Paul Hagen: Latin ballplayers need to get drug-policy message

0 Comments | Philadelphia Daily News, August, 2008 | by Paul Hagen

ONLY A cynic would suggest that baseball hasn't made great strides in implementing a drug-testing policy over the last decade. And yet, a glance at the list of players who have been suspended reveals a troubling glitch in the system.

So far this year, there have been 37 minor leaguers disciplined for use of performance-enhancing substances. An amazing 32 are natives of the Dominican Republic or Venezuela; the rest are from the United States.

Two major leaguers have been nailed in 2008: Venezuelan  Eliezer Alfonzo  and  Humberto Cota , from Mexico. And those percentages have been similar ever since Major League Baseball began announcing the names of those who test positive in 2005.

Sal Artiaga , the Phillies' director of Latin-American operations, doesn't...