Sternberg: Dukes not off hook yet

Posted May 27, 2007 by Marc Lancaster

Updated May 27, 2007 at 01:03 PM

CHICAGO—Rays owner Stuart Sternberg made his first public remarks on the Elijah Dukes issue prior to today’s game at U.S. Cellular Field.

Sternberg, with his wife and four children along on the trip, said his first reaction when he heard of the allegations against Dukes was to cut ties with him immediately. But he took a step back and is still weighing what’s best for Dukes, his family and the team. Sternberg indicated he didn’t necessarily want to abandon the troubled player, as the Rays provide some stability that might help him and his family get back on track. But keeping him around might not be in the best interests of the team.

Either way, Sternberg said Dukes isn’t out of the woods just yet. He planned to talk with the player sometime today but said it wouldn’t be an inquiry, just a discussion. As for what—if anything—comes next, everyone will have to wait and see.

“No doors have been closed at this point,” said Sternberg. “When we make whatever decision we will make, we are going to do it with the confidence that we’re feeling it’s in the best interests of the parties involved, and we will move on. We will move on with Elijah as a member of the Devil Rays organization that we will give as much assistance to as we possibly can and somebody to help him through whatever issues he has, or we will move on and he won’t be part of the Devil Rays organization and we will do really fine and everything will be great. I’d like to think in a perfect world he can be part of all that and we can be part of helping him overcome and deal with the issues he’s got and make him a good, productive citizen and father and husband and whatever it is he would like to do. That’s a perfect world. That’s what we’re striving towards.”