SANTO DOMINGO.- In the two years since tests for steroids and penalties in baseball’s Major and minor leagues were implemented, of the 302 players who have failed to date 175 are Dominican, 57.9%.

This week Tampa Bay Davil Rays reliever Juan Salas became the first player to fail the test this year, becoming one of the 8 veteran players suspended.  

Of the 12 who tested positive in the minors, 4 (33%) are Dominican.

"I don’t know what’s happening," said to the reliever Alberto Reyes to the newspaper Tampa Bay Times. "That makes us look badly, what seems is that many of the young people who are using it are Latino. But they will learn from this"

"What I can tell you is that, obviously, the main reason why the Latinos test positive is the lack of information," said Ronaldo Peralta, a Major Leagues representative in the country to ESPN in a recent interview. He said the players “aren’t doing this intentionally” and agreed with Reyes, but also cited a lack of education of the Latino players.