Major League Baseball

Irabu's marriage collapsed before suicide

Published Jul. 30, 2011 2:40 p.m. ET

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His marriage in tatters, troubled ex-Yankees pitcher Hideki Irabu retreated into his empty suburban Los Angeles home — and was found three days later after hanging himself, the New York Post reported Saturday.

The 42-year-old hurler — whose dream of major league stardom eluded him — was found by a friend Wednesday, said Lt. David Smith, a spokesman for the LA County Department of Coroner.

"He was last known alive on July 24," Smith said, adding it was not yet clear when Irabu actually killed himself.

Smith said Irabu was declared dead at 4:30 p.m. local time Wednesday.

Neighbors said Irabu's wife, Kyonsu Irabu, and the couple's two daughters had moved out weeks earlier.

"Every time that I would see him out and about in the driveway, he would wander about like someone who was down and who wasn't very happy," neighbor Mary Feuerlicht told the local newspaper, The Daily Breeze, in Palos Verdes. "He would look like he was in a daze."

She said a sheriff's deputy and a friend of Irabu told her the hurler's wife left with his two daughters a month ago.

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