which can carry hundreds of passengers.

NEW YORK -- New York Yankees manager Joe Torre has agonized for days over the makeup of his starting lineup for the opener of the American League Division Series tonight against the Texas Rangers, and he still wasn't ready to name his designated hitter yesterday.Should he go with Cecil Fielder, who clearly is one of the most dangerous hitters of the 1990s? Or Darryl Strawberry, who has a good -- if limited -- record against Texas Rangers Game 1 starter John Burkett?"I'm trying to digest as much information as I can," Torre said at yesterday's news conference at Yankee Stadium.

DID YOU SEE that list of big-league baseball drug suspensions in the paper the other day? Instead of pregame meetings to discuss opposing hitters and pitchers, maybe baseball teams should conduct mandatory meetings of Narcotics Anonymous. It's not just baseball, of course. Football has its Lawrence Taylors and Leon Letts. And basketball's Dallas Mavericks gave the world Roy Tarpley. But baseball lays claim to a breathtaking Hall of Shame when it comes to substance abusers. Take Darryl Strawberry -- please.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The New York Yankees slipped out of The Ballpark in Arlington early yesterday morning, leaving behind the lingering scent of cheap champagne and an opposing team that never got close enough to mistake it for the smell of sour grapes.The Texas Rangers will not take issue with the notion that the Yankees are one of the best teams in the history of baseball. They saw it confirmed in a three-game Division Series sweep that illustrated again the depth, determination and versatility of the club that set an American League record with 114 victories.

In the top half of the first inning Sunday night, as the Yankees' leadoff man batted, Derek Jeter, the Yankees' 24-year-old shortstop, crouched in the on-deck circle, looking across Camden Yards. He was smiling quizzically at a man in the Orioles' dugout.Mr. Jeter was making eye contact with, and nodding in salute to, a man 14 years his senior, who had not been seated at the beginning of an Orioles home game since Mr. Jeter was an 8-year-old prodigy playing sandlot ball. For the first time since May 29, 1982, Cal Ripken Jr. was going to sit out a game.