University Network

Dominican Republic joins 2 of its own MLB players Alex Rodriguez and Miguel Tejada in facing the issues on steroids. The country is known as wonderland for baseball scouts having produced pro-ball stars like David Ortiz, Hanley Ramirez, Miguel Tejada, and Vladimir Guerrero. However, with the involvement of A-Rod and Tejada, its reputation is marred and Profirio Veras, Dominican baseball commissioner fears that this is giving the impression that Dominican baseball players only get to go to the pros because of steroid use.

From USA Today:

At the root of the problem are the largely unregulated buscones, Spanish for “seekers,” some of whom have been accused of regularly misrepresenting players’ ages, furnishing them with steroids and scamming to extract large portions of their signing bonuses, sometimes in conjunction with major league team employees.

MLB says its teams spent nearly $60 million in bonuses last year to Latin American players, with $40 million going to Dominican prospects.

With an annual gross domestic product of about $9,000 per capita, the Dominican lacks the infrastructure — school-affiliated leagues, salaried coaches, equipment, etc. — to develop baseball talent at the youth level.

Exploitation among younger Dominican baseball players has been going on for a while. The buscones take advantage of the fact that most of those who eagerly undergo training and are discovered to have great potential are those kids who come from poor families. By giving them their basic needs like food, shelter and most especially training that could give them a shot at the pros, in return the scouts are promised a hefty amount from their signing bonuses.

However, in the light of the steroids issue, MLB is coming up with a sports law that will require baseball scouts to obtain a license. This will prevent unregulated buscones from recruiting and exploiting naïve kids and messing up with their health and their future.

Category: Anabolic Steroids | Tags: Alex Rodriguez, baseball scout, buscones, Dominican Republic, Miguel Tejada, MLB, Profrio Veras, Sen. George Mitchell report, steroids