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Steroids worth the risk as per some Dominican Players

Bernardino Jimenez was a young child in San Pedro de Macoris who grew up playing baseball behind the tin shanties and on fields cut from sugar plantations, with big dreams in his eyes. However, he became a victim to an agent who injected him with a mixture of what was told to him as legal vitamins. He was soon signed to the Arizona Diamondbacks’ training squad in 2008. Bad times entered Bernardino’s life when he tested positive for an anabolic steroid used in horses, Boldenone. This led to a career-stalling suspension for 50 games.

From TimesUnion.com:

Jimenez’s case is just one example of a disturbing trend in this hotbed of baseball talent.

Of the 69 minor leaguers suspended for using banned substances in 2008, nearly two thirds — 42 — came from the Dominican Summer League, a developmental program for Latin American players housed in secluded palm tree-lined campuses owned by big-league teams. This year, 31 of the 71 minor leaguers suspended for using banned substances came from the DSL.

In the major leagues, where performance-enhancing substances have been a divisive issue for more than a decade, players with Dominican roots have also been at the center of several high-profile drug cases.

Sammy Sosa and Manny Ramirez have been accused in stories by The New York Times of being on a list of more than 100 players alleged to have tested positive during an initial drug survey of MLB players six years ago. David Ortiz has acknowledged the union told him he was on the list, and slugger Alex Rodriguez, following a February report in Sports Illustrated, said he used steroids while with Seattle from 2001-03. Rodriguez said a cousin obtained a substance he knew as “boli” in the Dominican Republic.

The lure of fast money by using steroids is one of the biggest reasons why children in the Dominican Republic take steroids. Due to hardship issues faced, budding sportsmen often neglect the possible side effects of steroids, amphetamines, performance enhancing drugs, and growth hormones and even went on the extent of saying that steroids are worth the risk.