Saturday, March 31, 2018
When Will They Ever Learn?
Our Spring
Training experience began this year with a game between the Minnesota
Twins and the University of Minnesota Gophers baseball team. It is an
annual affair, and the Twins are kind enough to the fans, and to the
Gophers to start the game with most of their regulars in the lineup.
Dozier led
off, followed by Mauer, Sano, Rosario, Morrison, Buxton, and the
rest. Batting eighth was Jorge Polanco. Polanco was suspended on
Sunday, March 18th for 80 games after testing positive for
the banned substance Stanozonol.
Stanozonol
has been around a long time. I am sure you will recall that Ben
Johnson was disqualified after he won the 100 metre race in the
Olympics in Seoul in 1988, because he had used the same
performance-enhancing drug.
In a
statement from the players' union, Polanco said that he did not
“intentionally consume this steroid”. He said that he requested a
substance from his athletic trainer in the Dominican Republic, but
was given something else.
Polanco is
24 years old, from the Dominican Republic. As a regular shortstop
with the Twins last year, his second half of the season was nothing
short of remarkable. He stole 13 bases, hit .316, had 10 home runs
and 42 runs batted in. He batted third in the order, and helped the
Twins get to the American League wild card game. Of course, the
question remains as to whether or not he was “on the juice” at
that time. We will never know.
The second
baseman on that team, Brian Dozier, summed up his feelings on
Polanco's situation, with drug-taking. “We don't want it in our
game. We want a clean game. It sometimes is disappointing in seeing
guys still trying to use performance-enhancing drugs.”
Polanco is
not alone this season. Other players suspended thus far: Jorge
Bonifacio-Royals, Oscar Hernandez-Boston, Steve Geltz-Phillies, Jon
Singleton-Houston. Their suspensions range between 50 and 100 games.
The Twins,
and the rest of the Major League baseball players break camp this
week, and head north to begin the grind-162 games of regular season
baseball. Opening games take place on Thursday night. The Twins open
in Baltimore against the Orioles, then head to Pittsburgh for two
games before heading to the Twin Cities.
The Jays
still have a couple of exhibition games slated for this weekend in
Montreal, as the league continues to toy with the idea that baseball
will sell in the city.
The Twins
have options for Polanco's position. Eduardo Escobar played five
positions for them last season, had 21 home runs and 73
runs-batted-in in 457 at bats-respectable numbers. A couple of other
players might also be considered: Erick Aybar and Ehire Adrianza.
Polanco is
not one of those players making huge amounts of money. He was to
receive slightly more than $500 000 this year. That's not going to
happen. He did indicate some remorse for his error. “My hope is
that, though this is an extremely disappointing situation, other
players will learn from my mistake”. Some perhaps, but not all.
Dozier did
show some sympathy for his teammate. “When it comes to a guy on my
team, that's my brother. He needs love right now.”
Enough,
already. Play Ball!!!
James Hurst
March 26,
2018
# posted by James Hurst @ 8:13 AM 
