Steve Howe's future is back in limbo after the New York Yankees reliever was suspended from baseball for the seventh time since 1983 for drug and alcohol abuse.
Howe was suspended Monday shortly after U.S. Magistrate Bart Erickson put off acting on Howe's guilty plea to a charge that he tried to buy one gram of cocaine.Erickson did not immediately accept the plea and said he wants to study a pre-sentence report before deciding. He scheduled another hearing for Aug. 18.
The 34-year-old Howe, the NL Rookie of the Year in 1980 when he saved 17 games for the Los Angeles Dodgers, has been highly successful in his latest comeback bid. He joined the Yankees in May 1991 following three years when he was out of the majors.
Last year he was 3-1 with three saves and a 1.68 ERA in 48 inning. So far this season, he has appeared in 20 games, going 3-0 with six saves and a 2.45 ERA in 22 innings.
Commissioner Fay Vincent announced the suspension, and baseball officials predicted Howe would file a grievance, sending the action to an arbitrator.
Howe is the second Yankee pitcher suspended this season. Pascual Perez was suspended for a year for testing positive in two tests for cocaine use.
The plea bargain negotiated by Howe's lawyers and the government calls for dismissal of a second misdemeanor cocaine charge. The agreement does not recommend any jail time for Howe.
But determination of a penalty rests with Erickson, and he could impose up to one year in jail and a $100,000 fine on the single count.
Howe offered the plea under a legal mechanism called an Alford plea. Under that procedure, his attorneys said, a defendant can plead guilty to a criminal charge without admitting the government's version of the facts.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kris McLean said use of the plea gave Howe a means of arguing to Vincent that he did not admit to the government's facts in the case.
McLean called use of the Alford option nothing but a legal nicety. "He pled guilty today," McLean said. "Guilty's guilty."