Interesting article in the LA Times, one of many recently, on the widespread, integrated and intransigent doping 'industry' in the DR.

Dominican baseball prospects frequently play fast and loose with the rules

This article is of interest as many of our threads and discussions try to assess how complex a doping situation within cycling might be. Doping isn't just a way out of a life cutting cane in the Dominican, but a virtual industry with many layers of involvement and profit-taking.

And, of course, there are more than a few parallels to what we have seen and discussed in cycling

National treasures such as Dominican superstars Manny Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa and David Ortiz -- all publicly linked to positive drug tests in the last eight months.

Yet there appears to be little shame in that here
...
In some cases, the unrelenting push to cheat has had tragic consequences. In 2001, Lino Ortiz, 19, and William Felix, 18, died after injecting themselves with animal steroids and a dietary supplement meant for horses and cows

Dave.

joke to follow so if your sensitive please change the thread.




Lino and William must have had a bad veterinarian. Some have access to better veterinarians.

It's not just drugs and age fraud, either. Several years ago, the SF Giants paid $2m to a Dominican prospect. Earlier this summer, he killed a man in a bar fight. What I've heard suggests this won't seriously derail his career.

MLB fans here in the U.S. clearly don't care. A-Rod (who is American, btw), Ramirez, Ortiz, are all accepted by their fans, and quite likely one of these guys will be playing in the WS this year. The one Dominican who has a Mr. Clean rep is Pujols. If he tested positive, there might be some repercussions, but seeing the way fans reacted to A-Rod's positive, I'm not so sure. I think fans have reached the point reached a long time ago by Euro fans of cycling--they know it goes on, and figure if everyone does it, WTH.

Pujols may have a "Mr. Clean rep" among the casual observer/fan crowd, but that's roughly equivalent to Armstrong having a "Mr. Clean rep" around the 2005-2006 period (prior to the infamous re-test of '99 samples). Those with a more intimate connection to what's inside the game know the score. And it ain't "Mr. Clean," it's anything but. Pujols came close to being outed around the time of the Mitchell Report, but that got tamped down well enough, and given the distractions around Clemens and Co., he skated free of having the media invest the time and resources necessary to dig.

Recall that a few years ago A-Rod had the same "Mr. Clean" image. The casual fans bit hook, line and sinker for MLB's not-so-subtle response to the Bonds furor, with the "don't worry, hang in for a few more years and Barry's "dirty" record will be surpassed by A-Rod's "clean" new record, and the great integrity of the game will be restored once again." People in the know have known for a very long time about A-Rod.

In many ways, MLB is similar to cycling. The scale and scope of doping remains far and wide, albeit far more sophisticated now than it was 10 years ago, particularly in relation to how the testing is circumvented, and the "thank heavens we've restored integrity to the game, as everyone can clearly see from the results of our testing program, and our harsh penalties on the cheats we've caught" public relations bait is being gobbled down, hook, line and sinker.