Spring Training Roundup : Two More Say Yes to Drug Plan

Dave Parker, right fielder for the Cincinnati Reds, and Al Holland, a New York Yankees’ relief pitcher, said Monday they will comply with penalties handed down by baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth.

Parker is doing so to avoid a one-year suspension for his drug involvement of several years ago, while Holland has accepted the penalty as an alternative to a 60-day suspension.

Parker told a group of reporters around a batting cage at the Reds’ spring training facility in Tampa, Fla., that he plans to play this year. He said he’ll leave any challenge to Ueberroth’s decision up to the major league baseball players’ association.

Parker is one of seven major-league players given one-year suspensions by Ueberroth. The suspensions will be held in abeyance if they agree to pay 10% of their salaries to drug rehabilitation programs, accept periodic drug testing and perform public service work. Parker’s fine would amount to about $120,000.

Holland was one of four players who could be suspended for 60 days under Ueberroth’s action on drug involvement. However, those players instead can agree to donate 5% of their 1986 salaries to a drug prevention facility or program, random drug testing for the remainder of their careers and 50 hours of drug-related community service this year.

“I wanted to wait until I had all the ins and out of it,” Holland said in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “Now, I have a grasp of everything that happened. I feel part of it isn’t fair, but you can’t have your cake and eat it, too. The most important thing is we want to put it behind us. We were wrong.”

Left-handed reliever Gary Lavelle, plagued by elbow miseries throughout much of 1985, again has a tender left elbow and will be unable to throw competitively for three weeks, the Toronto Blue Jays announced at Dunedin, Fla.

Lavelle, 37, who posted a 5-7 record with eight saves and an earned-run average of 3.10 in 72 innings last season, was examined by team doctors after having to leave the field during the club’s workout.

The Houston Astros announced in Kissimmee, Fla., that they have signed second-year first baseman Glenn Davis to a new one-year contract.

Davis, 24, set a Houston rookie record by hitting 20 home runs in just 100 games.

Cincinnati outfielder Eddie Milner was involved in a minor automobile accident on his way to workouts Monday morning at the ballclub’s spring training facility in Tampa. Fla.

Milner came away from the two-car accident with a sore left wrist. He went to a hospital for precautionary X-rays, and returned with the wrist wrapped in an elastic bandage.

Milner participated in most of the daily workout, skipping batting practice.

Phil Niekro, Tommy John and John Montefusco may not be with the Yankees this season, but team owner George Steinbrenner saw to it Monday they will all appear in the official team picture.

Steinbrenner, standing in the dugout and observing the Yankees’ annual spring photo day activities, was angered when he suddenly spotted John, Niekro and Montefusco standing on the sidelines with all the Yankee rookies and non-roster players as the rest of the team was posing.

“What is Tommy John doing over there with all the rookies?” Steinbrenner asked. “And what’s Montefusco and Niekro doing?”

A couple of reporters told Steinbrenner the photos apparently were being taken with only the roster players included.

“That’s ridiculous,” Steinbrenner snapped. “Tell them to stop taking pictures. I want Tommy John in there and I certainly want Niekro and Montefusco in there, too. They’re as much a part of this team as anyone and they deserve to be in it.”

With that, Steinbrenner marched across the field and summoned the three veteran pitchers to join the rest of the team, which was sitting in the left-field bleachers posing for the picture.

John, in camp as an unsigned non-roster player, and Montefusco, who was released by the Yankees last year after suffering a hip injury, are not on the 40-man roster.