TAMPA, Fla. -- Suspended Yankees star Darryl Strawberry was sentenced to two years' house arrest Tuesday after admitting he violated probation by driving under the influence of medication and by leaving the scene of an accident.

Strawberry, who is fighting the spread of colon cancer, apologized during a brief hearing before Judge Florence Foster for causing a Monday morning traffic accident. He said he blacked out from his medication while en route to a meeting with his probation officer.

	Strawberry

"I used the wrong judgment ... taking medication because I didn't feel well," he told the court. "I just blacked out. I didn't know if I hurt anybody. I feel really bad about that."

Strawberry was released from jail Tuesday, slipping out a side door to avoid crowds.

Foster was the judge who placed the eight-time All-Star on probation last year in a drug and solicitation case. Prosecutors requested house arrest, although Strawberry could have been sent to prison.

Assistant State Attorney Robin Fuson said Strawberry will still have to face the misdemeanor charges from Monday's accident -- driving under the influence and leaving the scene of the accident -- as separate crimes that could bring additional punishment.

House arrest means the 38-year-old outfielder can leave home only to go to a doctor's office or for work. Should he attempt to rejoin a major league baseball team, he would need court permission, Fuson said.

"There's a lot going on there," Yankees manager Joe Torre said before Tuesday night's game against Toronto. "You have to wonder how he's going to make a living."

Outside court, Strawberry's wife, Charisse, said her husband is sorry about what happened, and was relieved to know the woman whose car he hit wasn't injured.

"I just hope we'll recover from this," she said, as tears rolled from behind her sunglasses.

She said her husband, who had surgery last month, is in a lot of pain because of the cancer and having a kidney removed. He also has some mental difficulties, she said, but did not elaborate.

"We still have to live every day. He still has to wake up every morning and look in the mirror and say, 'I'm going through this,"' she said.

Strawberry, who has battled drug and alcohol abuse for years, is not permitted to leave home even for an activity as mundane as going to the movies or to his children's school.

He will undergo regular drug testing and the Florida Department of Corrections will make surprise checks on a daily basis to make sure Strawberry is at home.

"Two years of house arrest is no day at the beach," Fuson said.

Foster warned Strawberry at Tuesday's hearing that he was to strictly follow doctors' orders on the use of prescription drugs and shouldn't drive if he's taken medication.

"I suggest you might want to get a driver," Foster told Strawberry, adding she would not add any community service to his sentence.

"You've got enough on your plate to deal with," she said.

Strawberry must also pay a $265 fine and his case will be reviewed again in four months.

Strawberry spent Monday night in jail after an off-duty Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy saw the player hit a road sign, turn onto another street and rear-end a sports utility vehicle stopped at a red light.

After he admitted to the two charges, state prosecutors recommended and the judge agreed that he be sentenced to two years of "community control."

If he successfully completes the first year of house arrest, the judge said Strawberry can request to return to regular drug-offender probation.

Strawberry told officers Monday he had taken the sleeping medication Ambien, according to sheriff's spokesman Rod Reder. Joseph Ficarrotta, Strawberry's defense attorney, said he also has prescriptions for the narcotic painkillers Percocet and Vicodin.

The outfielder failed a field-sobriety test but a blood-alcohol test showed no alcohol in his system. He volunteered a urine sample for testing; prosecutors said until the tests are complete they are taking Strawberry on his word that he had taken only prescription drugs.

Strawberry was suspended for most of last season after his arrest in Tampa in April 1999 on drug and solicitation charges.

He pleaded no contest and was sentenced by Foster to 18 months' probation. He was suspended from baseball for a year in February, a month after he tested positive for cocaine.

Strawberry, who had surgery for colon cancer in 1998 and for a stomach tumor last month, has follow-up doctor's appointments scheduled in Tampa and New York, where he had his latest operation.