The Cocaine Agonies Continue

By Richard Lacayo

The man on trial was Accused Cocaine Dealer Curtis Strong, but it was major league baseball on the defensive last week as testimony continued in a Pittsburgh federal court. Four more players took the stand to say that Strong had been a matchmaker in their love affairs with cocaine. They also kept naming names, bringing to 21 the number of current and former players alleged in court to have used coke. Shockingly, perhaps unfairly, the sorry tale of illegal drug involvement stretched back through the years to touch two of the game's immortals: Willie Stargell and Willie Mays.

Among the new names mentioned by the player-witnesses last week were former Pirate Pitchers Eddie Solomon and Manny Sarmiento, as well as Montreal Expo Outfielder Tim Raines and onetime Outfielder Rowland Office. The most disheartening charges to come out of the trial, however, concerned not coke but amphetamines. Yankee Third Baseman Dale Berra, Yogi's 28-year-old son, said that while playing with the Pirates he got green speed pills from former Team Captains Bill Madlock and Willie ("Pops") Stargell. Berra claimed he , could get a "greenie" from Stargell "on any given day that I asked him for one."

Both Madlock and Stargell denied the accusation, which was made again on the stand two days later by Cincinnati Outfielder Dave Parker, a former Pirate. It was an unwelcome charge anywhere, but especially in Pittsburgh, where Stargell is beloved as the man who led the Pirates "family" to its 1979 World Series victory. "I can't believe that Willie would be involved in that," Pirates President Daniel Galbreath said to the Pittsburgh Post- Gazette. "In fact, I doubt he was."

Retired Pirate John Milner offered more curious recollections of how he got greenies: they were placed anonymously inside his locker. "They were in my stall, that's all I know," he explained. As a sidelight, Milner also claimed to have seen some "red juice," a fruit juice and amphetamine concoction, in the locker of Willie Mays when both played for the New York Mets in the early '70s. "The Willie Mays?" asked Defense Attorney Adam Renfroe. "Willie Mays -- the great one," replied Milner. An angry Mays denied the charge, and his doctor told CBS that the red liquid was cough medicine. "It's a shame that a man can be crucified

(by) one statement," said Mays.

When they were not calmly identifying fellow players last week, the witnesses all claimed to have purchased cocaine from Strong, a former caterer for the Philadelphia Phillies. The jury heard claims that Strong had easy access to the Pirates' clubhouse and met with players in hotels. Lawyer Renfroe has struggled to cast his client as a little guy who has become the scapegoat for baseball's sins. The players, says Renfroe, are rich "hero junkies" who get immunity while his client goes on trial. Cross-examining Parker, he shouted derisively at one point, "How is it that once you get immunity that you're not going to jail and won't lose your $20,000 diamond rings, that you now remember?"

Though U.S. Attorney J. Alan Johnson says he has called his last player- witness in the case, Renfroe plans to put more players on the stand when he begins his defense this week. Meanwhile, players are also expected to testify in the trial of another accused cocaine dealer, Robert McCue. Jury selection in that case is scheduled to start in Pittsburgh this week. Two other related cases involving alleged ballpark dealers are also pending. Baseball's days of shame could stretch into months.

With reporting by Joseph N. Boyce/Pittsburgh