Straw tumor out; docs ''optimistic''

By RALPH R. ORTEGA and LEO STANDORA

August 8, 2000 Web posted at: 9:43 AM EDT (1343 GMT)

NEW YORK (The New York Daily News) -- A team of surgeons yesterday removed a cancerous tumor growing near Darryl Strawberry's kidney and said they were "optimistic" the suspended Yankee slugger would recover without complications.

Darryl Strawberry's doctors say they're "optimistic for an uneventful recovery"

Left unsaid was if and when Strawberry would be able to play baseball again after his second round of cancer surgery.

Doctors at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center said the troubled star was in stable condition and resting comfortably following the operation. Yankees manager Joe Torre, who underwent cancer surgery last year, said he would wait to talk to Strawberry until the player lets him know that he feels better.

Meanwhile, he said, "We are all praying for him. We have enough faith to ask for help in that regard, but you have to put your faith in your doctor also."

A statement released by the hospital said a four-man surgical team removed an "isolated tumor mass" near Strawberry's left kidney. A post-operative evaluation "supported the preoperative impression that there was no obvious distant spread of cancer," and "no evidence of any residual disease," the statement said.

Strawberry also underwent a preoperative colonoscopy that revealed no evidence of a tumor in the intestine.

The doctors — Mitchell Benson, George Todd, Richard Whelan and Peter Schiff — said they were "optimistic for an uneventful recovery." But there was no mention of whether Strawberry must now undergo chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or both.

The tumor removed yesterday was near the site of a tumor and a section of colon that was removed two years ago. Strawberry underwent chemotherapy after that operation and rejoined the Yankees last season.

However, the team suspended him for most of last season after his April 1999 arrest in Tampa on drug and solicitation charges. Strawberry pleaded no-contest to those charges and was sentenced to probation. He was suspended from baseball for a year in February after he tested positive for cocaine in January.

Later this month, a Florida judge will determine whether Strawberry violated his probation by leaving a drug-rehab program early and visiting a swingers club. He also faces a variety of financial troubles.

Yankee fan Bill Heatherington, 45, who was visiting his father at the hospital yesterday, said "it's hard to feel sorry for somebody making as much as Strawberry does — but I do. He's got a lot going for him, and he deserves another chance."

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