Joba The Drunk

APRIL 2--Among the expensive seating options at the new Yankee Stadium is a section called the Jim Beam Suites. Perhaps the Crown Royal Club would have been more appropriate, based on a police report detailing pitcher Joba Chamberlain's drunk driving arrest.

The 23-year-old hurler pleaded guilty yesterday to a DUI charge stemming from his October 2008 collar in Lincoln, Nebraska. The Nebraska State Patrol report, a copy of which you'll find here, became public following Chamberlain's plea, which resulted in a 60-day license suspension for the athlete, who was also placed on probation for nine months.

After Chamberlain, driving a 2006 BMW, was pulled over for speeding at about 1 AM, a state trooper noticed an open bottle of Crown Royal whiskey on the front passenger seat (the 750 ml bottle was about one-fourth full). Chamberlain told Trooper Michael Grummert that he began drinking 90 minutes before the traffic stop and had consumed 'beer and vodka, approximately three beers, and four to five drinks.'

A 'cooperative and courteous' Chamberlain failed a pair of field sobriety tests, and a Breathalyzer test showed that his blood alcohol content was .134, above the state's .08 limit. But the Yankee did succeed when asked to recite the alphabet and count to 20. And when Grummert asked if he was under the influence, 'Chamberlain stated that he was.' (3 pages)