Here we go again. Another player gets caught using Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED), excuse me, another Dominican player gets caught using PED's in Major League Baseball. Bartolo Colon was caught and suspended for using enhancements just a week after San Francisco Giants' Melky Cabrera got bagged for the same allegation.
What is going on with Dominican players?
How shortsighted are these players? Other than placing their reputation and careers on the line, they forget that they represent one of the most popular baseball countries in the world, the Dominican Republic.
Right now there seems to be more questions than answers. What will happen to established major league superstars like Jose Bautista, David Ortiz and Albert Pujols?
Everybody is waiting for Ortiz to get nabbed since his performance has been on the rise when every other players' at his age has declined.
Bautista spent the whole year of his 2010 season getting tested due to heavy suspicion that he was on drugs. I want to say "Trust me, when seeing him and meeting him in person, he looks like an ordinary guy. No way he's on drugs. My triceps are bigger than his."
But who is there to trust anymore?
We can't label a player on steroids just based on his physique. Colon looks like he never ran a day in his life. Cabrera did not look he had the body of an elite athlete.
If there is one fact that cannot be overlooked is that these players are receiving guidance from the wrong individuals. They are competing against some players who are doing this naturally. One can only help and admire the Chipper Jones or the Derek Jeters, who despite injury and, let's be honest, old age, continue to perform season after season.
When we look back at the past two decades, who will our Dominican kids look up to as their role models since players are getting caught cheating.
Manny Ramirez. Caught.
Alex Rodriguez (who has been disowned by many Dominicans, but still has it in his veins). Caught.
Sammy Sosa. Caught.
Now Melky Cabrera and Bartolo Colon get caught. Colon was one of the best Dominican pitchers, and pitchers in general from the late 90's through the mid-00's.
Cabrera was an exciting player on both ends of the field. Had a hell of an arm and started hitting, but they both will go down as cheaters.
Check out this stat. Five players have been caught for using PED's, Guillermo Mota (2nd time offender), Freddy Galvis and Marlon Byrd.
Mota= Dominican, Galvis= Venezuelan and Byrd= African American.
By no means are these three dominant figures in MLB, but it shows that amongst minorities there is a problem.
It could be the pressures of performing well and maintaining a career in the majors to help their loved ones, but what these players are failing to capture is that they are putting fellow countrymen on the line.
The MLB will never admit or deny that they will go after minorities, but with the number of failed tests amongst our groups, chances are that they will have no choice.
In the meantime, thank you Vladimir Guerrero, who despite being criticized as a hacker, was never linked to steroids.
Thank you Pedro Martinez for being a fighter despite making multiple attempts at making a return.
