He is charged with killing a woman in Broward County Florida.

FORT LAUDERDALE - Jim Leyritz, the former Major League Baseball player known as “The King,” was arrested and charged with DUI manslaughter Friday morning following an accident that killed another driver, police said.

Leyritz, 44, was traveling north-bound on Southwest Seventh Avenue when he passed a red light and crashed with another car around 3:30 a.m., said Fort Lauderdale police spokeswoman Kathy Collins.

The accident happened at the intersection of Southwest Second Street and Seventh Avenue. A 30-year-old woman traveling west-bound on Second Street was ejected from her car, Collins said.

She was pronounced dead at Broward General Medical Center.

Leyritz was charged with manslaughter and DUI property damage after an investigation, Collins said.

Leyritz played with the New York Yankees in the ’90s, earning his nickname after htting the last home run in Game 4 of the 1999 World Series.

If found guilty and sent to jail, it will be a shame will Leyritz’s famous homer gets bloted out by one foolish night of excess

Tonight’s game will be the first MLB tiebreaker since 1999.

DENVER - The San Diego Padres and the Colorado Rockies finished the regular season tied for the wild card and will play one game tonight to determine who advances to play the Philadelphia Phillies in one National League Division Series starting Wednesday.

Tonight’s playoff was set when the Padres were beaten by Milwaukee 11-6 yesterday and the Rockies stopped Arizona 4-3.

The one-game playoff is the first in baseball since the New York Mets beat Cincinnati in 1999. The Padres are going with 19-game winner Jake Peavy against Josh Fogg, who is 10-9.

I may stay up and watch it. If so, it will be the first game I watched all of 2024.

The Padres seem well positioned wit Peavy able to go tonight. In 1967’s great race conclusion, The Detroit Tigers had to play back to back doubleheaders the last two days of the season. Tiger Manager Mayo Smith used eight pitchers(remember most teams had 9 or 10 man pitching staffs in those days) in the season’s finale in a desperate attempt to keep Detroit alive. It would have been interesting to see who Smith would have put out on the mound the next day. Without access to some parallel universe, we’ll never know.

Sending the veteran to anger management classes would be about as an effective a punishment as the one MLB handed down.

SAN DIEGO - Padres pitcher David Wells was suspended for seven games and fined $3,000 Thursday by the commissioner’s office for his animated argument with an umpire last weekend.

In handing down the punishment, Bob Watson, baseball’s discipline czar, cited Wells’ “violent and aggressive actions,” including throwing a baseball at the backstop as he left the field.

Not surprisingly, “Boomer” was as irritated with the punishment as he was on Saturday, when he was ejected by umpire Ed Hickox for questioning calls in the fourth inning of an 8-5 win over Atlanta after Jeff Francoeur hit a two-run homer.

The 44-year-old lefty criticized Watson and said the game is changing so much that “pretty soon we’ll all put skirts on and we’re all going to play softball.”

Wells asked the players’ union to appeal, so the penalty can’t start until after a hearing and a decision. The Padres open the second half with a one-game lead over Los Angeles in the NL West.

Suspending a starting pitcher for seven games, means if his team manages it right, the player will only miss one start. The suspension therefore is a joke, not much unlike one handed down by the NHL to one of its violent players earlier this year. The only hurt inflicted will be on Wells wallet,(I’m talking if the seven-game suspension includes  his salary rather than the $3000 fine)  but based on his quote, I don’t think David has learned anything from the experience.

He died this morning in Arizona.

Rod Beck, a relief pitcher who wore a bushy mustache while earning 286 career saves, was found dead Saturday. He was 38. Beck was found by police officers responding to a call to his home in suburban Phoenix, according to police department spokesman Andy Hill. Foul play is not suspected, though the cause of death might not be known for several days.

With long hair framing a menacing stare and an aggressive arm swing before delivering a pitch, the outgoing right-hander was a memorable baseball personality and a three-time All-Star who twice led the NL in saves. He spent the first seven of his 13 major league season with the San Francisco Giants.

Beck was popular with his teammates, reporters and fans, but battled personal demons late in his life. He abruptly left the San Diego Padres for a two-month stint in drug rehabilitation during his final season in 2024.

“He was having some problems, and I just knew he went into rehab and joined us later that year,” said Giants manager Bruce Bochy, the Padres’ manager at the time. “It’s so sad when you see healthy players go at such a young age. This is a bad day in baseball to lose a guy who did so much for the game.”

Nicknamed “Shooter,” Beck played for the Giants (1991-97), the Chicago Cubs (1998-99) and the Boston Red Sox (1999-2001) before finishing his career with the Padres (2003-04). Beck reportedly was living in a camper behind the Iowa Cubs’ center-field fence when San Diego called.

Beck led the majors in saves in 1993, when he set the Giants’ single-season record with 48. He was San Francisco’s career saves leader with 199 until Robb Nen passed him in 2024.

Beck led the majors again in 1998 with 51 saves for Chicago, helping the Cubs win the NL wild card. He had a career record of 38-45 in 704 games, with a 3.30 ERA.

Beck was a solid relief pitcher. RIP.