Ex-Tigers broadcaster Lary Sorensen in jail

Thursday, February 7, 2008
Driving toward disaster
Ex-Tigers broadcaster in jail
Fred Girard / The Detroit News

It was 3:12 on a Saturday morning, Feb. 2, when Roseville police officer Brian Dobrzycki approached a gray 1998 Ford parked on the shoulder of I-696, near I-94, a man slumped unmoving over the steering wheel.

Dobrzycki hammered on the windows and the windshield to no avail, and called emergency medical services. Moments after they arrived the man stirred, and eventually was able to unlock his door.

Dobrzycki identified him: former All-Star pitcher and Tigers announcer Lary Sorensen. He was dead drunk -- nearly literally so.

"I'm just happy he's not dead and he didn't kill someone else," said WJR talk-show host Frank Beckmann, who was Sorensen's broadcast partner in the Tigers' booth in the 1990s. "This whole story is just a tragedy."

EMTs rushed the 52-year-old Sorensen to St. John Macomb Hospital, where he was diagnosed with alcohol poisoning. Tests determined his blood alcohol level to be .48 -- six times higher than the .08 threshold for drunk-driving convictions in Michigan.

"Wow!" was the reaction of Dr. James Langenbucher, an associate professor with the Center of Alcohol Studies at Rutgers University. "That's what we call an 'LD-50' -- a level that's above the lethal dose for 50 percent of the population."

As of late Wednesday, Sorensen remained in the Macomb County jail, awaiting a caged van to carry him back to prison.

Saturday's arrest was Sorensen's seventh drunk-driving incident, and he still is on parole from his sixth offense.

He was sentenced to 23 months to five years in prison after driving his car, littered with empty beer cans and one still-cold, half-full one, into a ditch off a Chesterfield Township road just after midnight on Oct. 30, 2004, according to police records. His blood alcohol content that time registered .31.

He was still on a three-year probationary sentence from a September 2003 conviction on the same charge. An electronic tether monitoring his location and blood alcohol content had been removed only the month before. Sorensen finally was sent to prison.

According to Corrections records, he reported to Jackson Prison's intake facility in April 2005, and by late July had been transferred to one of the toughest pens in the state, the Baraga Maximum Correctional Facility in the Upper Peninsula. Sorensen was with a group of other low-security prisoners who serve the food, cut the grass and perform other duties at Baraga, where the state's highest-security inmates reside.

Eight months later, in March 2006, Sorensen was accepted into the prison system's military-style boot camp at Chelsea, a high-intensity program for nonviolent offenders whose sentencing judges agree to the placement. Like all male prisoners, his head was shaved.

For 90 days he rose at 5 a.m., worked hard all day, took anger-management and substance-abuse classes at night, lights out at 10 p.m. Not even a visitor or a phone call for the first six weeks.

Michigan has "truth in sentencing" laws that require inmates to serve out their entire minimum sentence. The only exception is for those who successfully complete the boot camp -- they're paroled the day they finish. In Sorensen's case, that was June 6, 2006, five months early.

All he had to do then was report weekly to his parole officer, and keep off the booze.

Sorensen couldn't do it -- although he tried, performing community service, baring his soul in talks to East Detroit High students and at Salvation Army meetings.

According to Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan, however, a parole officer walked into Sorensen's apartment unannounced last May, and found him drinking. A tether was placed on his leg again for another six months.

In November, records show, Sorensen admitted that he had been drinking on weekends. He was sent to an urgent, all-day relapse program, reenrolled in Alcoholics Anonymous and his parole was extended for six months.

Marlan said the parole officer acted within his discretion in not sending Sorensen back to prison after either of those incidents.

Now Sorensen is awaiting transport back to Jackson Prison, where the parole board will rule on his case within 45 days. The board could keep him in prison for as little as another three months, or until his original maximum sentence ends Dec. 12, 2009.

Sorensen is "a person who had many opportunities in life," said the judge who originally sentenced him to prison, Richard L. Caretti of Macomb Circuit Court. "He's now thrown all those opportunities away."

Sorensen still faces serious charges for Saturday's arrest that could result in years more behind bars. Because his car's engine was off, and there was no key in the ignition, however, he could be charged with nothing at all.

Sorensen pitched for the University of Michigan before his 11-season pro career with seven teams. He was an AL All-Star in 1978. He became an announcer for the Tigers in 1995, and quit in June 1998 for undisclosed reasons.

You can reach Fred Girard at 313-222-2165 or fred.girard@detnews.com

This is one man who should NEVER HAVE A CAR!!!!

