BASEBALL : DAILY REPORT : DODGERS : Strawberry Won’t Play in All-Star Game

Darryl Strawberry, the leading vote-getter among National League outfielders in balloting for the All-Star game July 9, says he will not play in the game even if he returns from the disabled list before then, as expected.

“I’m not even going to the game,” Strawberry said Tuesday. “I’m staying home and resting and make sure I’m healthy for the second half of the season. I’ll probably just be getting back into our lineup then, and I don’t need to do anything to aggravate my shoulder.

“I don’t need a lot of what happens at the game. I just need to be ready to help our team in the second half.”

Strawberry did the same thing in 1989, when he suffered a fractured toe June 19 and skipped the All-Star game at Anaheim even though he was elected to start. This season will mark the only other time in his eight full major league seasons when he did not participate in an All-Star game.

Strawberry said he hopes to return to the lineup by the middle of next week, at San Diego. He said he hopes to begin swinging and throwing by this weekend at Atlanta.

The Dodgers denied that they were a culprit in what the National League has called “abuses” in electronic transmissions between the press box and dugout. The league banned such technology last week because of what sources said were complaints from umpires about teams relaying messages to the dugouts about bad calls seen on television replays in the press box.

“Never once have I taken a call from Joe Ferguson about a replay he saw,” Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said. “We have never, ever done that. I don’t need Ferguson to tell me what I’ve seen.”