Ex-Yank Chuck Knoblauch Charged with Beating, Strangling Wife

Tightly-wound ballplayers can be great on the field, but maybe not so good elsewhere. Earlier this decade, feisty Wally Backman of the '86 Mets lost a Diamondbacks managing job when it was revealed he had both DUI and wife-beating busts. (Great 2005 Backman profile here.) Now Chuck Knoblauch, teeth-gritting sparkplug of the great Yankee teams in the late '90s, has been arraigned for hitting and choking his common-law wife after a night of drinking and Xanax. She was allegedly trying to keep him from driving.

The famed Mitchell Report alleged that when he started having troubles on the field, Knoblauch started using HGH, which is not allowed in major league baseball. He was uncooperative with a related House Committee and had to be subpoenaed to appear.

The Bleacher Report puts Knoblauch's case with those of Jim Leyritz, Roger Clemens, and Joba Chamberlain among ex-Yanks who have wound up on the wrong side of the law.

Too much motor for the chassis, perhaps.