Road trouble

 Over the past 15 years, Lary Alan Sorensen, 52, has been convicted of five alcohol-related driving offenses, and Saturday was arrested for his sixth, found unconscious behind the wheel of his car with a blood alcohol content of an astonishing .48. His license has been suspended 10 times and revoked five times. He received another dozen tickets, six of them for speeding, and has 20 points on his record.
 The full record:
8/23/92: Troy; operated while impaired, license suspended till 12/18/92
3/6/93: Novi, operated under the influence of liquor, license suspended, restricted
3/21/95: Livonia, speeding, 75/55
11/26/95: Plymouth, violation of restricted license
2/15/96: Sec. State, reexamined, license suspended through 4/15/96
8/15/96: Romulus, speeding 70/65
2/4/97: Sec. State, paid reinstatement fee, suspension ends
7/24/97: Troy, speeding, 45/35, failed to pay
9/23/98: Sec. State, license suspended for failure to pay
2/22/99: Sec. State, paid ticket, license reinstated
3/11/99: Livonia, speeding, 50/45
6/17/99: Detroit, speeding, 60/55, failed to pay
9/8/99: Sec. State, license suspended for failure to pay
10/17/99:
Warren, operating under the influence of liquor and unlawful bodily
alcohol content; fought ticket until found guilty 2/27/02; six points;
license revoked for at least one year as a result of three or more
substance-abuse convictions within 10 years.
10/18/99: Sec. State, paid Detroit ticket, that suspension ends
11/27/99:
Mt. Clemens, operating under the influence of liquor; fought ticket
until found guilty on 2/27/02; six points; license revoked until at
least April 2007.
2/13/00: Plymouth, disobey stop sign, failed to pay
5/11/00: Sec. State, license suspended for failure to pay
11/28/00: Taylor, speeding, 50/45, failed to pay
11/28/00: Taylor, no proof of insurance, failed to pay
2/15/01: Sec. State, license suspended for failure to pay Taylor tickets
10/9/01: Farmington, drove while license suspended, two points
10/9/01: Farmington, no proof of insurance
10/24/01: Sec. State, paid Plymouth ticket, that suspension ends
11/11/01: Plymouth, failed to display valid license, license suspended one month
11/19/01: Sec. State, paid Taylor tickets, that suspension ends
12/2/01: Sec. State, license suspended for one year
2/22/02: Sec. State, paid reinstatement fee, suspension ends
3/7/02: Sec. State, additional one-month suspension for 10/17/99 OUIL/UBAL
4/26/03:
Mt. Clemens, operating under the influence of liquor and unlawful
bodily alcohol content; six points; license revoked until at least
September 2008.
9/7/03: Sec. State, administrative hearing, additional five-year revocation imposed.
10/30/04: Mt. Clemens, operating while intoxicated; license revoked through 2010.
3/22/05:
Mt. Clemens, found guilty of driving while intoxicated third offense,
sentenced to 23 months in prison; paroled five months early in June
2006.
2/2/08: Roseville, found unconscious behind wheel of
car; blood alcohol content is .48; now in jail awaiting return to
prison possibly until December 2009.

Jail is where he belongs; Amazing he hasn't killed someone while driving!

Lary Alan Sorensen (born October 4, 1955 in Detroit, Michigan) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who played for the Milwaukee Brewers (1977-1980), St. Louis Cardinals (1981), Cleveland Indians (1982-1983), Oakland Athletics (1984), Chicago Cubs (1985), Montreal Expos (1987) and San Francisco Giants (1988).

Baseball career

In an 11-season career, Sorensen posted a 93-103 record with 569 strikeouts, 10 shutouts, and a 4.15 ERA in 346 games pitched (235 as a starter).

Law troubles

On February 28, 1986, Sorensen and ten others were suspended for admitting during the Pittsburgh drug trials that they were involved in cocaine abuse. While seven were initially suspended for the entire season, Sorenson was given a shorter 60-day suspension. All eleven were allowed to forego their suspension after agreeing to large anti-drug donations and community service.

Sorensen's record of substance abuse continued after his playing days including numerous DUI convictions. His blood alcohol content was measured as high as 0.26. Sorensen's sixth offense resulted in a multi-year prison sentence. In early 2008, he was found by police unconscious in his car along a highway. He had a .48 BAC and alcohol poisoning. One expert said that half of the population would die with a BAC that high.

Broadcasting

He became a broadcaster after his career ended, first with Detroit's WDFN radio, where he co-hosted a morning show called The Morning Battery with Butch Stearns from July 1994 until February 1995, and later with Detroit's WJR radio, partnering with Frank Beckmann to become the Detroit Tigers' radio broadcast team in 1995. Sorensen left the Tigers' job in June 1998 for undisclosed personal reasons. He was replaced by Jim Price and Tom Paciorek.


doping cases in sport


......Name.......... Sport ......Banned substance
Lary Sorensen ... Baseball ... Cocaine

I get so angry abou this. Bad enough we have enough people who get ill/have seizures/heart attacks while driving, but this too! Driving is so dangerous.

They deny it, but it is so self centered to drink and then drive and en-danger other innocent people! If you have to drink, do it at home and sleep it off! I'm glad Sorensen is back in jail!

Call a cab or get a ride; If you drink, leave your keys at home

I DO! Not that difficult

Or better yet: Stay home and drink all ya want

What a moron...he has a real problem.

He belongs in jail; have little sympathy for him.

Especially when there is so much help out there...you just have to decide to quit is all.

And if he can't stop drinking, he needs to stop driving, especially when he is intoxicated.


The danger to himself and innocent people is too great!

I should be a designated driver in our town....

What a shame! When are people gonna learn?

When they have their drivers license revoked!!

Yea, but he was still driving on a revoked liscense...what is next?

What he is getting, jail. If he does not have enough willpower to stay away from drunk driving, and hospital, rehab does not work then he must be kept away from hurting others!

If they have it, an implant of a non-drinking drug delivery system, that makes them too sick to drive (if they drink) would be good.

I believe one has the right to drink, but don't expect all of our insurance companies to pay for your liver transplants! And DON'T DRIVE!

Well spoken...I agree 100%