Conspiracy or "cultural necessity"?

[ericlc129]

Hi guys!

A couple of years back, before Sosa made it headlines again, there seemed to be a slew of Latin players that were getting hit with positive results for performance enhancers. Even my own fairly good relief pitcher Juan Rincon got nailed.
My question is whether there's an MLB conspiracy involved with a "Good Ol' Boy" network of owners, or if the Latin contigency is essentially forced into taking HGH, Roids, etc, to make their way out of the slums.

We can't count A-Rod into this as he was from Florida and even Doug Mientkiewicz-his high school teammate-made it into the Bigs.

I'm thinking that there's gotta be some sort of reason that more Latin players are juicing or getting popped for using the juice more than other players.

[Rich the Giants fan]

Latin players are probably getting a lesser quality brand of juice. I certainly don't think that Latin players are any more, or less, likely to cheat than players of other ethnicities.

[ericlc129]

I don't think they are using more...just seemed rather odd that more of them are getting caught. And since no one's going to know the full list of 102, we don't know if the trend has been continuing or will continue.

[sturg1dj]

i think they are using more, especially in the DR because they are legal there. With poverty what it is there I can't fault a kid for using in order to escape it.

[Afterglow]

Did I just see someone blame white people for Latin players getting popped for roids?


I bet Sammy was tricked into using that bat.



:rolleyes:

[sturg1dj]

Did I just see someone blame white people for Latin players getting popped for roids?


I bet Sammy was tricked into using that bat.



:rolleyes:

you say that, but if we started drafting the latin players instead of them being free agents I bet the whole landscape of the game would change. Owners don't want this because these players are a cheap alternative that they can teach starting when they are 16 and sign 10+ for the price of 1.

[KevinWI]

Hi guys!

A couple of years back, before Sosa made it headlines again, there seemed to be a slew of Latin players that were getting hit with positive results for performance enhancers. Even my own fairly good relief pitcher Juan Rincon got nailed.
My question is whether there's an MLB conspiracy involved with a "Good Ol' Boy" network of owners, or if the Latin contigency is essentially forced into taking HGH, Roids, etc, to make their way out of the slums.

We can't count A-Rod into this as he was from Florida and even Doug Mientkiewicz-his high school teammate-made it into the Bigs.

I'm thinking that there's gotta be some sort of reason that more Latin players are juicing or getting popped for using the juice more than other players.

You're crazy. I don't think any one more race used them more than another.

[sturg1dj]

You're crazy. I don't think any one more race used them more than another.

its not as much race as where they received their baseball training...in a country where steroids are legal and there is much more competition for baseball jobs and fewer alternatives for success.

[KevinWI]

its not as much race as where they received their baseball training...in a country where steroids are legal and there is much more competition for baseball jobs and fewer alternatives for success.

I can buy that.

[abolishthedh]

I agree that there must be a cultural bias involved, and that the influence of a player's country may have led more players and supporting entourage to accept PEDs. However, the difference is small. It is understandable for sociologists and psychologists to be interested in this, but as a baseball fan I am not interested much.

[sturg1dj]

I agree that there must be a cultural bias involved, and that the influence of a player's country may have led more players and supporting entourage to accept PEDs. However, the difference is small. It is understandable for sociologists and psychologists to be interested in this, but as a baseball fan I am not interested much.

well, I am a sociologist...haha


much of the early debate about steroids during the time when Barry Bonds was breaking records was the idea that even if it wasn't against the rules (or at least enforced) they must have known they were breaking rules and doing bad things. For U.S. born players they have the laws to look at and norms that come from that. For players from the DR their norms are different, and that is something that is very hard for some to understand. Yes, we can just say that its against the law, and now against the rules so they have to adhere to it...but we cannot assume they just know its wrong.