The Hot Stone League

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November 19, 2009 at 12:27 PM

Lincecum makes first statement on marijuana incident

Tim Lincecum just did a conference call with reporters to talk about winning the Cy Young Award for the second year in a row. I'll have some of his comments on that in a bit, but at the end of the call, Lincecum made a statement on his recent traffic stop in Hazel Dell, Washington, about four miles north of the Oregon border, on Oct. 30. It's the first time he's talked about the incident.

Lincecum was stopped for speeding, and handed over 3.3 grams of marijuana and a pot pipe after officers smelled marijuana.

Lincecum was facing misdemeanor marijuana charges, but county prosecutors and the 25-year-old pitcher agreed to a plea agreement in which, as this San Francisco Chronicle story explains, he admits to one count of buying or selling a pot pipe, an infraction, in return for having misdemeanor charges of possessing the marijuana and the pipe dropped. Lincecum agreed to pay a $372 fine, but Clark County District Court Judge Darvin Zimmerman has still ordered Lincecum to appear in a Vancouver, Washington court on Dec. 22 for an arraignment. At that time, the plea deal will be presented and most likely approved, according to the Chronicle story.

At any rate, here's what Lincecum said today (the guidelines for the conference call were that all questions were to be about baseball, and Lincecum said this is all he can say about the matter right now):

"I made a mistake and I regret my actions earlier this month in Washington. I want to apologize to the Giants organization and the fans. I know as a pro athlete I have a responsibility to conduct myself appropriately on and off the field. I certainly learned a valuable lesson from all of this. I promise to do better in the future."

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Lincecum makes first statement on marijuana incident

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